François-René de Chateaubriand
Among famous recipients of the civil class of the "Pour le Mérite" in the first group of awards in 1842 were Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Jakob Grimm, Felix Mendelssohn, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and August Wilhelm Schlegel. Foreign recipients in the "class of 1842" included François-René de Chateaubriand, Michael Faraday, and Franz Liszt.