List of Leipzig University people

The following is a list of notable alumni and faculty of the University of Leipzig.

Notable alumni

Gottfried Leibniz

Angela Merkel

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Friedrich Nietzsche

Richard Wagner

Felix Bloch

• Theodore Dyke Acland, English physician
• Georgius Agricola, Saxon mining engineer and natural philosopher
• Joseph L. Armstrong, American scholar
• Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, Polish linguist and slavist
• Kamuran Alî Bedirxan, Kurdish politician and writer
• Lothar Bisky, German politician
• Felix Bloch, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics
• Marc Bloch, French historian
• John Bohnius, German physician
• Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, American writer and scholar
• Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer
• Sylvia Bretschneider (1960-2019), politician, member and speaker of the state assembly (Landtag) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Selig Brodetsky, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Cai Yuanpei, Chinese linguist
• James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist
• Wei-Liang Chow, Chinese mathematician and stamp collector born in Shanghai, known for his work in algebraic geometry.
• Constantine I, Greek monarch
• William David Coolidge, American physicist
• Karl Ludwig Drobisch (1803–1854), German composer, music theorist and church musician
• Georg Dohrn, German conductor
• Carl H. Dorner, American politician
• Ernst Christoph Dressler, German composer and music theorist
• Émile Durkheim, French sociologist
• Friedrich Adolf Ebert, Saxon librarian
• Nishith Gupta, molecular biologist
• Johann Arnold Ebert, Saxon writer and translator
• Wilhelm Ehmann, musicologist, conductor, founder and director of the Herford School of Church Music
• Ephraim Emerton, American medievalist historian
• John O. Evjen, American theologian and church historian
• Gustav Fechner, German psychologist
• Wilhelm Fuchs (1898–1947), Nazi SS officer and Holocaust perpetrator executed for war crimes
• Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher and sociologist
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician
• Kurt Albert Gerlach, German sociologist
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet
• Woldemar Ludwig Grenser, German obstetrician
• Otto von Guericke, German scientist and politician
• Gotthard Günther, German-American philosopher
• Samuel Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy
• Edith Hamilton, American essayist and educator; first female student at the university together with her sister Alice
• Albert Hauck, German theologian and church historian
• Elsa Herrmann (1893–1957), Jewish German feminist writer and refugee advocate
• Johann Adam Hiller, Saxon composer
• Milton W. Humphreys, American scholar
• Adolf Hurwitz, German mathematician
• Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher and mathematician
• Ulrich von Hutten, Hessian humanist and political leader
• Nicolae Iorga, Romanian historian and politician
• Wolfgang Iser, German literary theorist
• Jan Jesenius, Slovak physician, politician and philosopher
• Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, founder and first president of Czechoslovakia, professor of sociology
• Uwe Johnson, German writer and translator
• Ernst Jünger, German novelist and nationalist activist
• Erich Kähler, German mathematician
• Erich Kästner, German satirist and children's writer
• Paul Kirchhoff, German anthropologist and ethnohistorian
• Johannes Knolleisen, German theologian
• Alexander Kohut, Hungarian-American rabbi and orientalist
• Ku Hung-ming, Malaysian-Chinese scholar
• Victor Lange, German-American linguist
• Georg Christian Lehms, German poet and novelist
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher
• August Leskien, German linguist
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher and writer
• Rudolf Leuckart, German zoologist
• Karl Liebknecht, German communist activist
• Ulrike Liedtke (born 1958), musicologist and politician (SPD)
• Lin Yutang, Chinese novelist and inventor
• Virgil Madgearu, Romanian economist and sociologist
• Bronisław Malinowski, Polish anthropologist
• Sándor Márai, Hungarian poet and novelist
• Emil Mattiesen (1875–1939), composer, pianist and philosopher
• Thomas Mauksch, Lutheran pastor and naturalist
• Angela Merkel, German politician
• Walter Miller, American philologist
• Thomas Müntzer, Thuringian theologian and rebellion leader
• Carl Friedrich Naumann, German mineralogist and geologist
• Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher
• Novalis, German writer and philosopher
• Otto Ohlendorf (1907–1951), SS general and Holocaust perpetrator, executed for war crimes
• George Pardee, American physician and politician
• Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Romanian Marxist sociologist and politician
• James Phelan, Jr., American politician
• Samuel Pufendorf, German jurist and historian
• Jeff Radebe African politician and cabinet member
• Alexander Radishchev, Russian political thinker
• Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, Romanian psychologist and philosopher
• Hermann Raster, German-American journalist and political figure
• Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (1827–1891), German botanist and physician
• Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist
• Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch, Silesian nobleman and general
• Ludwig Scheeffer, German mathematician
• Helmut Schelsky, German sociologist
• Hans-Joachim Schulze, German Bach scholar
• Kurt Schumacher, German politician
• Robert Schumann (1810–1856), German Romantic composer
• Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), German Baroque composer
• Christoph Graupner (1683-1760), German Baroque composer
• Edward Teller, Hungarian-American nuclear physicist
• Galsan Tschinag, Mongolian writer, poet and activist
• Kārlis Ulmanis, Latvian politician
• Dimitri Uznadze, Georgian psychologist
• Richard Wagner (1813-1883), German Romantic composer
• Ernst Heinrich Weber, German physician
• Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher
• Gustav Zeuner, German physicist and engineer
• Caspar Ziegler, jurist

Notable faculty

• Ernst Bloch, philosopher
• Felix Bloch, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952
• Ludwig Boltzmann, Professor of Physics
• Karl Brugmann, comparative linguist
• Karl Bücher, economist
• Ernst Adolf Coccius, ophthalmologist
• Peter Debye, physicist, 1927-1936 Director of the Physics Institute, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936
• Adolf Ebert, Romance philologist
• Gustav Fechner, psychologist
• Paul Flechsig, neurologist
• Hans Freyer, sociologist
• Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, theologian and poet
• Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert, publisher of the Annalen der Physik
• Rudolf Gottschall, critic, poet and dramatist
• Johann Christoph Gottsched, philologist
• Samuel Hahnemann, physician and lecturer at medical faculty 1812-21
• Werner Heisenberg, physicist, 1927–1942; Professor of Theoretical Physics; winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932
• Gustav Ludwig Hertz, physicist, 1954–1961; Head of the Physics Institute; winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925, together with James Franck
• Gert Jäger, Slavist and translation scholar; member of the Leipzig School
• Otto Kade, specialist in Russian language and translation scholar; member of the Leipzig School
• Felix Klein, mathematician
• Werner Krauss, Romanist
• Karl Lamprecht, historian
• August Leskien, linguist
• Julius Edgar Lilienfeld, inventor of the transistor
• Wilhelm Maurenbrecher, historian
• August Ferdinand Möbius, astronomer and mathematician
• Theodor Mommsen, historian, 1848-1851 Professor of Law; Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for The History of Rome
• Petrus Mosellanus, Greek scholar
• Albrecht Neubert, lecturer in English language and translation scholar; member of the Leipzig School
• Wilhelm Ostwald, chemist; 1887-1906 Chair of Physical Chemistry; Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909
• Svante Pääbo, Nobel Prize in Medicine, currently teaches molecular evolutionary biology at the university
• Martin Petzoldt, systematic theology; president of the Neue Bachgesellschaft
• Arthur Prüfer, musicologist
• Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, botanist
• Wilhelm Roscher, economist
• Carl Victor Ryssel, theologian
• Heinrich Simroth, zoologist
• Nathan Söderblom, religious historian; Director of the Religious Studies Institute 1912–1914; Nobel Peace Prize in 1930
• Georg Steindorff, egyptologist
• Christian Thomasius, philosopher
• Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965
• Wolfgang Unger, director of university music
• Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, mathematician
• Ernst Heinrich Weber, physician
• Peter Wollny, musicologist
• Wilhelm Wundt, physician, psychologist
• Paul Zweifel, physician, physiologist

Universitätsmusikdirektor

Several persons held the official title of director of music at the university, some of them at the same time Thomaskantor, including:

• Friedrich Brandes
• Werner Fabricius
• Johann Gottlieb Görner
• Hermann Grabner
• Johann Georg Häser
• Johann Adam Hiller (Thomaskantor 1789–1800)
• Hermann Kretzschmar
• Johann Kuhnau (Thomaskantor 1701–1722)
• Hermann Langer
• August Pohlenz
• Max Pommer
• Friedrich Rabenschlag
• Max Reger
• Ernst Friedrich Richter (Thomaskantor 1868–1879)
• Hans-Joachim Rotzsch (Thomaskantor 1972–1991)
• Johann Schelle (Thomaskantor 1677–1701)
• Johann Gottfried Schicht (Thomaskantor 1811–1823)
• Friedrich Schneider
• Johann Philipp Christian Schulz
• David Timm
• Wolfgang Unger (Thomaskantor interim 1991–1992)
• Heinrich Zöllner