Famous Germans – Theo Lingen

Image attribution: Willy Pragher “Theo Lingen (10 June 1903 – 10 November 1978), born Franz Theodor Schmitz, was a German actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1929 and 1978, and directed 21 films between 1936 and 1960.” (source Wikipedia) Fancy reading about him in German? Here is the … Read more

Famous Germans – Richard von Weizsäcker

“Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobility, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.” (Source Wikipedia) As … Read more

Famous Germans – Rudolf Diesel

“Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him.” (Source Wikipedia) As it would have been his birthday today, I searched the internet for some easy and not … Read more

German authors: Friedrich Schiller

“Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 – 9 May 1805) was a German poet, playwright, historian, philosopher, and physician. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany’s most important classical playwright.” (Quote Wikipedia) So I’ve searched the internet to see if I could find some information about Schiller in German for you … Read more

German authors: Günter Grass

“Günter Wilhelm Grass (16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature.” Quoted from Wikipedia or, if you’d like, you can read more about him on the German Wikipedia page. You have probably heard of his most famous … Read more

Famous Germans – Franz Beckenbauer

Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0

EDIT 2024: Sadly, Franz Beckenbauer died on the 7th January 2024. Today I thought we look at a different type of famous German, not an artist or author or inventor, but a former football player. And as it’s his birthday today it’s only fitting that we talk about Franz Beckenbauer, or ‘der Kaiser’ (the emperor), … Read more

German authors: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German … Read more

Famous authors – Franz Kafka

This is another blog post about a famous author who wrote in German but wasn’t German. Franz Kafka is one of the most important and influential writers of the 20th century. His works, which include novels, short stories, and essays, are characterised by their dark humor, absurdist themes, and exploration of the human condition. Kafka … Read more

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