- Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, (baptized December 17, 1770 - March 26, 1827) was a German composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of music, and was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. His music and his reputation inspired — and in many cases intimidated — ensuing generations of composers, musicians, and audiences.
- Bärbel Dieckmann
Bärbel Dieckmann was elected mayor of Bonn in 1994. She is the first woman and first Social Democrat to become mayor of Bonn.
- Alexander Koenig
Alexander Ferdinand Koenig (February 20, 1858-July 16, 1940) was a German naturalist and zoologist. Koenig was born at St Petersburg, Russia where his father was a successful merchant. He grew up in Bonn. Koenig became interested in natural history at an early age and started to collect specimens. He studied zoology at the universities of Greifswald and Marburg. He funded expeditions to the Spitzbergen region of the Arctic and Africa, and visited Egypt and Sudan.
- August Macke
August Macke (January 3, 1887 - September 26, 1914) was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly innovative time for German art which saw the development of the main German Expressionist movements as well as the arrival of the successive avant-garde movements which were forming in the rest of Europe.
- Mildred Scheel
Mildred Scheel (born December 31 1932 in Cologne; died May 13 1985 in Bonn) was a German doctor and the second wife of former German president Walter Scheel. Mildred Scheel devoted her life to the fight against cancer. She founded the cancer support organisation "Deutsche Krebshilfe"(German Cancer Society) in 1974 and worked tirelessly to spread awareness and raise funds. In 1985 she died from complications of cancer.
- Stefan Raab
Stefan Raab (full name Stefan Konrad Raab, born on October 20, 1966 in Cologne, Germany) is a German entertainer and comedian. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn. Before entering the media world, he worked as a butcher and studied law before dropping out of college after five semesters. Stefan Raab became popular as the host of the comedy show "Vivasion" for the German music TV channel VIVA in 1996.
- Hans Riegel
Hans Riegel (born January 1 1923) is a German entrepreneur who owned and operated candy purveyor Haribo since 1946. Born in Bonn, he is the oldest son of the company's founder Hans Riegel, Sr. After his A-Levels at the Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg he did his doctorate in 1951 at Bonn University with a thesis about "The development of the world sugar industry during and after the Second World War".
- Norman Rentrop
Norman Rentrop (born 1957 in Bonn) is a German publisher, author and investor. He is owner/shareholder of the German - based "Rentrop publishing group", "Rentrop & Straton" in Romania, "Wiedza i Praktyka" in Poland. His charitable foundation holds 51% of the charitable Bibel TV foundation. Since 2002 he has supported the satellite television channel Bibel TV with 6.9 million Euro. Norman Rentrop is the first of five children of Friedhelm Rentrop, CPA.
- Götz Widmann
Götz Widmann is a German singer-songwriter from Bonn and is a member of the contemporary "songwriting scene" of Germany. He started playing music after he finished his business degree in the collaboration called "Joint Venture" with Martin "Kleinti" Simon. However, his musical partner died of a heart attack on July 5 2000. His songs are similar to the music that he played with Joint Venture. They are satirical and humorous and talk about every day themes and politics.
- Armin Laschet
Armin Laschet is a German politician. He studied law at the universities of Bonn and Munich. In Munich he became a member of K.D.St.V. Aenania München, a catholic student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband. From 1999 until 2005 he was a Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. Since June 2005 he is Minister (Minister für Generationen, …
- Herbert Wehner
Herbert Richard Wehner (July 11 1906 - January 19 1990) was a German politician. He was a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) as a young man. Between 1933 and 1935 he participated in the communist resistance against the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. In 1935 he went into exile in Moscow. After being sent to Sweden on party business in 1941, he was arrested and interned in 1942.
- Heide Simonis
Heide Simonis (born July 4 1943 in Bonn as Heide Steinhardt) is a German politician. She is a member of the SPD. She was Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1993 to 2005, the first woman to hold this post in Germany's history. On March 17 2005 Simonis failed to be reelected as Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein in 4 consecutive ballots by the Landtag (parliament) of Schleswig-Holstein.
- Carlo Schmid
Carlo Schmid (11 December 1896 in Perpignan, France - 11 December 1979 in Bonn) was a German academic and politician of the social-democratic SPD. Schmid is one of the most important authors of both the German Basic Law as well as the Godesberg Program of the SPD. He was intimately involved in German-French relations and served as "Federal Minister for the Affairs of the Federal Council and States" from 1966 to 1969.
- Friedbert Pflüger
Friedbert Pflüger is a member of the German Bundestag. He was elected to the list of the Christian Democratic Union in Lower Saxony. After receiving his Abitur in Hannover, Pflüger studied political science and state law at the University of Göttingen, Bonn, and Harvard (US). In 1980 he received his master's degree at Bonn and in 1982 received his doctorate under Karl Dietrich Bracher with a thesis about US human rights policy in the 1970's.
- August Bier
August Karl Gustav Bier was the German pioneer of spinal anaesthesia. After professorships in Greifswald and Bonn Bier became a professor at the Charité in Berlin. Bier's breakthrough in spinal anaesthesia was made in 1898 when he performed the first planned spinal anaesthetic on his assistant, one Dr. Hildebrandt. Initially Bier himself was to have been the subject, but although the spinal needle was placed correctly, with spinal fluid flowing freely from it, …
- Bushido
Bushido (September 28, 1978 in Bonn, Germany), born Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, is a German rapper whose style is strongly influenced by American Gangsta rap. He also uses the pseudonym Sonny Black.
- Hans-Ulrich Wehler
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (born September 11, 1931) is a well-known left-wing German historian. He was born in Freudenberg and was educated at the universities of Cologne and Bonn and at Ohio University between 1952-1958. He married Renate Pfitsch in 1958, by whom he has two children. Wehler taught at the University of Cologne (1968-70), at the Free University of Berlin (1970-71) and at Bielefeld University (1971-96).
- Ludwig Stiegler
Ludwig Stiegler (born April 9 1944 in Parsberg) is a German politician. He has been deputy chairman of the SPD's group in the Bundestag since 2002. Stiegler studied law,sociology and political science in Bonn and Munich. He finished in 1976 with the second juridical "Staatsexamen" (Bar examination). Since that he has worked as a lawyer. In 1964 Stiegler joined the SPD.
- Adolph Kolping
Adolph Kolping was a German Catholic priest.
- Klais Orgelbau
Orgalbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has compleated many large-scale building and restoration projects around the globe in more than a century of organbuilding.
- Walter Hallstein
Walter Hallstein (17 November 1901 - 29 March 1982) was a German politician and professor. He was one of the key figures of European integration after World War II, becoming the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community. His name is associated with the "Hallstein Doctrine", by which the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) attempted to block the recognition of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), …
- Gottfried Kinkel
Johann Gottfried Kinkel (August 11, 1815 - November 13, 1882) was a German poet. He was born at Obercassel near Bonn. Having studied theology at Bonn and Berlin, he established himself at Bonn in 1836 as "Privatdozent" of theology, became master at the gymnasium there, and was for a short time assistant preacher in Cologne. Changing his religious opinions, he abandoned theology and delivered lectures on the history of art, …
- Christian Knees
Christian Knees (born March 5 1981 in Bonn) is a German cyclist who rides for Team Milram in the UCI ProTour.
- Thomas Schirrmacher
Thomas Schirrmacher is a Christian moral philosopher and a specialist in the sociology of religion. His is director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom of the World Evangelical Alliance and member of its Religious Liberty Commission. He is the rector of the Martin Bucer Seminar, a theological seminary seated in Bonn with campuses in several European countries, Germany.
- Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel (born Buenos Aires, December 24 1931) is an Argentine composer who has lived in Cologne, Germany since 1957. He is most famous for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance. Many of his pieces give specific theatrical instructions to the performers, such as to adopt certain facial expressions while playing, to make their stage entrances in a particular way, to physically interact with other performers and so on.
- Kurt Wolff
Kurt Wolff, (1887 Bonn - 1963 Marbach), was a German publisher, editor, writer and journalist. Together with Ernst Rowohlt he began to work in publishing in Leipzig in 1908. He was the first to promote and publish the authors Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel. Wolff's close contact to other writers in Prague and the support for unknown, but talented writers, helped him develop Kafka's friends, Max Brod and Felix Weltsch who were more well known in Berlin and Germany.
- Christian Gottlob Neefe
Christian Gottlob Neefe (5 February 1748 - 28 January, 1798) was a German opera composer and conductor. Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Saxony. Educated at the University of Leipzig, he was a pupil of Johann Adam Hiller, under whose guidance he wrote his first comic operas. He later became court organist in Bonn and was a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven. He helped Beethoven produce some of his first works.
- Ruth Hieronymi
Ruth Hieronymi (b. November 8, 1947, Bonn) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. She is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
- August Everding
August Everding (born 31 October 1928 in Bottrop, Germany, died 26 January 1999) was a German opera director and administrator. He studied at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, where launching his career in the 1950s. From 1968 onwards he worked as a director in Hamburg, before moving back to Munich in 1977 to become the General Intendant of the Bavarian State Opera. In the following years he also directed in Bayreuth, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Zurich Opera, …
- Theodor Blank
Theodor Blank (born September 19, 1905 in Elz an der Lahn; died May 14, 1972 in Bonn) was a German politician of the CDU. He was one of the founders of the CDU in 1945, when World War II had ended. From 1949 to 1972 he was a member of the German Bundestag, in which he served from 1965 to 1969 as deputy chief of CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion. From 1950 to 1955 he lead the "Office Blank", officially responsible for affairs relating to the Allied occupying troops, …
- Egon Eiermann
Egon Eiermann (born September 29, 1904, Neuendorf; died July 20, 1970, Baden-Baden) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. Eiermann studied at the Technical University of Berlin. He worked for the Karstadt building department for a time, and before World War II had an office with fellow architect Fritz Jaenecke. He joined the faculty of the university in Karlsruhe in 1947, …
- Aby Warburg
Aby Moritz Warburg (13 June 1866 - 26 October 1929) was an influential art historian. He was born in Hamburg to the famous Warburg banking family. However, he had little interest in the family business and chose instead to devote himself to academic studies. He studied in Bonn, Munich, and in Strasbourg, focussing on archeology and art history, but also medicine, psychology, and the history of religion.
- Holger Börner
Holger Börner was a German politician of the SPD. He was Minister-President of Hesse from 1976 until 1987. As such he served as President of the Bundesrat in 1986/87, but only served until the Landtag elections of 24 April 1987 Afterwards (until 2003) he was chairman of the ":de:Friedrich Ebert Stiftung", the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, also known as (FES).
- Tom Buhrow
Tom Buhrow (born September 29 1958 in Troisdorf) is a German journalist. Tom Buhrow studied history and political science in Bonn. In 1978 he worked at the local newspaper "Bonner General-Anzeiger". In 1985 he volunteered at the largest television station in North Rhine-Westphalia, WDR. Since 1986 he was the editor, reporter and bureau chief of the shows "Aktuelle Stunde" and "West 3 Aktuell".
- Johanna Kinkel
Johanna Kinkel (born 8 July 1810 in Bonn; died 15 November 1858 in London) was a German composer, writer, and revolutionary. Her second marriage was to the German poet Gottfried Kinkel. Following the 1848 Revolutions she was forced to abandon Germany and flee to London. She was found dead in her garden in 1858 from a fall; although suicide was suspected, there was no way to verify this. Her tombstone was inscribed "Freiheit, Liebe und Dichtung" (meaning "Freedom, …
- Moses Hess
Moses (Moshe) Hess was a German Jewish philosopher and one of the founders of socialism. Hess was born in Bonn. He adopted the name "Moritz," but subsequently reverted to his birthname "Moses", thus re-claiming his Jewish identity. He was an early proponent of socialism, and a precursor to what would later be called Zionism. His works included "Holy History of Mankind" (1837), "European Triarchy" (1841) and "Rome and Jerusalem" (1862).
- Jürgen Mittelstraß
Jürgen Mittelstraß is a German philosopher especially interested in the philosophy of science. He was born in Düsseldorf in 1936 and studied philosophy, history and protestant theology at Bonn, Erlangen, Hamburg and Oxford from 1956 till 1961. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen in 1961, where he afterwards wrote his habilitation until 1968. He was influenced by the "Erlanger Konstruktivismus".
- Peter Joseph Lenné
Peter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style. His father was Jewish and his mother was Prussian.
- Fritz Fischer
Fritz Fischer ( March 5 , 1908 - December 1 , 1999 ) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I . Fischer was born in Ludwigstadt in Bavaria . His father was a railroad inspector. Educated at grammar schools in Ansbach and Eichstätt, Fischer attended the University of Berlin and the University of Erlangen , where he studied history, pedagogy, philosophy and theology.
- Axel Honneth
Axel Honneth is a professor at the "Institut für Sozialforschung" (Institute for Social Research) in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany (the so-called Frankfurt School). He was born in Essen, and studied in Bonn, Bochum, Berlin and Munich (under Jürgen Habermas) before moving to Frankfurt. One of Honneth's core beliefs is that all grievances regarding the distribution of goods in society can be reduced to struggles for recognition.