# List of Leipzig University people

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

## Notable alumni

* 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
* Mahoma Mwakipunda Mwaungulu, Malawian politician and freedom fighter
* 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
* Georg Wildführ, microbiologist
* 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 [de]
* Werner Fabricius
* Johann Gottlieb Görner
* Hermann Grabner
* Johann Georg Häser [de]
* Johann Adam Hiller (Thomaskantor 1789–1800)
* Hermann Kretzschmar
* Johann Kuhnau (Thomaskantor 1701–1722)
* Hermann Langer [de]
* August Pohlenz [de]
* 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