List of German Americans

Updated on Dec 07, 2024

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German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and form the largest ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 17% of U.S. population. The first significant numbers arrived in the 1680s in New York and Pennsylvania. Some eight million German immigrants have entered the United States since that point. Immigration continued in substantial numbers during the 19th century; the largest number of arrivals came 1840–1900, when Germans formed the largest group of immigrants coming to the U.S., outnumbering even the Irish and English. Some arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others simply for the chance to start afresh in the New World. California and Pennsylvania have the largest populations of German origin, with over six million German Americans residing in the two states alone. Over 50 million people in the United States identify German as their ancestry.

Americans of German descent live in nearly every American county, from the East Coast, where the first German settlers arrived in the 17th century, to the West Coast and in all the states in between. German Americans and those Germans who settled in the U.S. have been influential in almost every field, from science, to architecture, to entertainment, to commercial industry.

Architects

Dankmar Adler – architect

Adolf Cluss – architect, builder of numerous public buildings in Washington, D.C.

Ferdinand Gottlieb – architect heading his own firm, Ferdinand Gottlieb & Associates, based in Dobbs Ferry

Walter Gropius – pioneer in modern architecture, founder of Bauhaus

Albert Kahn – industrial architect; known as the "architect of Detroit"

Joseph Molitor – Chicago-based church architect

John A. Roebling – architect, known for designing the Brooklyn Bridge

Washington Roebling – civil engineer known for his work on the Brooklyn Bridge, which was initially designed by his father John A. Roebling

Frederick C. Sauer – architect, particularly in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, region of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr. – Art Nouveau Pittsburgh architect

August Schoenborn – U.S. Capitol Dome

Hans Schuler – German-born American sculptor and monument maker; first American sculptor ever to win the Salon Gold Medal

Adolph Strauch – landscape architect

Horace Trumbauer – architect

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – pioneer of modern architecture, second Chicago school of architecture

Artists

Anni Albers – printmaker, textile artist

Josef Albers – painter and graphic artist

Earl W. Bascom – painter, printmaker, sculptor, "Cowboy of Cowboy Artists"

Robert Benecke – early photographer

Albert Bierstadt – painter, known for his large landscapes of the American West

Rudolph Dirks – comic strip artist who created The Katzenjammer Kids

Alfred Eisenstaedt – photographer and photojournalist best remembered for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day

Carl Eytel – German-born artist of desert landscapes living in early 20th-century Palm Springs, California

Andreas Feininger – photographer and writer on photographic technique

Lyonel Feininger – painter and caricaturist

Steven Fischer – film producer, cartoonist

Carl Giers – early photographer

George Grosz – member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group, known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s

Uli Herzner – fashion designer

Hans Hofmann – abstract expressionist painter

Ubbe Ert Iwwerks – Academy Award-winning animator, cartoonist and special effects technician, famous for his work for Walt Disney

Klaus Janson – comic book artist (inker), working regularly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics and sporadically for independent companies

Ulli Kampelmann – painter and filmmaker

Kenya (Robinson) – multimedia artist whose work includes performance, sculpture and installation

Franz Jozef Kline – Abstract Expressionist painter

Harold Knerr – illustrator of The Katzenjammer Kids until 1949

John Lewis Krimmel – America's first genre painter

Fritz Lang – film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer

Emanuel Leutze – history painter best known for his painting Washington Crossing the Delaware

J. C. Leyendecker – cartoonist

Cornelius Krieghoff – painter

Nicola Marschall – artist, designed the first Confederate flag and the Confederate uniform

Louis Maurer – lithographer

Charles Christian Nahl – painter who is called California's first significant artist

Thomas Nast – political cartoonist

Elisabet Ney – sculptor

Erwin Panofsky – art historian

Louis Prang – printer, lithographer and publisher, one of the famous "Forty-Eighters "

Vinnie Ream – sculptor, famous for her work of Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda

Julian Ritter – Classical Realist painter best known for his paintings of nudes, clowns and portraits and his ill-fated voyage of the South Pacific

Severin Roesen – still life painter

Paulus Roetter – landscape and botanical painter

Christopher Sauer – earliest type founder in America, published the first German Bible, 1743, and the first religious magazine in America, 1764

Charles M. Schulz – cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip

Christian Schwartz – type designer

Douglas Sirk – movie director

Otto Soglow – cartoonist best known for his comic strip The Little King

Gustavus Sohon – artist

Henry William Stiegel – glassmaker and ironmaster

Alfred Stieglitz – photographer instrumental in making photography an acceptable art form alongside painting and sculpture

Ruth VanSickle Ford – painter, art teacher, and owner of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts

Patrizia von Brandenstein – production designer

Kat Von D (Katherine von Drachenberg) – tattoo artist

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven – avant-garde, Dadaist artist and poet

Carl von Marr – painter

Baroness Hilla von Rebay – abstract painter, helped establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City

Karl Ferdinand Wimar – painter

Authors and writers

Kathy Acker – author

Sade Baderinwa – news reporter-journalist

Monika Bauerlein – co-editor of Mother Jones

L. Frank Baum – author, actor, and independent filmmaker best known as the creator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Vicki Baum – writer

Richard Bock – sculptor and associate of Frank Lloyd Wright

Gene Brewer – author of the K-PAX series of novels

Charles Bukowski – poet and novelist

Ann Coulter – author

August Derleth – author of Sac Prairie saga, science fiction, mystery

George DiCaprio – writer, editor, and major west coast underground comic book distributor

Theodore Dreiser – author of the naturalist school, known for dealing with the gritty reality of life

Gottfried Duden – travel author

Roger Ebert – Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, journalist, and screenwriter

Martin Ebon – author of non-fiction books from the paranormal to politics

Charles Follen – poet and patriot

Bruno Frank – author, poet, dramatist and humanist

Isaac Kaufmann Funk – editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reformer

Cornelia Funke – author

Bob Gretz – award-winning sportswriter and broadcaster

Geoffrey Hartman – literary theorist

Ursula Hegi – novelist

Patricia Highsmith – novelist known for her psychological thrillers

Friedrich Hirth – sinologue

Julia Kasdorf – poet

Stephen King - author

Chuck Klosterman – writer

Siegfried Kracauer – film historian, sociologist and author

Herbert Arthur Krause – historian

Howard Kurtz – journalist, blogger, author and media critic

Fritz Leiber – science fiction writer

Walter Lippman – writer, journalist, and political commentator

Dana Loesch – conservative talk radio host and a host and contributor at TheBlaze; has appeared as a political commentator on Fox News, CNN, CBS, ABC and HBO

Thomas Mann – Nobel prize-winning author

H. L. Mencken – journalist

Henry Miller – writer and painter

Anna Balmer Myers – author of Mennonite (Pennsylvania Dutch) novels

Oswald Ottendorfer – journalist associated with the development of the German-language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung into a major newspaper

Sylvia Plath – poet, novelist, and short story writer

Joseph Pulitzer – publisher best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and for originating yellow journalism

Wolfgang Reitherman – Disney animator and director

Erich Maria Remarque – German-born author, naturalized U.S. citizen

Conrad Richter – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist

Mary Roberts Rinehart – author

Hope Rockefeller Aldrich – journalist

Irma S. Rombauer – author of The Joy of Cooking

Diane Sawyer - Journalist.

Jack Schaefer – author of Shane

Maria Shriver - Journalist and author.

Peter Schweizer – author of Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy and Clinton Cash

Ernest Schwiebert – angling writer

Charles Sealsfield – pseudonym of Austrian American author of novels and travelogues Carl (or Karl) Anton Postl

Mona Simpson – novelist and university professor, biological younger sister of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs

Curt Siodmak – screenwriter

Nicholas Sparks – author and screenwriter

Gertrude Stein – author

John Steinbeck – Nobel prize-winning author, one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century

Dr. Seuss (born Theodor Seuss Geisel) – writer and cartoonist

Henry F. Urban – journalist, author

Henry Villard – journalist

Kurt Vonnegut – novelist

George Weigel – author; political and social activist

Actors and actresses

Ben Affleck – actor

Casey Affleck – actor

Eddie Albert – born Edward Albert Heimberger; Oscar and Emmy Award-nominated American stage, film, character actor, gardener, humanitarian activist, and World War II hero

Mädchen Amick – actress

Mackenzie Astin – actor and son of Patty Duke; of part German descent

Sean Astin – actor and son of Patty Duke; mother is of part German descent

Fred Astaire – maternal grandparents were German

Catherine Bach – actress

Diedrich Bader – actor, of part German descent

Maxine Bahns – actress

Sasha Banks – WWE wrestler

John Banner – actor

Kim Basinger – actress, small amount of German ancestry

Ingrid Bergman – actress, mother was an immigrant from Germany

Halle Berry – actress, mother is of partial German descent

Carl Betz – actor and World War II veteran

Michael Biehn – actor

Jessica Biel – actress, small amount of German ancestry

Rowan Blanchard – actress, mother is of part German ancestry

Curt Bois – actor

Johnny Yong Bosch – actor, of partial paternal German descent

Julie Bowen – actress, of part German ancestry

Eric Braeden – actor

Marlon Brando – actor; father was of partial German ancestry

Benjamin Bratt – actor; father is of mostly German ancestry

Hermann Braun – motion picture actor

Felix Bressart – actor

Agnes Bruckner – actress, of part German descent

Sandra Bullock – actress; mother was an immigrant from Germany, father had some German ancestry

Ty Burrell – actor

Sarah Chalke – actress; mother is an immigrant from Germany

Carol Channing – actor, of 3/4 German and 1/4 African-American ancestry

Claudia Christian – actress; mother is a German immigrant

Mae Clarke – born Violet Mary Klotz, actress

George Clooney

Kevin Costner – actor, of part German descent

Tom Cruise – actor; parents both of part German ancestry

Kaley Cuoco – actress; mother is of English and German descent

Willem Dafoe – actor, mother was of half German descent

Blythe Danner – actress, of heavily German descent

Helmut Dantine – actor

Doris Day – actress, singer

Robert De Niro – actor, mother was of half German descent

James Dean – actor, small amount of German ancestry

Johnny Depp – actor, small amount of German ancestry

Cameron Diaz – actress, small amount of German ancestry

Leonardo DiCaprio – actor, paternal grandmother was of German descent, and mother is an immigrant from Germany

Angie Dickinson – actress

Marlene Dietrich – actress; an immigrant from Germany

Phyllis Diller – entertainer, comedian and film, television, and stage actress, of part German descent

Peter Dinklage – Emmy Award-winning actor; of part German descent

Peter Douglas – Emmy Award-winning director and producer; German mother

Hans Dreier – actor

Haylie Duff – actress; sister of Hilary Duff; small amount of German ancestry

Hilary Duff – actress; small amount of German ancestry

Patty Duke – actress, of one quarter German descent

Kirsten Dunst – film actress and former model; German father, and maternal grandfather of German descent

George Dzundza – actor known for his role as Sgt. Max Greevey in the first season of the TV crime drama Law & Order

Leslie Easterbrook – actress; small amount of German ancestry

Dina Eastwood – actress and news anchor

Aaron Eckhart – actor; father is of German ancestry, mother also has some German roots

Nicole Eggert – actress; father is a German immigrant

Erika Eleniak – actress; mother is of Estonian and German ancestry

Noah Emmerich – actor; father a German Jewish immigrant, mother of Eastern European Jewish descent

Chris Evans – actor, father of half German ancestry

Dakota Fanning – actress, of part German descent

Elle Fanning – actress; younger sister of Dakota Fanning, of part German descent

Fritz Feld – actor

Tina Fey – writer, comedian and a Prime Time Emmy-nominated actress; father is of half German ancestry

William Fichtner – actor, of German and Irish descent

Jodie Foster – actress, mother is of part German ancestry

Dennis Franz – born Dennis Franz Schlachta, Emmy-, Screen Actors Guild-, and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, father was a German immigrant, mother was of German descent

Brendan Fraser – actor

Tatiana von Fürstenberg – rock singer and filmmaker; daughter of fashion designers Diane and Egon von Fürstenberg

Clark Gable – actor

Mitzi Gaynor – born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber; actress, singer, and dancer

Lillian Gish – actress

Summer Glau – actress, of part German descent

Crispin Glover – actor

Betty Grable – actress, dancer, and singer

Joel Gretsch – actor

Harry Groener – three-time Tony Award nominee

Lukas Haas – actor, father is a German immigrant

Gene Hackman - actor; part German

Thomas J. Hageboeck (1945–1996) – actor

Uta Hagen – actress, an immigrant from Germany

Jon Hamm – actor

Daryl Hannah – actress

David Hasselhoff – actor, of one quarter German descent

Anne Hathaway – actress, small amount of German ancestry

Cole Hauser – film and television actor, father of part German descent

Dwight Hauser – actor and film producer, of part German descent

Wings Hauser – actor, director and film writer, of part German descent

James Haven – actor, of part German descent

Eileen Heckart – actress

Katherine Heigl – actress, of mostly German descent

Marg Helgenberger – actress, of mostly German descent

Paul Henreid – born Paul Georg Julius Hernried Freiherr von Wassel-Waldingau

Richard Henzel – film, TV, and voice-over actor

Edward Herrmann – television and film actor, of part German descent

Emile Hirsch – actor, mother is of partial German ancestry

Gaby Hoffmann – actress, of part German descent

Katie Holmes – actress, of part German ancestry

Rock Hudson – actor, of half German/Swiss-German descent

Tab Hunter – film actor and singer, father was a German Jewish immigrant, mother a German Lutheran immigrant

Martha Hyer – Oscar-nominated actress

Gillian Jacobs – film, theater and television actress, of part German descent

Emil Jannings – first actor to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor

Van Johnson – film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II, of part German descent

Angelina Jolie – actress, born Angelina Jolie Voight, of part German descent

Leatrice Joy – born Leatrice Joy Zeidler; silent film era actress

Victoria Justice – actress, father of part German descent

Grace Kelly – actress, mother was of German ancestry

Richard Kiel – actor

Q'orianka Kilcher – actress and singer, of part Swiss-German descent

Val Kilmer – actor, small amount of German ancestry

Chris Klein – actor, both parents of part German descent

Werner Klemperer – actor

Kevin Kline – actor, father was of German Jewish descent

Boris Kodjoe – actor, mother of German and German-Jewish descent

David Koechner – actor, comedian and musician, of part German descent

Lynne Koplitz – actor, comedian

Fran Kranz – actor, of part German descent

Kurt Kreuger – actor

Berry Kroeger – actor

Diane Kruger – actress

Mickey Kuhn – actor

Ashton Kutcher

Cheryl Ladd – actress and model, of part German descent

Veronica Lake – actress and pin-up model

Jessica Lange – actress, paternal grandfather was of German descent

Cyndi Lauper – singer, actress, of part German descent

Ed Lauter – actor, of part German descent

Taylor Lautner – actor/martial artist, of part German descent

Brandon Lee – actor; son of Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee – actor; mother was of Chinese and German ancestry

Shannon Lee – actress; daughter of Bruce Lee

Janine Lindemulder – exotic dancer and adult film actress

Clara Lipman – actress and playwright; sister of Lieder singer Mattie Lipman Marum

Kristanna Loken – actress

Carole Lombard – actress

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – actress, HBO's VEEP, Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine; partly of German descent

Kellan Lutz – fashion model and actor for television and films; of mostly German descent

Allison Mack – actress

John Malkovich – actor; of part German ancestry on his mother's side

Jayne Mansfield – actress.

William Mapother – actor, Lost; Tom Cruise's cousin; of part German descent

James Marsden – actor

Rudolf Martin – actor

Marx Brothers – actors, of German Jewish descent

Candice Michelle – model, actress, WWE wrestler

Jason Momoa – actor, mother of part German descent

Michelle Monaghan – actress

Jack Nicholson – actor, partial German ancestry from mother

Nick Nolte – actor, of part German descent

Bob Odenkirk – actor

Chris O'Donnell – actor who played Robin in two Batman movies; mother is of part German ancestry

Heather O'Rourke – child actress, of part German descent

Chord Overstreet – of part German descent

Lilli Palmer – born Lillie Marie Peiser; actress, German Jewish

Gwyneth Paltrow – actress; daughter of Blythe Danner, who is of mostly German descent

Sarah Jessica Parker – actress, mother of mostly German descent

Penny Pax – adult film actress

William Petersen – actor and producer, of mostly German descent

Michelle Pfeiffer – actress, father was of half German ancestry

Brad Pitt – actor with partial German ancestry

Amy Poehler – actress, comedian, producer and writer, of 1/8th German descent

Erich Pommer – actor and film producer

Laura Prepon – actress, mother is part German

Freddie Prinze Jr. – actor, mother has German ancestry

Jürgen Prochnow – German actor

George Raft – born George Ranft; actor; father was an immigrant from Germany and mother was of German descent

Luise Rainer – actress, Jewish immigrant from Germany

John Ratzenberger – actor with part German American father

Donna Reed – actress, of part German descent

Jeremy Renner – actor and musician, father is of part German ancestry

Denise Richards – actress

Naya Rivera – actress and singer (a quarter German descent)

Elisabeth Röhm – actress, immigrant from Germany; father is German

Andrew Rothenberg – television actor

Mercedes Ruehl – theater, television and film actor, father was of part German descent

Sig Ruman – actor

Katee Sackhoff – actress, of part German descent

Yvonne Maria Schaefer – actress and producer

Roy Scheider – actor, father was of German descent

August Schellenberg – actor

Kendall Schmidt – actor and singer – well known for his part in Big Time Rush

Danielle Schneider – actress, comedian, and writer

Helen Schneider – actress and singer

John Schneider – actor and singer

Liev Schreiber – actor

Pablo Schreiber – actor

Ricky Schroder – actor and film director

Carly Schroeder – actress and model

Brooke Shields - actress with distant German ancestors.

Tom Selleck – actor

Amanda Seyfried – actress, of heavily German descent

Elke Sommer – actress

Josef Sommer – actor, immigrant from Germany

Shannyn Sossamon – actress, dancer, model, and musician, of part German descent

Nick Stahl – actor, of part German descent

Frances Sternhagen – actress

Eric Stoltz – actor, director and producer, of part German descent

Michael Strahan – retired football player, actor, and television personality; lived in Germany

Meryl Streep – actress, father was of German/Swiss-German descent, mother was of part German ancestry

Jeremy Sumpter – actor, of part German descent

Carl Switzer – "Alfalfa", actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide

Ralph Taeger – actor

Channing Tatum – actor, distant German ancestry

Shirley Temple – actress, part German

Charlize Theron – actress, mother has German ancestry

Tiffani Thiessen – actress, of part German descent

Jonathan Taylor Thomas – born Jonathan Taylor Weiss; actor, best known for Home Improvement

Uma Thurman – actress; mother is model Nena von Schlebrügge, of half German descent

Liv Tyler – actress, of part German descent

Alida Valli – actress, born Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger

Mario Van Peebles – actor and director; mother is German

Conrad Veidt – actor

Mike Vogel – actor

Jon Voight – actor; maternal grandparents were immigrants from Germany

Erik von Detten – actor; father is German

Jenna von Oÿ – actress and singer

Christopher Walken – actor; father was an immigrant from Germany

Paul Walker – actor, of part German descent

Erin Wasson – actress/model

Johnny Weissmuller – Olympic swimmer, actor, best known as Tarzan

George Wendt – actor, of part German descent

Mae West – actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol; mother was an immigrant from Germany

Robin Williams – actor, of part German descent

Bruce Willis – actor, mother was German

Frank Wolff – actor

Elijah Wood – actor, father of half German descent; mother has one quarter German ancestry

Kari Wuhrer – actress and singer, of part German descent

Wolfgang Zilzer – actor

Celebrities

Glenn Beck – political commentator

Benjamin C. Bradlee – editor-in-chief of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal; maternal great-grandfather was Dr. Ernst Bruno von Gersdorff

Samantha Brown – television host of several Travel Channel shows

Pat Buchanan – political commentator

Kristin Cavallari

Siegfried Fischbacher – magician

Willie Geist – television personality, journalist and humorist

Nicky Hilton – member of the former Hotel owners family

Paris Hilton – member of the former Hotel owners family

Roy Horn – magician

Jimmy Kimmel – comedian, writer, talk show host, game show host, and producer

Bridget Marquardt – model and TV personality (maiden name Sandmeier)

Jenny McCarthy – model and television personality

Keith Olbermann – news anchor, commentator and radio sportscaster

Ed Schultz – television and radio host, liberal political commentator, former sports broadcaster

Alex Wagner – journalist

Directors and producers

Michael Ballhaus – Hollywood film director

Frank Dexter (1882–1965) – German-born American art director

Roland Emmerich – Hollywood film director; born in Stuttgart

Paul Feig – actor and director

Steven Fischer – producer and director; two-time Emmy Award nominee

Marc Forster – director

John Frankenheimer – film director

Ray Harryhausen – visual effects creator, writer, and producer

Mark Hellinger – producer

Carl Laemmle – pioneer in American filmmaking and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios

Ernst Lubitsch – acclaimed film director, special Academy Award winner

Anthony Mann – film director and actor

Russ Meyer – motion picture director and photographer

F. W. Murnau – film director of the silent era

Seymour Nebenzahl – film producer

Kurt Neumann – Hollywood film director who specialized in science fiction

Mike Nichols – Academy Award-winning film director, writer and producer

Arch Oboler – scriptwriter, novelist, producer and director who was active in films, radio and television

Wolfgang Petersen – director

Wally Pfister – Academy Award-nominated American cinematographer

Kelly Reichardt – screenwriter and film director working within American indie cinema

Gottfried Reinhardt – producer and director

Ringling brothers – circus owners

George Schaefer – director of television and Broadway theatre

Eric Schaeffer – actor/writer/director in film and television

Victor Schertzinger – composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter

Eugen Schüfftan – cinematographer and inventor

Nev Schulman – producer, actor, and photographer

Reinhold Schünzel – director and actor

Robert Siodmak – director

Irving Thalberg – film producer, the Boy Wonder

Paul Vogel – cinematographer

Wim Wenders – film director

William Wyler – film director

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

Humorists

Michael Ian Black (born Michael Ian Schwartz) – comedian, actor, writer, and director

David Letterman – late-night talk show host and comedian and the host of Late Show with David Letterman

Daniel Tosh – comedian, host of Comedy Central's Tosh.0

Models

Cindy Crawford – model

Rande Gerber – male model and entrepreneur

Heidi Klum – model

Nena von Schlebrügge – former fashion model in the 1950s and 1960s; of German and Swedish descent; mother of actress Uma Thurman

Composers and Musicians

Christina Aguilera- pop singer, has some German ancestry from her mother's side

Billy Joe Armstrong - Lead singer of Green Day

George Antheil – avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, mechanical – of the early 20th century

Dan Auerbach – multi-instrumentalist best known as the guitarist and vocalist for The Black Keys

Bix Beiderbecke – jazz cornet player and a classical and jazz pianist

Tex Beneke – saxophonist, singer, and bandleader

Jon Bon Jovi

Eva Cassidy - singer and guitarist

Kurt Cobain

Tré Cool – drummer for Green Day

Brann Dailor – drummer for heavy metal band Mastodon

Patrick Dahlheimer – bassist for the band Live

Walter Johannes Damrosch – conductor

John Denver – born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., musician

Howard Dietz – publicist, lyric writer and librettist

Paul Dresser – singer and songwriter

Fred Durst – lead singer of nu-metal band Limp Bizkit

Bob Dylan - Songwriter, Singer, Nobel-Prize Winner

David Ellefson – co-founder of thrash metal band Megadeth

Eminem – rapper, has partial German ancestry

Lukas Foss – conductor

Chris Frantz – musician and record producer; the drummer for both Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club

Norman Frauenheim – acclaimed pianist and music teacher

Ace Frehley – band member of Kiss

Hugo Friedhofer – film music composer

Louis F. Gottschalk – composer

Dave Grohl – lead singer of Foo Fighters

Jeff Hanneman – guitarist of Slayer

Reinhold Heil – film and television composer

Otto K. E. Heinemann – manager for the U.S. branch of German-owned Odeon Records

James Hetfield – vocalist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of Metallica

Elbert Joseph Higgins – songwriter

Paul Hindemith – composer, violinist and teacher

Hanya Holm – choreographer

Horst P. Horst – photographer

Terry Kath – first guitarist of the rock band Chicago, 1966-1978; German mother

Josh Kaufman – singer-songwriter and season 6 winner of NBC's The Voice

John Kiffmeyer – first drummer of the punk rock band Green Day

Otto Klemperer – conductor

Alison Krauss – bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and musician

Eric Kretz – musician and producer; drummer for the rock band Stone Temple Pilots

Nick Lachey – pop singer

Armando Lichtenberger Jr. – Member of musical band La Mafia

Charles Martin Loeffler – composer

Courtney Love – actress and frontwoman of Hole

Marilyn Manson – front man of rock band Marilyn Manson; father is of German descent

Melissa Auf der Maur – rock singer

Alyson Michalka – actress, singer-songwriter, and guitarist

Amanda Michalka – actress, singer-songwriter, and guitarist

Sanford A. Moeller – rudimental drummer, national champion, educator, author and Spanish–American War veteran

Tomo in der Mühlen – producer and guitar player, known for work with Harold Perrineau, Masta Ace, Styles P, Ekatarina Velika

Dave Mustaine – co-founder of thrash metal band Megadeth and first lead guitarist for thrash metal band Metallica

James Pankow – trombone player for the rock band Chicago

Jaco Pastorius – musician and songwriter widely acknowledged for his virtuosity with the fretless bass

Jaan Patterson – founder of the Surrism-Phonoethics label, also known as Undress Béton

Jimmy Pop – musician, composer, comedian and lead singer of the Bloodhound Gang

Elvis Presley – singer, songwriter, actor

Dee Dee Ramone – bassist for The Ramones

Trent Reznor – musician, film score composer and founder of Nine Inch Nails

Heinz Eric Roemheld – composer, in 1942 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for Yankee Doodle Dandy

Linda Ronstadt – singer, songwriter

Nate Ruess – singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead vocalist of indie rock band Fun

Felix Salten – composed scores for some 150 Hollywood movies

Arnold Schoenberg – expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School

Wesley Schultz – guitarist and lead vocalist for the American folk rock band The Lumineers

Pete Seeger - Folk singer.

John Philip Sousa – composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches

Paul Stanley – musician from the band KISS, his mother was born in Berlin, Germany

Mark Stoermer – musician, producer and singer-songwriter; bassist for alternative rock band the Killers

Joel Stroetzel – guitarist from the metalcore band Killswitch Engage

Theodore Thomas – conductor

Steven Tyler - Lead singer of Aerosmith

Vanilla Ice – born Robert Van Winkle; rapper, actor and television host

Eddie Vedder – lead vocalist of Pearl Jam

Kurt Weill – composer

Lawrence Welk – bandleader

Pete Wentz – bassist for Fall Out Boy; of partial paternal German descent

Brian Wilson - Singer. The Beach Boys.

Ace Young – singer

Hans Zimmer – Oscar-winning film composer, German immigrant

Businesspeople and entrepreneurs

John Jacob Astor – business magnate, merchant and investor and the first multi-millionaire in the United States

John Jacob Astor IV – millionaire businessman, real estate developer, inventor, writer and a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War

William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor – financier and statesman

George Frederick Baer – lawyer, Social Darwinist railroad baron (former President of the Reading Railroad)

Ralph Baer – father of the home video game console

John Jacob Bausch – optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb

Andy von Bechtolsheim – co-founder of Sun Microsystems and one of the first investors in Google

Maximilian Berlitz – Berlitz Language School

Bernard Baruch – financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant

William Edward Boeing – aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company

Clyde Cessna -

Walter Chrysler – Chrysler automobile developer

George A. Dickel – whiskey distributor; born in Grünberg, Hesse

Chris Deering – businessman and marketer best known for his role as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

Noah Dietrich – CEO of the Howard Hughes empire

Walt Disney – film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist

John Doerr – venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Richard Driehaus – chairman of Driehaus Capital Management LLC

August Duesenberg – automobile pioneer manufacturer

Fred Duesenberg – automobile pioneer designer, manufacturer and sportsman

Edward Filene – businessman, social entrepreneur and philanthropist

Harvey Firestone – founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company

Nicholas C. Forstmann – one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm

Theodore J. Forstmann – one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm, and chairman and CEO of IMG, a leading global sports and media company

Bill Gates – software magnate and investor, founder and former chairman of Microsoft

Theodor August Heintzman – piano manufacturer (Heintzman & Co.) and inventor

Henry J. Heinz – H. J. Heinz Company ketchup founder

H. J. Heinz II – best known as Jack Heinz, a business executive and CEO of the H. J. Heinz Company

H. Robert Heller – President and CEO of VISA U.S.A. and Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Milton S. Hershey – Hershey chocolate founder

Barron Hilton – chairman of the Hilton Hotel chain and grandfather of Paris Hilton

Conrad Hilton – founder of the Hilton Hotel chain and great grandfather of Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton

Richard Hilton – hotelier and real estate entrepreneur, father of Paris Hilton

George A. Hormel – founder of Hormel Foods Corporation

Steve Jobs – software tycoon, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc.

Max Kade – pharmaceutical tycoon, endowed the Max Kade foundation

Otto Hermann Kahn – investment banker

Jawed Karim – co-founder of YouTube and designer of key parts of PayPal.

Edgar J. Kaufmann – department store entrepreneur

William Myron Keck – oil entrepreneur and philanthropist who is now best known for giving his name to the W. M. Keck Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations

Peter Kern – confectioner and mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee

John W. Kieckhefer – pioneer in the use of fibre shipping containers and one of the wealthiest men in America in 1957 * John Kluge – television industry mogul

Klaus Kleinfeld - business executive

William Knabe – industrialist and piano-manufacturer

Lynne Koplitz – comedian

James L. Kraft – first to patent processed cheese; founder of Kraft Foods

Bernard Kroger – chain grocer founder of the Kroger chain

Louis Kurz – major publisher of chromolithographs in the late 19th century

Henry Emanuel Lutterloh – Quartermaster General under George Washington

Johan Adam Lemp – father of modern brewing in St. Louis, started the William J. Lemp Brewing Company

James E. Lentz III – president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.

Alfred Lion – co-founder of Blue Note Records

Solomon Loeb – banker, co-founder of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

Henry Lomb – co-founded Bausch & Lomb

William H. Luden – developer of the menthol cough drop, the first ever, Luden's Menthol Cough Drops

Peter Luger – steak restaurateur

Abby Rockefeller Mauzé – philanthropist

Oscar Mayer – meat entrepreneur

F. L. Maytag – founder of the Maytag Company

George W. Merck – scientist and former president of Merck & Co.

Fred G. Meyer – founder of Fred Meyer

Maxey Dell Moody, Jr. – founder of MOBRO Marine, Inc. and CEO of M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc.

Elon Musk – co-founder of PayPal Inc.; founder of SolarCity, SpaceX, Hyperloop, and Tesla Motors

Carrie Marcus Neiman – co-founder of the Neiman-Marcus department store

Adolph Ochs-Sulzberger – newspaper publisher and former owner of The New York Times and The Chattanooga Times (now the Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Hermann Oelrichs – shipping magnate and owner of Norddeutsche Lloyd Shipping

Fabian Pascal – consultant to large software vendors

Charles Pfizer – founded the Pfizer Inc. pharmaceutical company

John J. Raskob – builder of the Empire State Building

Francis Joseph Reitz – banker, civic leader, and philanthropist

John Augustus Reitz – known as the "Lumber Baron", an entrepreneur, industrialist, banker, civic leader, and philanthropist

George Remus – famous Cincinnati lawyer and bootlegger during the Prohibition era

Adolph Rickenbacher – created the electric guitar manufacturer, Rickenbacher Manufacturing Company

William Rittenhouse – built the first paper mill in America

David Rockefeller – banker, philanthropist, world statesman, and the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family

John D. Rockefeller – oil magnate and philanthropist

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. – industrialist and philanthropist

John D. Rockefeller III – industrialist and philanthropist

Laurance Rockefeller – venture capitalist, financier, philanthropist and major conservationist

John Augustus Roebling – civil engineer, one of the pioneers in the construction of suspension bridges

Washington Augustus Roebling – civil engineer best known for his work on the Brooklyn Bridge

Jim Rohr – chairman and CEO of PNC Financial Services Group (PNC Bank)

August Schell – founded The August Schell Brewing Company in 1860, the second oldest family-owned brewery in America

Jacob Schiff – banker and philanthropist

Julius Schmid – creator of the Sheik condom and the Ramses condom

Eric Schmidt – executive chairman and former CEO of Alphabet Inc. (the parent company of Google) and a former member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and 136th-wealthiest person in the world in 2011

Charles M. Schwab – steel magnate (Bethlehem Steel)

Charles R. Schwab – businessman and investor; founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation

Steve Schwarzman – private equity mogul, financier and founder of Blackstone Group

Frank Seiberling – inventor and founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Seiberling Rubber Company, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens

John Seiberling – founder and inventor of one of the first reaping machines

Isaac Singer – inventor, actor, and sewing machine entrepreneur

Evan Spiegel – Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of the mobile application Snapchat

Joseph Spiegel – founder of Spiegel catalog

Claus Spreckels – industrialist

George Steinbrenner – shipping and sports franchise entrepreneur and late owner of the New York Yankees

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg – Steinway pianos manufacturer

Henry William Stiegel – glassmaker and ironmaster and an active lay Lutheran and associate of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg

Chris Strachwitz – founder and president of Arhoolie Records

Levi Strauss – creator of the first company to manufacture blue jeans; of German-Jewish descent

Clement Studebaker – founded Studebaker, a wagon, carriage and car manufacturer

Arthur Hays Sulzberger – publisher of The New York Times, 1935–1961

John Sutter – pioneer settler/colonizer

Peter Thiel – co-founder of PayPal Inc. and the first outside investor in Facebook, Inc.

Otto Timm – aircraft manufacturer

William Utz – snack food entrepreneur

Charles Von der Ahe – co-founder of the Vons Supermarket chain

Wilfred Von der Ahe – co-founder of the Vons Supermarket chain

The Warburg Family – bankers

George Westinghouse – engineer and electricity pioneer

Friedrich Weyerhäuser – timber mogul and founder of the Weyerhaeuser

Francis Wolff – co-founder of Blue Note Records

Rudolph Wurlitzer – musical instrument entrepreneur

William Zeckendorf – real estate developer

Brewers

Eberhard Anheuser – soap and candle maker, president and CEO of Eberhard Anheuser and Company, which eventually became Anheuser-Busch

Valentin Blatz – beer baron, started the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company

Adolphus Busch – Anheuser-Busch brewing company founder

Adolphus Busch III – brewing magnate who was the President and CEO of Anheuser-Busch, 1934–1946

August Anheuser Busch, Sr. – brewing magnate who served as the President and CEO of Anheuser-Busch, 1913–1934

August Busch IV – president and CEO of Anheuser-Busch

Gussie Busch – brewing magnate who built the Anheuser-Busch Companies into the largest brewery in the world as company chairman, 1946–1975, and became a prominent sportsman as owner of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise in MLB

Adolph Coors – Coors beer empire founder

Matthias Haffen – New York City brewer, formerly located at the Haffen Building in the Bronx

Theodore Hamm – founder of Hamm's Brewery

Frederick Miller – Miller beer creator

Frederick Pabst – founder of Pabst Brewery (with Philip Best)

Tom Pastorius – founded Penn Brewery (Pennsylvania Brewing Co.)

Frederick Schaefer – beer baron, started F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company

Joseph Schlitz – beer baron, founded Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company

Kosmas Spoetzl – brewer, Shiner Brewery

Peter P. Straub – founder of Straub Brewery

John Wanamaker – merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising

Herman Weiss – First brewmaster in Shiner, Texas; hired in 1909 by the Shiner Brewing Association to start the brewery; later took the same position at the San Antonio Brewing Association

Historical figures

John Dillinger – Famous bank-robber in the Depression-era United States

Buzz Aldrin – astronaut, first human to speak on the Moon

Neil Armstrong – astronaut, first human to set foot on the Moon

George Atzerodt – assassin, conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Laura Bullion (1876–1961) – female Old West outlaw

Warren E. Burger (1907–1995) – Chief Justice of the United States, 1969–1986

Harold Hitz Burton – politician and lawyer, served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as a U.S. senator from Ohio, and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Willard Erastus Christianson aka Matt Warner – Old West outlaw, deputy sheriff

Dr. Carl Adolph Douai – educational reformer, abolitionist, newspaper editor, and labor leader

Amelia Earhart – aviation pioneer and author, the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross

Johann Friedrich Ernst – "Father of German Immigration to Texas", arriving in 1831

Bobby Fischer – chess prodigy, grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion

Henry Francis Fisher – German Texan in Houston, Texas, where he was consul for the Hanseatic League, became acting treasurer of the San Saba Company

Gerhard Gesell – United States federal judge

Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905) – statesman, patriarch of what became known as the Guggenheim family

Frank Gusenburg – gangster and a victim of the Saint Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago

Peter Gusenberg – member of Chicago's North Side Gang, the main rival to the Chicago Outfit

Bruno Hauptmann – Lindbergh kidnapper

Friedrich Hecker – revolutionary

Michael Hillegas – first Treasurer of the United States

Prince Alexander of Hohenzollern – successor as Head of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Jimmy Hoffa – labor union leader and author

J. Edgar Hoover – first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Lena Kleinschmidt – jewel thief

Fritz Kuhn – German American Bund leader

Maria Kraus-Boelté – pioneer of Fröbel education in the United States, and helped promote kindergarten training as suitable for study at university level

Herman Lamm – considered the "father of modern bank robbery"

Johann Lederer – explorer

Jacob Leisler – colonist

Frank J. Loesch – law enforcement official, reformer and a founder of the Chicago Crime Commission

Kurt Frederick Ludwig – head of the "Joe K" spy ring in the United States in 1940–41

Paul Machemehl – German-Texan, rancher and civic leader

Fredericka Mandelbaum – entrepreneur and criminal

Nicola Marschall – designer of the first national flag and uniform of the Confederacy

Christene Mayer – aka "Kid Glove Rosey", famous thief and associate of "Black" Lena Kleinschmidt

Benjamin Kurtz Miller – philanthropist

Burchard Miller – Texas land pioneer

Peter Minuit – Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland

Charles Mohr – pharmacist

Pat Nixon – former First Lady of the United States

Duncan Niederauer – CEO of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

Madge Oberholtzer – schoolteacher who worked for the state of Indiana on adult literacy

Bonnie Parker – outlaw, robber, and criminal

Franz Daniel Pastorius – pioneer and founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania

Molly Pitcher – born Mary Ludwig, American Revolutionary War hero

Charles Reiser – safecracker

Walter Reuther – labor leader

Rockefeller family – industrial and political family that made one of the world's largest fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Reinhold O. Schmidt – 1950s UFO "contactee"

August Schrader – engineer and mechanic

Carl Schurz – politician, newspaper editor, Civil War general

Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. – Lindbergh kidnapping investigator

Dutch Schultz – born Arthur Flegenheimer, New York City-area gangster

Margarethe Schurz – established the kindergarten system in the United States

Frank "The German" Schweihs – alleged hitman who had been known to work for The Outfit, the organized crime family in Chicago

Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels – "Texas-Carl" was an Austro-Hungarian Lieutenant General and founder of the town New Braunfels, Texas

Jacob Sternberger – historian and one of the original Forty-Eighters

Ida Straus – victim of the sinking of the RMS Titanic

Isidor Straus – former co-owner of Macy's and victim of the sinking of the RMS Titanic

Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss – prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc.

Chesley Sullenberger – commercial airline pilot, safety expert, and accident investigator; piloted US Airways Flight 1549 to a safe ditching in the Hudson River in New York City

John Sutter – settler/colonizer

Jack Swigert – NASA astronaut, one of the 24 persons who have flown to the Moon

Count Ludwig Joseph von Boos-Waldeck – German noble descended from a line of Rhenish Knights and nobles dating back to the 13th century, organized the Adelsverein, to promote German emigration to Texas

Andrew Von Etter – Boston mobster

Paul Warburg – banker

Louis J. Weichmann – chief witnesses for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination

Conrad Weiser – pioneer, farmer, monk, tanner, judge, and soldier

Lewis Wetzel – frontiersman and Indian fighter

Gus Winkler – St. Louis mobster

Adam Worth – gentleman criminal

Joe Wurzelbacher – employee of Newell Plumbing & Heating, "the most famous plumber in the nation", rose to national attention when he was mentioned by Republican United States Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama at least 23 times, during the third and final presidential debate on October 15, 2008

David Ziegler – first mayor of Cincinnati; Revolutionary War Veteran and aide to president George Washington

John Peter Zenger – printer, publisher, editor and journalist in New York City

Inventors

David Alter – inventor, physicist and doctor

Earl W. Bascom – invented rodeo equipment and has been called the "Father of Modern Rodeo"

Ottmar Mergenthaler – linotype inventor

Thomas Nast – German-born American caricaturist; considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon"

Gustave Whitehead – aviation pioneer, built first motorized plane

Dietrich Gruen – timepiece or wristwatch maker; founded the Gruen Watch Company in Ohio

Military

Otto Boehler – United States Army private awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the Moro Rebellion during the Philippine–American War

Johann August Heinrich Heros von Borcke – Major in the Confederate army

George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) – United States Army cavalry commander

Thomas Custer – United States Army officer and two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery during the American Civil War; a younger brother of George Armstrong Custer, perishing with him at Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory

Konrad Dannenberg – rocket pioneer and member of the German Rocket Team, brought to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip

Dieter Dengler – German born United States Navy Naval aviator during the Vietnam War

Hubert Dilger – decorated artillerist in the Union Army during the American Civil War

Walter Dornberger – leader of Germany's V-2 rocket program and other projects at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, brought to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip

Johann de Kalb – Major General in the American Revolution

Frank Finkel – claimed to be the only white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn

Thomas W. Hartmann – Brigadier General, lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve

Friedrich Hecker – lawyer, politician, revolutionary and Civil War colonel

Lewis Heermann – commissioned Surgeon's Mate in the United States Navy 8 February 1802; in 1942, the destroyer USS Heermann was named in his honor

Nicholas Herkimer – commanding general at Battle of Oriskany, American Revolutionary War

Daniel Hiester – political and military leader from the Revolutionary War period to the early 19th century

John Hiester – military leader from the Revolutionary War period to the early 19th century

Ralph Ignatowski – soldier, of Polish descent, World War II veteran, best friend of John Bradley

Herman Kahn – military strategist and systems theorist

August Kautz – Brigadier General /Union Army officer

Eugene H. C. Leutze – Admiral of the United States Navy, appointed to the United States Naval Academy by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863

Jerry M. Linenger – M.D., M.S.S.M., M.P.H., Ph.D. (Captain, Medical Corps, USN, Ret.) and a former NASA astronaut

Marc Mitscher – Vice Admiral in the U.S. Navy; served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific in the latter half of World War II

Peter Muhlenberg – clergyman, soldier and a politician of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Post-Revolutionary eras in Pennsylvania

Chester W. Nimitz – Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces for the United States and Allied forces during World War II

John J. Pershing – officer in the United States Army, rose to the highest rank ever held in the U.S. Army – General of the Armies

Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays) – American Revolutionary soldier

Friedrich Adolf Riedesel – regiment commander of the Duchy of Brunswick (Braunschweig) unit hired by the British during the American Revolution

Edward S. Salomon – a Union brigadier general in the American Civil War

Frederick C. Salomon – a Union brigadier general in the American Civil War

Alexander Schimmelfennig – American Civil War general in the Union Army

Harry Schmidt – U.S. Marine Corps general

Tony F. Schneider – World War II pilot who served as Associate Professor of Naval Science at University of Louisville and as Professor of Naval Science at the University of New Mexico

James Martinus Schoonmaker – Colonel in the Union Army in the American Civil War and a vice-president of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad

Harold G. Schrier – officer in the United States Marine Corps, recipient of the Navy Cross, the nation's second highest award for valor, and a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War; one of the six Marines who raised the first American flag on Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945

Theodore Schwan – officer who served with distinction during the American Civil War, Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. – United States Army General

Albert Sieber – Chief of Scouts for much of the Apache Wars and tracked Geronimo

Franz Sigel – teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union general in the American Civil War

Clem Sohn – airshow dare-devil in the 1930s; perfected a way of gliding through the air with a home-made wingsuit

Carl Andrew Spaatz – general in World War II

Adolph von Steinwehr – served as a Union general in the American Civil War

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben – German–Prussian General; served with George Washington in the American Revolutionary War; credited with teaching the Continental Army the essentials of military drill and discipline

Michael Strobl – retired United States Marine Corps officer

Gustav Tafel – colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War

Max Weber – Brigadier General in the Union army during the American Civil War

Lewis Wetzel – frontiersman and Indian fighter who roamed the hills of western Virginia and Ohio; Wetzel County, West Virginia, is named for him

Godfrey Weitzel – Major General in the Union army during the American Civil War

August Willich – general in the Union Army during the American Civil War

Jurgen Wilson – Union Army officer during the American Civil War

Henry Wirz – born Heinrich Hartmann Wirz; Confederate officer tried and executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War

Elmo Zumwalt – Admiral and later the 19th Chief of Naval Operations in the U.S. Navy, playing a major part in the Vietnam War

Philosophers

Felix Adler – rationalist intellectual

Hannah Arendt – political theorist

Ernst Bloch – Marxist philosopher

Rudolf Carnap – philosopher

Adolf Grünbaum – philosopher

Francis Lieber – jurist/political philosopher

Herbert Marcuse – philosopher (1898–1979)

Nicholas Rescher – philosopher

Politicians

John Peter Altgeld – former Union troop, Illinois governor and leading figure of the Progressive Era movement

Edward L. Bader – politician who served as mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey

William B. Bader – Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs 1999–2001

Gary Bauer – politician

Martin Baum – former mayor of Cincinnati, fought with General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers

John Boehner – Republican House Majority Leader in the 109th Congress, and a U.S. representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district

William C. Bouck – governor of the New York, 1843–1844

Philip Becker – mayor of Buffalo, New York, serving 1876–1877 and 1886–1889

Martin Grove Brumbaugh – Pennsylvania's 25th Governor (Republican)

Warren E. Burger – former Chief Justice of the United States

Henry Burk – former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

George W. Bush – American president (2001–2009)

Earl Lauer Butz – Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford

Hiester Clymer – former political leader from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Kent Conrad – U.S. senator from North Dakota

William Q. Dallmeyer – Missouri politician

Tom Daschle – U.S. senator from South Dakota, 1987–2005, former Senate Majority Leader

William J. Diehl – served as Mayor of Pittsburgh, 1899–1901, a thirty-third degree mason

George Anthony Dondero - U.S. Representative from Michigan.

Sean Duffy – U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 7th congressional district

Gerhard Anton (Anthony) Eickhoff – journalist, editor, author, lawyer, United States Congress representative of New York City, United States Treasury auditor and New York City Fire Commissioner

Dwight D. Eisenhower – Five-star Army general and U.S. president

Jesse E. Eschbach – judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana and a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Timothy Geithner – U.S. secretary of the Treasury

Dick Gephardt – U.S. congressman, 1977–2005

James Lawrence Getz – member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

William Goebel – controversial politician who served as Governor of Kentucky for a few days in 1900 before being assassinated

Richard W. Guenther – 19th-century politician and pharmacist from Wisconsin

Charles Godfrey Gunther – Mayor of New York, 1864–1866

Chuck Hagel – U.S. Senator and Secretary of Defense

Louis M. Haffen – two-time Bronx, New York Borough President, 1898–1909

John Paul Hammerschmidt – served for 13 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas

William Havemeyer – served three times as the Mayor of New York City: 1845–1846, 1848–1849 and 1873–1874

Julius Heil – Governor of Wisconsin, 1939–1943

H. Robert Heller – Governor, Federal Reserve System, 1986–1989 and President of VISA U.S.A.

Isaac Ellmaker Hiester – political leader in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Joseph Hiester – governor of Pennsylvania, 1820–1823

William Muhlenberg Hiester – political and military leader in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

H. John Heinz III – member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania (1971–1977) and the United States Senate (1977–1991) and son of H. J. Heinz II (heir to the H. J. Heinz Company)

Gustav A. Hoff (1852 – 1930) = German-born American politician and businessman active in Arizona Territory

Herbert Hoover – U.S. president

Arthur W. Hummel, Jr. – U.S. ambassador

Don Hummel – businessman and politician

Darrell Issa – Businessman and U.S. Representative from California

Philip Mayer Kaiser – former U.S. diplomat

Vera Katz – 45th mayor of Portland, Oregon

Steve King – U.S. Representative

Henry Kissinger – former Secretary of State

Matt Koehl leader of the American Nazi Party, which in 1983, influenced by esoteric Nazism, he renamed as the New Order

Gustav Koerner – Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, 1853–1857, U.S. ambassador to Spain, and one of the original Dreissiger

Louis Kuehnle – politician; considered a pioneer in the growing resort town of Atlantic City in the late 1880s

John Christian Kunkel – former Whig and Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania

Tom Loeffler – former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from central Texas

Richard Lugar – U.S. senator from Indiana

Judy Martz – was the 22nd Governor of Montana

Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach – Prussian bureaucrat, later an American farmer, politician, and member of the Texas Senate

Frederick Muhlenberg – minister and politician who was the first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Peter Muhlenberg – clergyman, a soldier and a politician of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Post-Revolutionary eras in Pennsylvania*

Karl E. Mundt - U.S. Senator and Congressman.

Paul Henry Nitze – Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

Richard Nixon – American president; of English, Irish and German ancestries

Barack Obama – American president; mother, Ann Dunham, has German ancestors who arrived in America in 1750

Sarah Palin – former Governor of Alaska; Republican nominee for Vice President in 2008; both parents are of partial German ancestry

Ron Paul – former U.S. Congressman from Texas

Henry Paulson - United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Tim Pawlenty – former Governor of Minnesota; mother was of German descent

Horace Porter – decorated Union soldier and diplomat; son of David Rittenhouse Porter, a wealthy ironmaster who later served as Governor of Pennsylvania

Reince Priebus – chairman of the Republican National Committee and also a previous chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin

Luke Ravenstahl – Pittsburgh mayor

Denny Rehberg – Lieutenant Governor of Montana, 1991–1997 and U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district, 2001–2013

Jim Risch – former Governor of Idaho

Nelson Rockefeller – Governor of New York and forty-first Vice President of the United States

Winthrop Rockefeller – politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction

Brian Roehrkasse – spokesman at the United States Justice Department under the administration of George W. Bush

Dana Rohrabacher – Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1989, currently representing California's 46th congressional district

Mitt Romney - Governor of Massachusetts

Theodore Roosevelt – U.S. president

Donald Rumsfeld – former Secretary of Defense

Edward Salomon – Governor of Wisconsin during the Civil War

Edward S. Salomon – Union brigadier general in the Civil War, later became governor of Washington Territory and a California legislator

George E. Sangmeister-Senator and Congressman from Illinois; served in various elected public offices, 1972–1994

Harry Sauthoff – lawyer, Wisconsin State Senator, also served in the United States House of Representatives

Gustav Schleicher – U.S. representative from Texas, serving briefly in Texas legislature and veteran of the Confederate Army

Solomon Scheu – mayor of Buffalo, New York, in office 1878–1880

Steve Schmidt – campaign strategist

Gustav A. Schneebeli – former U.S. representative from the state of Pennsylvania

Terry Schrunk – politician who served as the mayor for the city of Portland, Oregon, 1957–1973

Mark S. Schweiker – 44th Governor of the Pennsylvania

Richard Schultz Schweiker – former U.S. congressman and senator representing the state of Pennsylvania, later the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan

John Andrew Shulze – Pennsylvania political leader and 6th Governor of Pennsylvania, a member of the Muhlenberg family political dynasty

Carl Schurz – statesman and reformer, and Union Army general in the American Civil War

Emil Seidel – mayor of Milwaukee, 1910–1912; the first Socialist mayor of a major city in the United States, and ran as the Vice Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America in the 1912 presidential election

August Siemering – writer, political leader and Forty-Eighter

Al Smith - Governor of New York.

Jackie Speier – U.S. Representative for California's 12th and 14th districts, serving since 2008; father was a German immigrant

Harold Edward Stassen was the 25th Governor of Minnesota, 1939–1943

Richard Fred Suhrheinrich – judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Brian Schweitzer – served as the 23rd Governor of Montana

Strom Thurmond - United States Senator.

Donald Trump – 45th President of the United States.

Jesse Ventura – former Governor of Minnesota (1999–2003), his mother is of Hungarian-German descent

Ferdinand E. Volz – Mayor of Pittsburgh, 1854–1856

Robert F. Wagner – U.S. senator from New York, 1927–1949

Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. – politician who has served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and governor of Connecticut

Wendell Willkie – lawyer and the Republican nominee for the 1940 presidential election

Robert Zoellick – eleventh president of the World Bank, former United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative

Religious

Joseph Breuer – leader of the Orthodox Jewish community of Washington Heights, Manhattan; very well known for his involvement in setting up an Orthodox Jewish infrastructure in post-World War II America

Conrad Beissel – religious leader who in 1732 founded the Ephrata Community in Pennsylvania

Raymond Philip Etteldorf – Roman Catholic Archbishop and author

George J. Geis – Baptist missionary in Kachin State, Burma

Robert Graetz – Lutheran clergyman

Barbara Heck – 1768 – founder of the first Methodist church in New York

Samuel Hirsch – philosopher and rabbi

Arthur W. Hummel, Sr. – Christian missionary to China and Sinologist

Johannes Kelpius – pietist, mystic, musician, and writer, interested in the occult, botany, and astronomy, came to believe with his followers in the "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness"

Kathryn Kuhlman – 20th-century faith healer and Pentecostal arm of Protestant Christianity

Barbara Heinemann Landmann – spiritual leader of the Amana Colonies

Alexander Mack – Germantown, Pennsylvania New World religious leader

Christian Metz – inspirationalist

Albert Gregory Meyer – Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago

Henry Moeller – Roman Catholic archbishop of Cincinnati

Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg – Lutheran clergyman

Richard John Neuhaus – clergyman (first a Lutheran pastor and then a Roman Catholic priest), theologian, and ethicist

St. John Neumann – Bishop of Philadelphia (1852–60) and the first American bishop to be canonized

Reinhold Niebuhr – Protestant theologian best known for his work relating the Christian faith to the realities of modern politics and diplomacy

William Passavant – Lutheran minister noted for bringing the Lutheran Deaconess movement to the United States

George Rapp – founder of the religious sect called Harmonists, Harmonites, Rappites, or the Harmony Society

George Erik Rupp – educator and theologian, the former President of Rice University and later of Columbia University, and president of the International Rescue Committee

Theodore Emanuel Schmauk – Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian, one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Dutch Society (1891)

Theodore Schneider – was the second bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Francis Xavier Seelos – Roman Catholic missionary priest beatified in 2000

Joseph Strub – founder of what is today Duquesne University, which was called the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost until 1911

Billy Sunday - Evangelist

Paul Tillich – Protestant theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher

C. F. W. Walther – Lutheran clergyman, professor, seminary president, editor, and first president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

Donald Wuerl – prelate of the Roman Catholic Church

Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf – founded the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where his daughter Benigna organized the school that would become Moravian College

Dieter F. Uchtdorf – an apostle and current second counselor in the First Presidency within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; born in the Czech Republic to German parents, Uchtdorf immigrated to the United States as a retired pilot to serve full-time as a general authority for his Church and became an American citizen shortly after joining the First Presidency in 2008.

Scientists and researchers

Reinhold Aman – chemical engineer and publisher of Maledicta

Othmar Ammann – civil engineer

Rudolf Arnheim – author, art and film theorist, and perceptual psychologist; learned Gestalt psychology from studying under Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler at the University of Berlin and applied it to art

Walter Baade – astronomer

Max Bentele – pioneer in the field of jet aircraft turbines and mechanical engineering

Hans Albrecht Bethe – nuclear physicist who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the nuclear energy sources of stars (1967)

Franz Boas – anthropologist and ethnologist best known for his work with the Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia, Canada

Karl Brandt – economist

Magnus von Braun – chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, and rocket scientist at Peenemünde, the Mittelwerk, and after emigrating to the United States via Operation Paperclip, at Fort Bliss; brother of Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun – rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect

Florian Cajori – mathematician

Werner Dahm – NASA rocket scientist

Hans Georg Dehmelt – physicist

Max Delbrück – biophysicist

Krafft Arnold Ehricke – rocket-propulsion engineer

Ernst R. G. Eckert – scientist

Otto Eckstein – economist

Albert Einstein – theoretical physicist, philosopher and author

George Engelmann – botanist

Katherine Esau – botanist

Edmond H. Fischer – biochemist

James Franck – physicist

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann – psychoanalyst, founded William Alanson White Institute

Ernst Geissler – NASA aerospace engineer

William Paul Gerhard – sanitary engineer

Ivan A. Getting physicist and electrical engineer, credited (along with Roger L. Easton and Bradford Parkinson) with the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS)

Edward Glaeser – economist and Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Heinrich Göbel – precision mechanic and inventor, who was long seen as an early pioneer who independently developed designs for an incandescent light bulb, though this claim is seen as unlikely today

Maria Goeppert-Mayer – Nobel Prize-winning physicist

John P. Grotzinger – Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology at California Institute of Technology under the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences

Martin Gruebele – biophysicist and Computational biologist, currently associated with many departments at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Helmut Gröttrup – rocket scientist

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht – literary theorist and professor at Stanford University

Walter Haeussermann – NASA rocket scientist

Michael Heidelberger – regarded as the father of modern immunology

Holger Henke – political scientist

Herman Hollerith – statistician

Karen Horney – psychoanalyst

Edmund C. Jaeger – naturalist

Donald J. Kessler – astrophysicist

Wolfgang Köhler – psychologist

Heinrich Klüver – psychologist, largely credited with introducing Gestalt psychology to the United States in the early 20th century

Polykarp Kusch – physicist

Berthold Laufer – anthropologist, historical geographer

Willy Ley – science writer and space advocate who helped popularise rocketry and spaceflight

Jacques Loeb – biologist, Nobel Prize candidate

Leo Loeb – biologist, pathologist

Hugo Münsterberg – psychologist, pioneered applied psychology

Emmy Noether – mathematician

Robert Oppenheimer – physicist and director of the Manhattan Project, also known as "The Father of the Atomic Bomb"

Robert F. Overmyer – test pilot and USAF and NASA astronaut

Charles Francis Richter – seismologist, inventor of the Richter magnitude scale

David Rittenhouse – astronomer, inventor, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, public official and first director of the United States Mint

Eileen Rockefeller Growald – founder and former president of the Institute for the Advancement of Health

Gunther E. Rothenberg – military historian, professor at Purdue University and elsewhere

Otto Schaden – Egyptologist

Hermann Irving Schlesinger – inorganic chemist, working in boron chemistry, co-discovered sodium borohydride in 1940

Frank Schlesinger – astronomer

Alfred Schütz – philosopher/sociologist

Rusty Schweickart – astronaut

Lewis David de Schweinitz – botanist and mycologist, "Father of American Mycology"

Frederick Seitz – physicist, co-inventor of the Wigner-Seitz unit cell, which is an important concept in solid state physics

Herbert A. Simon – political scientist

Lyman Spitzer – theoretical physicist, astronomer and mountaineer

Charles Proteus Steinmetz – electrical engineer, fostered development of alternating current

Adam Steltzner – NASA engineer who works for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), flight projects including Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers

Joseph Strauss – structural engineer and designer, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge

Otto Stern – physicist and Nobel laureate, known for his studies of molecular beams

Frederick Traugott Pursh – botanist

George Waldbott – physician, allergy and fluoride specialist

David Wechsler – psychologist

Hellmuth Walter – engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines

Victor Frederick Weisskopf – World War II physicist, working at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, and later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons; medal received in 1979

Eckard Wimmer – virologist, Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Stony Brook University; known for the first chemical synthesis of a viral genome capable of infection and subsequent production of live viruses

Louis Wirth, sociologist

Caspar Wistar – physician and anatomist

Albert Wohlstetter – nuclear scientist

Max August Zorn – algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst

Baseball

Chris von der Ahe – best known as the owner of the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the American Association, now known as the St. Louis Cardinals

Jeff Baker – professional baseball pitcher in MLB

Trevor Bauer – professional baseball pitcher in MLB

Chris Beck – pitcher for the Chicago White Sox

Zinn Beck – Major League Baseball third baseman, shortstop and first baseman who went on to become a minor league manager and baseball scout

Heinie Beckendorf – former MLB catcher

Joe Benz – former pitcher for the Chicago White Sox; threw a no-hitter

Lou Bierbauer – former second baseman in MLB during the late 1880s and 1890s; credited with giving the Pittsburgh Pirates their name

Mike Blowers – former MLB third baseman and first baseman; current Seattle Mariners radio commentator

Brennan Boesch – professional baseball outfielder in MLB

Clay Buchholz – MLB pitcher for the Boston Red Sox

Taylor Buchholz – MLB pitcher

Mark Buehrle – MLB pitcher

Fritz Buelow – former MLB

Jay Buhner – former MLB player

Madison Bumgarner – MLB pitcher for the San Francisco Giants

Roger Clemens – former MLB pitcher

Ross Detwiler – MLB pitcher

Barney Dreyfuss – baseball executive

Ryne Duren – former relief pitcher in MLB

Justin Duchscherer – MLB pitcher

David Eckstein – MLB player and 2006 World Series MVP

Jim Eisenreich – former MLB outfielder

Kid Elberfeld – "The Tabasco Kid", former shortstop in MLB

Jacoby Ellsbury – professional baseball center fielder

Joe Engel – former left-handed pitcher and scout in MLB who spent nearly his entire career with the Washington Senators

Oscar Emil "Happy" Felsch – center fielder for the Chicago White Sox, best known for his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal

David Freese – professional baseball player, 2011 NL Championship Series MVP Award and the 2011 World Series MVP Award winner

Frank Frisch – former MLB player and manager

Bruce Froemming – Major League Baseball Special Assistant to the Vice President on Umpiring, after having served as an umpire in Major League Baseball

Gene Garber – former MLB player

Ron Gardenhire – former New York Mets player and current Minnesota Twins manager

Lou Gehrig – MLB player

Charlie Gehringer – MLB second baseman who played nineteen seasons (1924–1942) for the Detroit Tigers

Charlie Getzien – former MLB pitcher

Troy Glaus – former MLB third baseman

Paul Goldschmidt – MLB first baseman

Charlie Grimm – former MLB player

Justin Grimm – MLB relief pitcher

Heinie Groh – third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants

Travis Hafner – Cleveland Indians designated hitter

Noodles Hahn – former pitcher in MLB

Roy Hartzell – MLB player 1906–1916

Arnold Hauser – former shortstop in MLB

Harry Heilmann – Hall of Fame MLB player and World War I Veteran

Fred Heimach – former MLB pitcher and part of the "Murderer's Row" Yankee teams

Tom Herr – former second baseman in MLB

Orel Hershiser – former MLB pitcher

Buck Herzog – infielder and manager in MLB

Whitey Herzog – MLB outfielder, scout, coach, manager, general manager and farm system director

Shea Hillenbrand – baseball player

Dick Hoblitzel – MLB first baseman

Billy Hoeft – former pitcher in MLB

Barbara Hoffman – All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player

Glenn Hubbard – former Atlanta Braves and Oaklands Athletics player and current Braves' coach

Carl Hubbell – Hall of Fame screwball pitcher in MLB

John Hummel – former MLB utility player

Brock Huntzinger – MLB free agent

Jason Isringhausen – relief pitcher in MLB

Edwin Jackson – pitcher in MLB

Derek Jeter - former professional baseball shortstop who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB)

Jeff Karstens – pitcher in MLB

Dean Kiekhefer – MLB relief pitcher

Chuck Klein – former MLB outfielder

Johnny Kling – former MLB catcher

Bob Knepper – former MLB all-star pitcher

Chuck Knoblauch – former second baseman in MLB

Mark Koenig – former shortstop for the New York Yankees, 1925–1936

Howie Koplitz – Howie best known as the Base Ball Pitcher for the 1961 Tigers and then the Senators until 1966

Rick Kranitz – MLB pitching coach

Erik Kratz – MLB catcher

Harvey Kuenn – player, coach and manager in MLB

Randy Keisler – Former MLB pitcher

Dallas Keuchel – MLB pitcher

Bowie Kuhn – former commissioner of MLB

Kenesaw Mountain Landis – while serving as a Federal judge, Landis, an ardent baseball fan, was selected as chairman of a new National Commission of baseball

Charley Lau – American League catcher and hitting coach, authored 'How to Hit .300'

Craig Lefferts – former MLB pitcher

Jon Lieber – MLB pitcher

Jesse Litsch – MLB pitcher

Hans Lobert – infielder, coach, manager and scout in MLB

Kyle Lohse – MLB pitcher

Chuck Machemehl – former Cleveland Indians pitcher

Heinie Manush – Hall of Fame left-fielder in MLB

Nick Markakis – outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles

Fred Merkle – first baseman in Major League Baseball, 1907–1926

Bob Meusel – former MLB shortstop

Emil Meusel – former MLB outfielder

Bill Mueller – retired MLB third baseman

Les Mueller – former MLB pitcher

Walter Mueller – former professional baseball player who played outfield in MLB 1922–1926

Chris Nabholz – former starting pitcher in MLB

Jeff Niemann – pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays

Brett Oberholtzer – MLB pitcher

Ross Ohlendorf – MLB pitcher

Daniel Ortmeier – MLB pitcher

Fritz Ostermueller – pitcher in MLB 1934–1948

Heinie Peitz – former MLB catcher

Dick Radatz – "The Monster" or "Moose", relief pitcher in MLB

Rick Reuschel – former MLB pitcher

Rick Rhoden – former Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher and current golf professional

John Rocker – former MLB reliever and controversial figure

Oscar Roettger – first baseman and right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball

Wally Roettger – outfielder in Major League Baseball

Trevor Rosenthal – MLB Pitcher

Babe Ruth – MLB player 1914–1935

Germany Schaefer – former second baseman in MLB who played fifteen seasons

Jordan Schafer – MLB player

Ray Schalk – MLB catcher

Bobby Shantz – MLB pitcher

Scott Schebler – outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization

Bob Scheffing – baseball player, coach, manager and front-office executive

Max Scherzer – MLB pitcher

Curt Schilling – MLB pitcher

Ryan Schimpf – former LSU Tigers baseball and MLB infielder

Gus Schmelz – MLB manager

Jason Schmidt – MLB baseball pitcher

Mike Schmidt – former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman and Hall of Famer

Brian Schneider – MLB catcher

Red Schoendienst – former player, coach and manager in MLB

Scott Schoeneweis – MLB relief pitcher

Marge Schott – managing general partner, president and CEO of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds franchise, 1984–1999

Paul Schrieber – MLB umpire

Heinie Schuble – former MLB infielder

John Schuerholz – general manager of the Atlanta Braves

Joe Schultz – catcher, coach and manager in MLB

Joe Schultz, Sr – Joe "Germany" Schultz, outfielder and farm system director in MLB and a manager in minor league baseball

Skip Schumaker – outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals

Blackie Schwamb – former St. Louis Browns pitcher and contract killer

Kyle Schwarber – MLB catcher

J. B. Shuck – outfielder for the Chicago White Sox

John Smoltz – pitcher for the Atlanta Braves

Travis Snider – outfielder in MLB

Warren Spahn – Hall of Fame pitcher in MLB

Justin Speier – relief pitcher

Rusty Staub – MLB player for 23 seasons (1963–1985)

Terry Steinbach – former catcher in MLB

Hank Steinbrenner – art-owner and Senior Vice President of the New York Yankees, along with his brother Hal Steinbrenner

Harry Steinfeldt – MLB utility infielder

Casey Stengel – MLB player and manager, early 1910s – 1960s.

Stephen Strasburg – MLB pitcher

Bruce Sutter – Hall of Fame right-handed relief pitcher in MLB

Nick Swisher – infielder in MLB

Duke Snider – Hall of Fame MLB center fielder

Peter Ueberroth – executive, served as commissioner of MLB, 1984–1989

Bob Uecker – former MLB player and award-winning sportscaster, comedian, and actor

Frank Viola – former starting pitcher in MLB

Chris von der Ahe – entrepreneur and owner of the St. Louis Browns of the National League, now known as the Cardinals

Doug Waechter – MLB pitcher, currently a free agent

Billy Wagner – MLB closer

Heinie Wagner – former MLB shortstop for the New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox

Honus Wagner – former Pittsburgh Pirate Hall of Fame shortstop, manager and hitting instructor

Bill Wambsganss – second baseman in MLB

Duke Welker – MLB pitcher

Jayson Werth – MLB outfielder

Vic Wertz – former MLB first baseman and outfielder

Hoyt Wilhelm – Hall of Fame knuckleball pitcher in MLB

Nick Wittgren – pitcher with the Miami Marlins

Shawn Wooten – former MLB player

Michael Wuertz – MLB pitcher

Ryan Zimmerman – MLB player

Jordan Zimmermann – MLB pitcher

Ben Zobrist – MLB second baseman

Bill Zuber – MLB pitcher, 1936–1947

Football

John Alt – former offensive tackle in the NFL

Kroy Biermann – NFL defensive end

Dave Butz – NFL defensive lineman, selected to the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team

Gunther Cunningham – football defensive coordinator for the NFL Kansas City Chiefs

Fritz Crisler – NCAA football coach

David Diehl – football player and NFL offensive lineman

Dan Dierdorf – former NFL football player and current television sportscaster

Conrad Dobler – former offensive lineman

Chris Doering – former college and professional football player; wide receiver in the NFL

Dave Duerson – safety in the NFL, two-time Super Bowl Champion

Zach Ertz – tight end in the NFL

Kirk Ferentz – head coach of University of Iowa Hawkeyes football

Jared Goff – quarterback

Bob Griese – Hall of Fame quarterback

Al Groh – NCCA Virginia football head coach and former NFL coach

Hinkey Haines – NFL player and MLB player

Don Hasselbeck – NFL

Matt Hasselbeck – NFL football player

Tim Hasselbeck – ESPN analyst and former professional quarterback

Keith Heinrich – NFL tight end

John Heisman – football player, coach, and namesake of the Heisman Trophy

Kirk Herbstreit – former Ohio State University quarterback and analyst for ESPN's College GameDay

Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch – running back and receiver for the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Rockets, nicknamed for his unusual running style

Domenik Hixon – NFL wide receiver

Jeff Hostetler – former NFL quarterback

Harvey Jablonsky – football player and U.S Army Veteran who was a 'highly decorated veteran' of both World War II and later in his career the Vietnam War, elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1978

Brett Keisel – defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Dan Kreider – fullback in the NFL

Dave Krieg – former NFL Seattle Seahawks quarterback

Clint Kriewaldt – linebacker in the NFL

Luke Kuechly – linebacker in the National Football League

John Kuhn – fullback, currently playing for the Green Bay Packers

Kory Lichtensteiger – NFL center

Lex Luger – former football player and professional wrestler

Todd Marinovich – former NFL American and Canadian football quarterback

Zach Mettenberger – LSU and NFL quarterback

Christian Mohr – NFL defensive end

Nesser Brothers – group of football playing brothers who helped make up the most famous football family in the United States, 1907–mid-1920s

John Nesser: born April 25, 1875 in Triere, Germany, and died August 1, 1931, in Columubus, Ohio

John Peter Nesser: born October 22, 1877 in Triere, Germany, and died May 29, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio

Philipp Gregory Nesser: born December 10, 1880, in Triere, Germany, and died May 9, 1959, in Columbus, Ohio

Theodore H. (Ted) Nesser: born April 8, 1883, in Dennison, Ohio, and died June 7, 1941, in Columbus, Ohio

Frederick William Nesser: born September 10, 1887, in Columbus, Ohio, and died July 2, 1967, in Columbus, Ohio

Francis Raymond (Frank) Nesser: born June 3, 1889, in Columbus, Ohio, and died January 1, 1953, in Columbus, Ohio

Alfred Louis Nesser: born June 6, 1893, in Columbus, Ohio, and died March 11, 1967, in Columbus, Ohio

Raymond Joseph Nesser: born March 22, 1898, in Columbus, Ohio, and died September 2, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio

Rick Neuheisel – football coach

Ray Nitschke – Hall of Fame football player

Brock Osweiler – NFL quarterback

Tyler Ott – long snapper

Jim Otto – former Oakland Raider offensive lineman

Robin Pflugrad – college football coach

Ricky Proehl – former NFL wide receiver, two-time Super Bowl Champion

George Ratterman – former player in the All-America Football Conference and the NFL

Ben Roethlisberger – Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback of Swiss-German descent, two-time Super Bowl Champion

George Sauer – former American football player, coach, college sports administrator, and professional football executive

George Sauer, Jr. – wide receiver who played six seasons for the American Football League's New York Jets

Matt Schaub – NFL quarterback

Bo Schembechler – former NCAA football coach at the University of Michigan

Anthony Schlegel – former linebacker

Cory Schlesinger – NFL fullback

Blake Schlueter – former American football and NCAA TCU center

Francis Schmidt – college football coach inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

Joe Schmidt – former 1950s NFL football player and coach

Owen Schmitt – NFL fullback

John Schneider – professional American football player in the Ohio League and the early National Football League for the Columbus Panhandles

John Schneider – professional American football executive

Joe Schobert – linebacker

Turk Schonert – former NFL quarterback

Jay Schroeder – former professional quarterback in the NFL

Geoff Schwartz – NFL offensive lineman

Jim Schwartz – NFL head coach

Stephen Spach – NFL tight end

Matt Spaeth – tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Roger Staubach – Heisman Trophy winner and Hall of Fame quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys

Eric Steinbach – NFL offensive lineman

Zach Strief – NFL offensive lineman

Zach Sudfeld – NFL tight end

Nate Sudfeld – quarterback

Mike Tannenbaum – professional football executive, who is currently the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Miami Dolphins and former general manager for the New York Jets

Jim Tressel – college head football coach

Brian Urlacher – Pro Bowl linebacker for the Chicago Bears

Sebastian Vollmer – NFL offensive Lineman

Kimo von Oelhoffen – NFL linebacker

Uwe von Schamann – former NFL kicker

Mike Wagner – safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, 1971–1980; member of the famed Steel Curtain defense; played in two Pro Bowls

Charlie Weis – NFL football coach

Wes Welker – NFL wide receiver, punt returner, and kick returner

Carson Wentz – football quarterback for the North Dakota State Bison

Björn Werner – NFL linebacker

Matt Wilhelm – NFL linebacker

Danny Wuerffel – former NFL quarterback and 1996 Heisman Trophy winner

Zach Zenner – NFL running back

Jim Zorn – Seattle Seahawks quarterback

Basketball

Uwe Blab – former NBA center

Dirk Nowitzki – German player for Dallas Mavericks in NBA who applied for U.S. citizenship in 2011

Jim Boeheim – Syracuse University NCAA basketball coach

Carlos Boozer – professional basketball player born in West Germany in an U.S. Army base

Shawn Bradley – former center in the NBA and for the German national basketball team

Carl Braun – professional basketball player and coach

Jon Brockman – professional basketball player

Jud Buechler – former guard/forward with the NBA Chicago Bulls

Jon Diebler – professional basketball player

Demond Greene – professional basketball player for the German national team

Fred Hetzel – retired NBA basketball player

Kirk Hinrich – NBA guard for the Chicago Bulls

Phil Jackson – New York Knicks team president, former NBA player and coach; Jackson's mother was part of a GermanMennonite family

Chris Kaman – center for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA and for the German national basketball team (dual citizen of the United States and of Germany)

Lon Kruger – professional and college basketball coach

Jon Leuer – professional basketball player

Rebecca Lobo – television basketball analyst and a former player in the professional Women's National Basketball Association

Drew Neitzel – All-American NCAA basketball player

Jeff Neubauer – Western Kentucky University NCAA basketball coach

Greg Ostertag – NBA center

Steve Prohm – college basketball coach

Anthony Randolph – professional basketball player born in West Germany in an U.S. Army base

Adolph Rupp – college basketball coach and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member

Detlef Schrempf – former NBA All-Star forward

Akeem Vargas – professional basketball player for the German national team

Jeff Walz – head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Louisville

Ice hockey

David Backes – professional hockey player in the NHL

Christian Ehrhoff – professional hockey player in the NHL

Jack Eichel – professional hockey player in the NHL

Gabe Guentzel - professional ice hockey player

Chris Kreider – hockey player

Cody Lampl - professional ice hockey player

Jamie Langenbrunner – NHL and U.S. Olympic hockey player

Peter Mueller – Professional hockey player in the NHL

Jed Ortmeyer – professional hockey player

Rob Schremp – professional hockey player

Jordan Schroeder – ice hockey player

RJ Umberger – professional hockey player in the NHL

Dennis Seidenberg – professional hockey player in the NHL

Tim Schaller – professional hockey player in the NHL

Wrestling, mixed martial arts, and boxing

Max Baer – boxer, heavyweight champion of the world

Mac Danzig – professional mixed martial arts fighter and instructor, and is a former lightweight champion for the King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge mixed martial arts organizations

Harry Greb – boxer, Middleweight champion

April Hunter – professional wrestler, professional wrestling valet and fitness and glamour model

David Schultz – retired professional wrestler, known by his ring name "Dr. D"

Ryan Schultz – professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, currently fighting for the Portland Wolfpack of the International Fight League

Chael Sonnen – professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, politician and actor

Gus Sonnenberg – professional wrestler and boxer

Soccer

Nicole Barnhart – Olympic medalist and professional soccer player

Kyle Beckerman – midfielder

Justin Braun – forward for Chivas USA

Eric Brunner – soccer player who currently plays for Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer

Rachel Buehler – Olympic medalist and professional soccer player

Timothy Chandler – mother from Germany

Jimmy Conrad – center back

Dietrich Albrecht – U.S. national team

Thomas Dooley – long-time member and former captain of the United States national team

Greg Eckhardt – American soccer player in Finland

Whitney Engen – professional soccer player

Brad Friedel – U.S. National Team, Premier League goalkeeper for Aston Villa

Julian Green – professional soccer player

Marcus Hahnemann – soccer goalkeeper for the U.S. National Team and Wovlerhampton Wanderers in the Premier League

Aaron Hohlbein – soccer player who currently plays for Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League

David Horst – soccer player currently playing for Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer

Kasey Keller – goalkeeper

Jerome Kiesewetter – forward currently playing for VfB Stuttgart in the Fußball-Bundesliga in Germany

Meghan Klingenberg – professional soccer player

Ali Krieger – professional soccer player

Fabian Johnson – professional soccer player for the U.S. national team, born and raised in Berlin

Steven Lenhart – soccer player for the Columbus Crew

Joanna Lohman – professional soccer player

Chris Rolfe – American soccer player playing in Denmark

Sigi Schmid – Major League Soccer manager

Chris Seitz – goalkeeper for the Philadelphia Union

Jonathan Spector – Soccer (football) player for the U.S. National Team and West Ham United in the Premier League

Seth Stammler – plays for the New York Red Bulls

Taylor Twellman – retired soccer player due to injuries

Abby Wambach – Olympic medalist and professional soccer player

Andrew Wiedeman – currently plays for FC Dallas in Major League Soccer

Josh Wolff – forward, currently a free agent

Golf

Jason Dufner – professional golfer and 2013 PGA Championship winner

Walter Hagen – golf legend

Jack Nicklaus – professional golfer; won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 24 years

Jordan Spieth – professional golfer, 2015 Masters Tournament winner with a score of 18 under par

Tom Weiskopf – professional golfer

Other sports

Lisa Aukland – professional bodybuilder and powerlifter

Earl W. Bascom – professional rodeo cowboy, inductee in several rodeo halls of fame

Tony Bettenhausen and his race-driving sons Gary, Tony Jr., and Merle; Tony was at times nicknamed "Der Panzer" due to his ancestry and driving style

Jana Bieger – two-time World Champion artistic gymnast

Gretchen Bleiler – professional halfpipe snowboarder and pioneer

Greg Bretz – Olympic snowboarder

Dale Earnhardt – race car driver in NASCAR's top division

Gertrude Ederle – Olympic Gold Medal winner and first woman to swim the English Channel

George Eyser – gymnast who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics with a wooden leg

Bob Falkenburg – tennis star and 1948 Wimbledon Champion

Bobby Fischer – chess grandmaster and World chess champion between 1972–1975

Christopher Fogt – Army captain who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi as a member of the famed Team Night Train

Gretchen Fraser – alpine ski racer; first American to win an Olympic gold medal for skiing

Archie Hahn – sprinter in the early 20th century

J. R. Hildebrand – Formula One and IndyCar Series race car driver

Margaret Hoelzer – Olympic swimmer

Katie Hoff – Olympic medal-winning swimmer

Liezel Huber – professional tennis player

Mark Geiger – soccer referee in Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada, as well as CONCACAF and the World Cup

Harry Greb – professional boxer, nicknamed "The Pittsburgh Windmill", he was the American Light Heavyweight Champion, 1922–1923 and World Middleweight Champion, 1923–1926

Evel Knievel – motorcycle daredevil

Kimmie Meissner – U.S. national champion figure skater

Josef Newgarden – IndyCar Series driver, driving the 21 car for Ed Carpenter Racing

Jordan Niebrugge—amateur golfer currently playing collegiate golf at Oklahoma State University

Michael Phelps – swimmer; has won 16 Olympic medals

Craig Sager – sports journalist for TNT and TBS

Allison Schmitt – swimmer

Lacy Schnoor – Olympic skier

Mark Spitz – swimmer and Olympic gold medalist

Sara Studebaker – biathlete who has competed on the World Cup circuit

Dana Vollmer – swimmer and Olympic gold medalist

Lindsey Vonn – alpine skier

Thomas Vonn – alpine skier

Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone (1913–1996) – perhaps the best known pool player in the United States

Sam Warburg – retired tennis player

Dick Weber – bowling professional and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), father of Pete Weber

Pete Weber – bowling professional on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour

Richard Weiss – slalom canoer

Johnny Weissmuller – swimmer, Olympic gold medalist

Rasa von Werder – bodybuilder

John Whitlinger – former professional tennis player

Tami Whitlinger – former professional tennis player

First Ladies of the United States

(in order by their husband's presidency)

Lucretia Garfield

Ida Mckinley

Florence Harding

Pat Nixon

Rosalynn Carter

Barbara Bush

Others

Ann Dunham – anthropologist and mother of Barack Obama

Charles Bierbauer – senior White House correspondent for almost a decade during the Reagan and Bush Administrations

References

List of German Americans Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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