List of Humboldt University of Berlin people



The following is a list of individuals associated with Humboldt University of Berlin through attending as a student, or serving as a member of the faculty or staff. As of October 2020, the university has been associated with 57 Nobel Prize winners (including former students, faculty and researchers)


 * Bozorg Alavi (1904–1997), novelist and writer
 * Alexander Altmann (1906–1987), rabbi and scholar of Jewish philosophy and mysticism
 * Gerhard Anschütz (1867–1948), leading jurisprudent and "father of the constitution" of the state of Hesse
 * Arthur Arndt (1893–1974), physician who hid with his family during the Holocaust, the largest known surviving group of people to hide in Germany
 * Jörg Baberowski (born 1961), professor of eastern European history
 * Michelle Bachelet (born 1951), pediatrician and epidemiologist, president of the Republic of Chile
 * Azmi Bishara (born 1956), Arab-Israeli politician
 * Bruno Bauer (1809–1882), theologian, Bible critic and philosopher
 * Jurek Becker (1937–1997), writer (Jacob the Liar)
 * Max Bergmann (1886–1944), biochemist
 * Inke Siewert (1980), professor of inorganic chemistry at University of Göttingen
 * Eliezer Berkovits (1908–1992), rabbi, philosopher and theologian
 * Willibald Beyschlag (1823-1900), theologian, publisher
 * Algernon Sydney Biddle (1847-1891), American lawyer and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
 * Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), first German chancellor
 * Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), theologian and resistance fighter
 * Beatrix Borchard, (born 1950), musicologist
 * Louis Borchardt, (1816/17-1883), paediatrician
 * Max Born (1882–1970), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1954
 * Siegfried Borris (1906–1987), composer, musicologist and music educator
 * Aron Brand (1910–1977), pediatric cardiologist
 * Rudolf Brandt (1909–1948), Nazi SS officer, executed for war crimes
 * Gottlieb Burckhardt (1836–1907), psychiatrist, first physician to perform modern psychosurgery (1888)
 * Stephanie Buhmann (born 1977), art critic, art historian, and curator.
 * Michael C. Burda, macroeconomist
 * Ezriel Carlebach (1909–1956), Israeli journalist and editorial writer
 * Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945), philosopher
 * Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), natural scientist and writer
 * Ramesh Chennamaneni (born 1956), Indian politician
 * Paul Anton Cibis (1911-1965), ophthalmologist and recruit under Operation Paperclip
 * Georg von Dadelsen (1918–2007), musicologist, Neue Bach-Ausgabe
 * Angela Davis (born 1944), political activist, educator, author, philosopher
 * Gustav Adolf Deissmann (1866-1937), theologian, New Testament Greek philologist, author, Nobel nominee
 * Suat Derviş (1904/1905–1972), Turkish novelist, journalist, and political activist
 * Harilal Dhruv (1856–1896), Indian lawyer, poet, indologist
 * Hermann Alexander Diels, (1848-1922), classical scholar
 * Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911), philosopher
 * Georg Dohrn, conductor
 * W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), African-American activist and scholar
 * William Duane (1872-1935), physicist
 * E. A. Dupont (1891–1956), film director, pioneer of the German film industry
 * Benedykt Dybowski (1833-1930), zoologist, pioneer of Limnology
 * Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1908
 * Albert Einstein (1879–1955), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1921
 * Gotthold Eisenstein (1823–1852), mathematician, specialized in number theory and analysis
 * Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), journalist and philosopher
 * Annemarie Esche, scholar of Burmese literature
 * Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–1872), philosopher
 * Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), philosopher, rector of the university (1810–1812)
 * Horst Fischer (1912–1966), SS concentration camp doctor executed for war crimes
 * Emil Fischer (1852–1919), founder of modern biochemistry, Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1902
 * Bruno Flierl (b. 1927), architect and city planner
 * Werner Forßmann (1904–1979), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1956
 * James Franck (1882–1964), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1925
 * Wilhelm Frick (1877-1946), Nazi official, executed for war crimes
 * Karl Gebhardt (1897–1948), Nazi SS physician who conducted criminal medical experiments; executed for war crimes
 * Ernst Gehrcke (1878–1960), experimental physicist
 * Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), linguist and literary critic
 * Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), linguist and literary critic
 * Gregor Gysi (1948–), German politician and lawyer
 * Fritz Haber (1868–1934), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1918
 * Otto Hahn (1879–1968), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1944
 * Sir William Reginald Halliday (1886–1966), principal of King's College London (1928–1952)\
 * Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930), theologian, educator, academic administrator
 * Roger Härtl, neurological surgeon
 * Robert Havemann (1910–1982), chemist, co-founder of European Union, and leading GDR dissident
 * Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), philosopher, rector of the university (1830–1831)
 * Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), writer and poet
 * Reinhart Heinrich (1946–2006), pioneer in systems biology
 * Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1932
 * Dieter Helm (1941–2022), farmer and politician
 * Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), physician and physicist
 * Gustav Hertz (1887–1975), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1925
 * Paula Hertwig (1889–1983), biologist, politician
 * Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), physicist
 * Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) rabbi, philosopher, and theologian
 * Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1852–1911), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1901
 * Johanna Hellman (1889–1982), surgeon
 * Wassily Hoeffding (1914–1991), statistician who introduced U-statistic and known for Hoeffding's inequality
 * Julius Hoffory (1855-1897), phonetician, associate professor
 * Max Huber (1874–1960), international lawyer and diplomat
 * Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762–1836), founder of macrobiotics
 * Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), politician, linguist, and founder of the university
 * Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), natural scientist
 * Zakir Husain (1897–1969), third president of India
 * Yitzchok Hutner American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean)
 * Sadi Irmak (1904–1990), Prime minister of Turkey
 * Elisabeth Jastrow (1890–1981), German-born American classical archaeologist
 * Hermann Kasack (1896–1966), writer
 * George F. Kennan (1904–2005), American diplomat, political scientist and historian
 * Gustav Kirchhoff (1824–1887), physicist
 * Philip Klein (1849–1926), rabbi
 * Paul Alfred Kleinert, German writer, editor and translator
 * Wilhelm Knabe (1923–2021), German ecologist, pacifist, civil servant and politician
 * Robert Koch (1843–1910), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1905
 * Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935) Armenian priest, composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, singer, choirmaster and the founder of the Armenian classical music.
 * Albrecht Kossel (1853–1927), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1910
 * Arnold Kutzinski (died 1956), psychiatrist
 * Edmund Landau (1877–1938), mathematician
 * Arnold von Lasaulx (1839–1886) mineralogist and petrographer
 * Max von Laue (1879–1960), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1914
 * Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994), Israeli public intellectual and polymath
 * Nechama Leibowitz Israeli Bible scholar
 * Wassily Leontief (1905–1999), economist, Nobel Prize for economics in 1973
 * James Lewin (1887-1937), physician and psychiatrist
 * Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919), socialist politician and revolutionary
 * Friedrich Loeffler (1852–1915), bacteriologist
 * Ram Manohar Lohia (1910–1967), Indian activist and politician
 * Karl Adolf Lorenz (1837–1923), composer
 * Ivan Lysiak Rudnytsky (1919–1984), Ukrainian-Canadian historian, political scientist, publicist
 * Andreas Maercker, (born 1960), clinical psychologist
 * Judah Leon Magnes, rabbi, Chancellor/President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1925-1948
 * Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), philosopher
 * Karl Marx (1818–1883), philosopher and sociologist
 * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), biologist
 * Benjamin Mazar (1906–1995), President of Hebrew University of Jerusalem
 * Joachim Mrugowsky (1905–1948), Nazi doctor executed for war crimes
 * Lise Meitner (1878–1968), physicist, Enrico Fermi Award in 1966
 * Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), composer
 * Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794–1863), German chemist
 * Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), historian, Nobel Prize for literature in 1902
 * Edmund Montgomery (1835–1911), philosopher, scientist, physician
 * John von Neumann (1903–1957), mathematician and physicist
 * Adalbert Parmet (1830–1898), priest and professor
 * Max Planck (1858–1947), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1918
 * Gordon Prange (1910–1980), American historian
 * Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), historian
 * Otto Friedrich Ranke (1899–1959), physiologist
 * Ingeborg Rapoport (1912-2017), paediatrician
 * Samuel Mitja Rapoport (1912–2004), biochemist, leading scientist in the German Democratic Republic
 * Tom Rapoport (born 1947), biochemist
 * Adolph Moses Radin (1848–1909), rabbi
 * Erich Regener (1881–1955), physicist
 * Robert Remak (1815–1865), cell biologist
 * Ludwig Scheeffer (1859–1885), mathematician
 * Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), philosopher
 * Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834), philosopher
 * Moritz Schlick (1882-1936), philosopher
 * Bernhard Schlink (born 1944), writer, Der Vorleser (The Reader)
 * Max Schloessinger (1877–1944), scholar
 * Annette Schmiedchen (born 1966), Indologist and Padma Shri award winner
 * Carl Schmitt (1888–1985), German jurist, political theorist, and professor of law
 * Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), rabbi, philosopher, theologian, engineer, educator and writer
 * Edith Schönert-Geiß (1933-2012), numismatist
 * Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), philosopher
 * Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1933
 * Peter Schubert (1938–2003), diplomat and albanologist
 * Stepan Shahumyan (1878–1918), Armenian communist politician and head of the Baku Commune
 * Georg Simmel (1858–1918), philosopher and sociologist
 * Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993), rabbi, philosopher, and theologian
 * Herman Smith-Johannsen (1875–1987), sportsman who introduced cross-country skiing to North America
 * Werner Sombart (1863–1941), philosopher, sociologist and economist
 * Hans Spemann (1869–1941), biologist, Nobel Prize for biology in 1935
 * Margot Sponer (1898–1945), philologist and resistance fighter
 * Hermann Stieve (1886–1952), anatomist who did research on bodies of Nazi execution victims
 * Max Stirner (1806–1856), philosopher
 * Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar (1909–98), Israeli author
 * Gustav Tornier (1859–1938), paleontologist and zoologist
 * Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), writer and journalist
 * Luis Villar Borda (1929–2008), Colombian politician and diplomat
 * Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), physician and politician
 * Filip Neriusz Walter (1810–1847), Polish organic chemist
 * Max Weber (1864–1920), sociologist, philosopher, and political economist
 * Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), scientist, geologist, and meteorologist, early theorist of continental drift
 * Karl Weierstraß (1815–1897), mathematician
 * Max Westenhöfer (1871–1957), pathologist, proposed the Aquatic ape hypothesis, reformer of field of pathology in Chile
 * Stephan Westmann (1893–1964), Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
 * Wilhelm Heinrich Westphal (1882–1978), physicist
 * Wilhelm Wien (1864–1928), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1911
 * Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848–1931), philologist
 * Ernest Julius Wilczynski (1876–1932), mathematician
 * Richard Willstätter (1872–1942), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1915
 * Shlomo Wolbe Orthodox Rabbi and author of the Alei Shur
 * Leonidas Zervas (1902–1980), Greek organic chemist

Nobel Prize laureates
There are 57 Nobel Prize winners affiliated with the Humboldt University:


 * 1901 Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (Chemistry)
 * 1901 Emil Adolf von Behring (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1902 Hermann Emil Fischer (Chemistry)
 * 1902 Theodor Mommsen (Literature)
 * 1905 Philipp Lenard (Physics)
 * 1905 Adolf von Baeyer (Chemistry)
 * 1905 Robert Koch (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1907 Albert Abraham Michelson (Physics)
 * 1907 Eduard Buchner (Chemistry)
 * 1908 Rudolf Eucken (Literature)
 * 1908 Paul Ehrlich (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1909 Auguste Beernaert (Peace)
 * 1909 Karl Ferdinand Braun (Physics)
 * 1910 Paul Heyse (Literature)
 * 1910 Otto Wallach (Chemistry)
 * 1910 Albrecht Kossel (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1911 Wilhelm Wien (Physics)
 * 1912 Gerhart Hauptmann (Literature)
 * 1914 Max von Laue (Physics)
 * 1914 Theodore William Richards (Chemistry)
 * 1915 Richard Willstätter (Chemistry)
 * 1918 Fritz Haber (Chemistry)
 * 1918 Max Planck (Physics)
 * 1920 Walther Nernst (Chemistry)
 * 1921 Albert Einstein (Physics)
 * 1922 Otto Meyerhof (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1923 Fritz Pregl (Chemistry)
 * 1925 Gustav Ludwig Hertz (Physics)
 * 1925 Austen Chamberlain (Peace)
 * 1925 James Franck (Physics)
 * 1925 Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (Chemistry)
 * 1926 Gustav Stresemann (Peace)
 * 1927 Heinrich Wieland (Chemistry)
 * 1928 Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (Chemistry)
 * 1929 Hans von Euler-Chelpin (Chemistry)
 * 1930 Hans Fischer (Chemistry)
 * 1931 Otto Heinrich Warburg (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1931 Friedrich Bergius (Chemistry)
 * 1932 Werner Heisenberg (Physics)
 * 1933 Erwin Schrödinger (Physics)
 * 1935 Hans Spemann (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1936 Peter Debye (Chemistry)
 * 1939 Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry)
 * 1944 Otto Hahn (Chemistry)
 * 1945 Ernst Boris Chain (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1949 Walter R. Hess (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1950 Kurt Alder (Chemistry)
 * 1950 Otto Diels (Chemistry)
 * 1953 Fritz Albert Lipmann (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1953 Hans Adolf Krebs (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1954 Max Born (Physics)
 * 1954 Walther Bothe (Physics)
 * 1956 Werner Forssmann (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 1963 Eugene Wigner (Physics)
 * 1969 Odd Hassel (Chemistry)
 * 1973 Wassily Leontief (Economics)
 * 1991 Bert Sakmann (Physiology or Medicine)
 * 2020 Emmanuelle Charpentier (Chemistry)