Famous German Historians
Find out more about the greatest German Historians, including Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Schiller, Oswald Spengler, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder and Leopold von Ranke.
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Birthdate: April 21, 1864
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Erfurt, Germany
Died: June 14, 1920
Max Weber was a German historian, political economist, jurist, and sociologist. Widely regarded as one of the most influential and important theorists, Weber's ideas had a profound influence on social research and social theory. Although he did not see himself as a sociologist, Weber is often counted among the fathers of sociology alongside Émile Durkheim, Auguste Comte, and Karl Marx.
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Leopold von Ranke
(German Historian and a Founder of Modern Source-Based History)
Birthdate: December 21, 1795
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Wiehe, Roßleben-Wiehe, Germany
Died: May 23, 1886
Leopold von Ranke was a German historian who had a major influence on Western historiography. A respected historian, Ranke is credited with founding modern source-based history. When he was ennobled in 1865, honors poured in from several historians and scholars across the world.
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Oswald Spengler(German Historian & Philosopher Known for His Two-Volume Work 'The Decline of the West')
Birthdate: May 29, 1880
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Blankenburg, Germany
Died: May 8, 1936
German historian Oswald Spengler is best remembered for his iconic The Decline of the West, which had a huge influence on social theory. He believed that culture cannot be transferred and that it can only decline and decay like an organism. He lived his final years in isolation in Munich.
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann
(German Art Historian, Archaeologist and One of the Leading Proponents of Neoclassicism)
Birthdate: December 9, 1717
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Stendal, Germany
Died: June 8, 1768
German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann is often referred to as the father of modern archaeology. Born to a cobbler, he studied Greek, theology, and even medicine. He later specialized in Greek and Neoclassical art and had a prominent influence on Western painting, sculpture, and literature.
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Geoffrey Elton
(Writer, Historian of the modern age, Historian, University teacher, Lawyer)
Birthdate: August 17, 1921
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Tübingen
Died: December 3, 1994
Born to Jewish scholars in Germany, Geoffrey Elton later moved with his family, first to Czechoslovakia and then to Britain. He grew up to become a renowned historian who specialized in the Tudor period. He also taught history at Cambridge and penned books such as England Under the Tudors.
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Wilhelm Dilthey
(Philosopher Known for the Way He Distinguished Between the Natural and Human Sciences)
Birthdate: November 19, 1833
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Biebrich, Wiesbaden, Germany
Died: October 1, 1911
Wilhelm Dilthey was a German psychologist, sociologist, historian, and hermeneutic philosopher. An ardent admirer of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Dilthey helped revive the former's works on hermeneutics. Wilhelm Dilthey is also credited with teaching future philosophers like Hans Lipps, Eduard Spranger, and Theodor Litt.
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Theodor Mommsen
(German Historian and Writer Famous for His Masterpiece 'Römische Geschichte')
Birthdate: November 30, 1817
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Garding, Germany
Died: November 1, 1903
One of the most influential 19th-century classicists, Theodor Mommsen donned many hats and was at the same time a historian, a philologist, a legal scholar, and an archaeologist. His legendary A History of Rome won him a Nobel Prize in Literature. He had also fathered 16 children.
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Nikolaus Pevsner
(German-British Art Historian Best Known for His Monumental 46-Volume Series of County-By-County Guides)
Birthdate: January 30, 1902
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
Died: August 18, 1983
Nikolaus Pevsner was a German-British architectural historian and art historian. He is best remembered for his 46-volume series of guide books called The Buildings of England. Pevsner is credited with co-founding the Victorian Society in 1957. The society aims at preserving Edwardian and Victorian architecture. In 1969, Nikolaus Pevsner was knighted for services to architecture and art.
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Marie d'Agoult
(French author)
Birthdate: December 31, 1805
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Died: March 5, 1876
Birthdate: March 5, 1908
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Ludwigsstadt, Germany
Died: December 1, 1999
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Aby Warburg
(Art historian)
Birthdate: June 13, 1866
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
Died: October 26, 1929
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Peter Gay
(Psychologist, Cultural historian, Historian, Writer, University teacher)
Birthdate: June 20, 1923
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Berlin
Died: May 12, 2015
Best known for his work on modern European cultural history, Peter Gay was a renowned American historian who had penned the iconic works such as the award-winning The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. His studies on Freud and the Weimar Republic, too, became bestsellers. He was married to award-winning author Ruth Gay.
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Erwin Panofsky
(German Art Historian)
Birthdate: March 30, 1892
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Hannover, Germany
Died: March 14, 1968
German art historian Erwin Panofsky is best remembered for his work on iconography. He moved to the U.S. in the wake of the rise of the Nazis. His studies also included Dutch painting and Gothic architecture. His supposedly lost manuscript Habilitationsschrift was recovered years later in a Nazi safe.
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Mildred Harnack
(Literary historian)
Birthdate: September 16, 1902
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Died: February 16, 1943
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Ernst Nolte
(German Historian and Philosopher Known for Articulating a Theory of Generic Fascism as ‘Resistance to Transcendence’)
Birthdate: January 11, 1923
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Witten, Germany
Died: August 18, 2016
Ernst Nolte was a German philosopher and historian. Nolte taught modern history from 1973 to 1991 at the Free University of Berlin. He is best remembered for his work Fascism in Its Epoch, which became a popular book upon its publication in 1963. Over the course of his illustrious career, Nolte received many awards, such as the Konrad Adenauer Prize.
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Joachim Fest
(Former Historian known for writings and commentary on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany)
Birthdate: December 8, 1926
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: September 11, 2006
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Reinhart Koselleck
(Historian)
Birthdate: April 23, 1923
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Görlitz, Lower Silesia, Germany
Died: February 3, 2006
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Hildebrand Gurlitt
(Historian)
Birthdate: September 15, 1895
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, German Empire
Died: November 9, 1956
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Samuel von Pufendorf
(Jurist and Political Philosopher Known for His Commentaries & Revisions of the Natural Law Theories)
Birthdate: January 8, 1632
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Zwönitz, Germany
Died: October 26, 1694
Samuel von Pufendorf was a German jurist, economist, political philosopher, and historian. Among Pufendorf's major achievements are his revisions and commentaries of the natural law theories of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. In Germany, Samuel von Pufendorf is best remembered as a precursor of an intellectual and philosophical movement called the Age of Enlightenment.
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny
(Jurist)
Birthdate: February 21, 1779
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Frankfurt, Germany
Died: October 25, 1861
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Hans Mommsen
(Historian, known for his studies in German social history)
Birthdate: November 5, 1930
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Marburg, Germany
Died: November 5, 2015
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Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
(Historian)
Birthdate: March 15, 1905
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany
Died: January 27, 1964
Birthdate: March 27, 1909
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: April 7, 1994
Golo Mann was a German historian and essayist. An influential personality, Mann is best remembered for his most popular work German History in the 19th and 20th Century, a survey of the political history in Germany.
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Abraham Geiger
(Former rabbi and scholar, considered the founding father of Reform Judaism)
Birthdate: May 24, 1810
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Frankfurt, Germany
Died: October 23, 1874
Abraham Geiger was a German rabbi and scholar credited to be the founding father of Reform Judaism. He emphasized Judaism’s constant evolution over the years and sought to reformulate the tenets of the religion to make it compliant with contemporary times. He was responsible for much of the reform doctrine of the mid-19th century.
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Sebastian Haffner
(Journalist)
Birthdate: December 27, 1907
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: January 2, 1999
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Adolf von Harnack
(Baltic German Lutheran Theologian and Church Historian)
Birthdate: May 7, 1851
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Tartu, Estonia
Died: June 10, 1930
Adolf von Harnack was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian. Also an important Church historian, Harnack is credited with producing numerous religious publications between 1873 and 1912. Adolf von Harnack also played a prominent role in the establishment of The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science, where he served as the first president.
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Martin Broszat
(Historian)
Birthdate: August 14, 1928
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
Died: October 14, 1989
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Heinrich von Treitschke
(Former historian, political writer and National Liberal member of the Reichstag during the time of the German Empire)
Birthdate: September 15, 1834
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: April 28, 1896
Birthdate: October 2, 1906
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: June 24, 1969
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Heinrich Zimmer
(Linguist)
Birthdate: December 6, 1890
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Greifswald, German Empire
Died: March 20, 1943
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Ernst Kantorowicz
(Historian)
Birthdate: May 3, 1895
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Poznań, Poland
Died: September 9, 1963
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Karl August Wittfogel
(Playwright)
Birthdate: September 6, 1896
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Woltersdorf, Lüchow, Province of Hanover, Free State of Prussia, German Empire
Died: May 25, 1988
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Hans Blumenberg
(Philosopher)
Birthdate: July 13, 1920
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Lübeck, Germany
Died: March 28, 1996
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Ernst Moritz Arndt
(Historian)
Birthdate: December 26, 1769
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Rügen, Germany
Died: January 29, 1860
Birthdate: November 11, 1848
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Rügen, Germany
Died: July 14, 1929
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Prince Heinrich of Hanover
(Historian)
Birthdate: April 29, 1961
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany
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Andreas Hillgruber
(Historian)
Birthdate: January 18, 1925
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Wegorzewo, Poland
Died: May 8, 1989
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Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
(Writer)
Birthdate: April 23, 1876
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Solingen, Germany
Died: May 30, 1925
Birthdate: June 26, 1968
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
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Barthold Georg Niebuhr
(Danish–German Statesman, Banker, and Historian)
Birthdate: August 27, 1776
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: January 2, 1831
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German banker, statesman, and historian. A symbol of national spirit in Germany, Barthold Georg Niebuhr helped invigorate a sense of patriotism and nationalism in students at the University of Berlin.
Birthdate: April 26, 1787
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Tübingen, Germany
Died: November 13, 1862
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Karl Dietrich Bracher
(Political Scientist)
Birthdate: March 13, 1922
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Weimar Republic, Germany
Died: September 19, 2016
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Friedrich von Bernhardi
(Prussian General and Military Historian Best Known for His Bellicose Book 'Deutschland und der Nächste Krieg')
Birthdate: November 22, 1849
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: December 11, 1930
Friedrich von Bernhardi was a Prussian general and author. A best-selling author prior to the First World War, Bernhardi is best remembered for his book. Germany and the Next War. A militarist, Bernhardi proposed that Germany should ignore treaties. As a general, he played an important role during World War I where he had success in the Eastern Front.
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Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
(Art historian)
Birthdate: June 25, 1884
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Mannheim, Germany
Died: January 11, 1979
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Friedrich Meinecke
(Historian)
Birthdate: October 30, 1862
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Salzwedel, Germany
Died: February 6, 1954
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Johann Gustav Droysen
(German Historian)
Birthdate: July 6, 1808
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Trzebiatów, Poland
Died: June 19, 1884
Johann Gustav Droysen was a German historian. His work pertaining to Alexander the Great was the first work that represented a new school of German thought that introduced the great man theory. Johann Gustav Droysen's book, History of Alexander the Great, remained the best work on the king of Macedonia for a long time.
Birthdate: 1114 AD
Birthplace: Klosterneuburg, Austria
Died: September 22, 1158
Otto Of Freising, also known as Otto I, was the bishop of Freising. He is best remembered for penning an extensive history of the world, Chronica. The four-volume Gesta Friderici, the first two of which were written by him, spoke about Frederick Barbarossa and the house of Hohenstaufen.
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Ignaz von Döllinger
(Theologian)
Birthdate: February 28, 1799
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Bamberg, Germany
Died: January 10, 1890
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Hans-Ulrich Wehler
(Historian)
Birthdate: September 11, 1931
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Freudenberg, Germany
Died: July 5, 2014
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Ludwig Quidde
(Former politician and pacifist who is mainly remembered today for his acerbic criticism of German Emperor Wilhelm II)
Birthdate: March 23, 1858
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Bremen, Germany
Died: February 4, 1941