Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, Kt, CBE, FRS, RDI, commonly known as Barnes Wallis, (September 26 1887 - October 30 1979) was an English scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in Operation Chastise (the Dambusters Raid) to attack the Möhne, the Sorpe and the Eder dams in the Ruhr area in May 1943, during World War II.

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC DSO and Bar DFC and Bar RAF (12 August 1918 - 19 September 1944), was the first CO of the RAF's 617 Squadron, which he led in the "Dam Busters" raid (Operation Chastise), in 1943, resulting in the destruction of two large dams in the Ruhr area. He was killed later in the war.

Helge Schneider is a German comedian, jazz musician, book author, film and theatre director, author, and actor. After dropping out of high school, he started an apprenticeship as a construction draftsman. He soon changed plans and was admitted to the Duisburg conservatoire to study piano, after passing an entrance exam for particularly gifted applicants (it later turned out that his diploma was invalid since he dropped out of high school too early).

Frank Goosen (*May 31 1966 in Bochum/Germany) is a German cabaret artist and novel author. He went to school and studied in Bochum. In 1986 he started his studies of history, German language and literature and politics at the Ruhr-University Bochum and finished in 1992 with a Magister (Masterdegree). Afterwards he founded a stand up-comedy group with his old school friend Jochen Malmsheimer. They were very popular in North Rhine-Westfalia and won the Prix Pantheon, …

Nikolaus Groß was a German resistance fighter in the time of the Third Reich who was later beatified by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on 7 October 2001.

Franz Hayler (born 29 August 1900 in Schwarzenfeld; died 11 September 1972 in Aschau im Chiemgau) was a self-employed salesman who rose in the time of the Third Reich to State Secretary and acting Reich Economics Minister as a member of the NSDAP and the SS. Hayler became involved in politics early on, fighting in the "Bund Oberland" Freikorps against the Bavarian Soviet Republic, in the Ruhr area and Upper Silesia, …

Karl Kaufmann (born October 10, 1900 in Krefeld; died December 4, 1969 in Hamburg) was a Nazi Gauleiter in Hamburg. A founding member of the NSDAP in 1921, after the re-establishment of the party, he rejoined in 1925 and quickly became one of Hitler's favourites. He was appointed Gauleiter of the Ruhr in 1925-6, then Gauleiter of Hamburg in 1928, a post he was to hold until 1945.

Teresa Orlowski is a former performer in and a current leading producer of adult films in Germany. Born in Wrocław, she moved with family to Kraków when she was one year old. In 1979, she emigrated to Germany (Ruhr Area). Two years later, she met porn photographer/producer Hans Moser, who would become her husband (they are now divorced). Working with Moser, she earned the title of "Porn Queen of Germany".

Oskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum -Schleswig-Holstein. Vogt studied medicine at Kiel and Jena, obtaining his doctorate from Jena in 1894. Vogt was married to the French neurologist Cecile Vogt-Mugnier, whom he met in Paris while he was there working with Joseph Jules Déjérine and his wife, Augusta Marie Dejerine-Klumke, (who collaborated with him). The Vogt couple also collaborated for a long period of time, …

Dr. Klaus Scharioth (born October 8 1946) is a German diplomat, currently Germany's ambassador to the United States. Scharioth was born in Essen, located in the Ruhr Area in western Germany. He studied law in Bonn, Freiburg and Geneva and political science, sociology and psychology at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho. He is also a graduate of the Fletcher School, where he studied international relations, …

Anton Emil Hermann Saefkow was a German Communist and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. Anton Saefkow came from a socialist working-class family and in 1920, as a metalworker's apprentice, joined the Communist Youth League to whose Berlin leadership he rose in 1922. In 1927 he became KPD secretary in Berlin, then in Dresden.

Otto Wagener was a German major general and Adolf Hitler's economic adviser. The industrialist's son finished "Gymnasium" and then became an army officer. In the First World War, Wagener was, in 1916 promoted to the General Staff. After the war, Wagener was involved in the planning of an attack against the city of Posen (now Poznań, in Poland), but had to flee to the Baltic countries lest he be arrested.

Alfred Lemmnitz (born 27 June 1905 in Taucha; died 23 September 1994) was East Germany's National Education Minister. Lemmnitz completed training as a typesetter and studies in economics at the University of Leipzig. From 1927 to 1931, he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and youth leader of the Socialist Worker Youth in Moers.