List of well-known German emigrants from the USA

This list of well-known German emigrants from the USA contains the names of well-known personalities who left Germany or one of the territorial states from which Germany emerged in order to settle permanently in the United States or in one of the colonies that made up the USA from 1776 have emerged.

The sorting criterion is the year of immigration to the United States. For people who emigrated before the founding of the German Reich (1871), the country of origin is given in brackets.

17th century

• 1660 - Jakob Leisler (1640–1691), colonist (Frankfurt)
• 1668 - John Lederer (* 1644), explorer (Hamburg)
• 1683 - Franz Daniel Pastorius (1651–1719), writer, settler (Würzburg)
• 1687 - Wilhelm Rittenhausen (1644–1708), settler, papermaker (Duchy of Berg)

18th century

1701-1775

Henry Mühlenberg is considered to be the founder of the German-speaking Lutheran community in the British colonies.

• 1702 - Jacob C. Gottschalk (1670–1763), Mennonite leader (Brandenburg)
• 1708 - Josua Harrsch alias Kocherthal (1669–1719), pastor (Electoral Palatinate)
• 1709 - Conrad Weiser (1696–1760), settler (Württemberg)
• 1710 - John Peter Zenger (1697–1746), publicist and publisher (Palatinate)
• 1720 - Johann Conrad Beissel (1691–1768), religious leader (Electoral Palatinate)
• 1737 - John Heister, father of Pennsylvania Governor Joseph Heister (Silesia)
• 1738 - John Reister (1715–1804), settler, founder of Reisterstown , Maryland
• 1741 - Hans Nicolaus Eisenhauer, ancestor of Dwight D. Eisenhower (Nassau-Saarbrücken)
• 1742 - Henry Melchior Mühlenberg (1711–1787), Lutheran clergyman (Hanover)
• 1746 - John Christopher Hartwick (1714–1796), Lutheran clergyman, founder of Hartwick College (Saxony-Gotha)
• 1749 - Henry Stauffer (1724–1777), settler (Worms)
• 1750 - Henry William Stiegel (1729–1785), glassblower (Cologne)
• 1755 - Bodo Otto (1711–1787), surgeon
• 1770 - Johann Christoph Kunze (1744–1807), missionary (Saxony)
• 1775 - David Ziegler (1748–1811), officer (Electoral Palatinate)

1776-1800

• 1777 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730–1794), officer (Prussia)
• 1784 - John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), entrepreneur (Electoral Palatinate)

19th century

1801-1847

The entrepreneur Levi Strauss from Buttenheim is considered to be the inventor of blue jeans.

• 1817 - Joseph Bimeler (actually: Bäumler; 1778-1853), religious leader, founder of Zoar (Ohio) (Württemberg)
• 1824 - Karl Follen (1796–1840), writer (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
• 1825 - Emanuel Leutze (1816–1868), painter (Württemberg)
• 1825 - Friedrich List (1789–1846), economic theorist (Free Imperial City of Reutlingen; Württemberg)
• 1827 - Francis Lieber (1800–1872), scholar (Prussia)
• 1831 - John August Roebling (1806–1869), engineer, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge (Mühlhausen / Thuringia)
• 1832 - Georg Engelmann (1809-1884), botanist (Frankfurt)
• 1832 - Theodor Engelmann (1808–1889), journalist, newspaper publisher (Palatinate)
• 1833 - Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), painter (Prussian Rhine Province)
• 1834 - Robert Justus Kleberg (1803–1888), lawyer (Westphalia)
• 1834 - Ferdinand Lindheimer (1801–1879), botanist (Frankfurt)
• 1834 - Albrecht von Roeder (1811–1857), settler (Westphalia)
• 1837 - Joseph (1819–1880) and James Seligman (1824–1916), bankers (Kingdom of Bavaria)
• 1839 - Martin Stephan (1777–1846), Protestant clergyman (Moravia)
• 1839 - Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (1811-1887), Protestant clergyman (Saxony)
• 1840 - Johann Hermann Sanning (1812–1880), master builder (Kingdom of Hanover)
• 1843 - Charles Wimar (1828–1862), painter (Prussian Rhine Province)
• 1844 - Hans von Specht (1825–1913), settler (Braunschweig)
• 1844–1850 Hayum (Henry) Lehman , co-founder of the Lehman Brothers bank ( Rimpar near Würzburg )
• 1844–1850 Mendel (Emmanuel) Lehman , co-founder of the Lehman Brothers bank ( Rimpar near Würzburg )
• 1844–1850 Maier (Mayer) Lehman , co-founder of the Lehman Brothers bank ( Rimpar near Würzburg )
• 1845 - Wilhelm Victor Keidel (1825–1870), doctor (Hanover)
• 1845 - Heinrich Rattermann (1832–1923), writer, magazine publisher (Kingdom of Hanover)
• before 1846 - Ottmar von Behr (1810-1856), settler (Anhalt-Köthen)
• 1846 - Hermann Rogalla von Bieberstein (1823–1906), politician (Silesia)
• 1846 - Hermann Ferdinand Rogalla von Bieberstein (1824–1907), geodesist (Silesia)
• 1846 - Wilhelm Weitling (1808–1871), socialist activist (Province of Saxony in Prussia)
• 1847 - Levi Strauss (1829–1902), textile entrepreneur (Bavaria)

1848-1853

Karl Pfizer founded what is now the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, in Brooklyn in 1849 .

1848

• Adolf Cluss (1825–1905), architect (Württemberg; Prussian Rhine Province)
• Marcus Goldman (1821–1904), banker, together with Samuel Sachs co-founder of Goldman Sachs (Lower Franconia, Kingdom of Bavaria)
• Friedrich Hecker (1811–1881), politician (Baden)
• William Pfaender (* 1826), founder of New Ulm (Minnesota) (Württemberg)
• Severin Roesen (around 1815-after 1872), painter (Prussian Rhine Province)
• Paul Weber (1823–1916), painter
• around 1848 - Karl Pfizer (1824–1906), pharmaceutical entrepreneur (Württemberg)

1849

• Fritz Anneke (1818–1872), officer and socialist activist (Prussia; Palatinate), and Mathilde Franziska Anneke (1817–1884), writer, women's rights activist (Westphalia; Palatinate)
• Emil Annecke (1823–1888), lawyer, journalist (Westphalia)
• Wilhelm Heine (1827–1885), painter (Saxony)
• Ferdinand von Herff (1820–1912), doctor (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
• Salomon Loeb (1828–1903), banker (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
• Ernst Kapp (1808-1896), scholar (Bavaria; Westphalia)
• Nicola Marschall (1829-1917), painter (Prussian Rhine Province)
• Charles Christian Nahl (1818–1878), painter (Electorate of Hesse)
• Thomas Nast (1840–1902), political cartoonist (Palatinate)
• Peter Joseph Osterhaus (1823–1917), officer, diplomat (Prussian Rhine Province)
• August Schönborn (1827–1902), architect (Province of Saxony in Prussia)
• August Willich (1810–1878), officer, socialist activist (East Prussia)

1850

• Lorenz Brentano (1813-1891), politician, diplomat (Baden)
• Elkan Naumburg (1835–1924), banker (Bavaria)
• Eduard Georg Schröter (1811-1888), Protestant clergyman (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
• Adolph Sutro (1830–1898), Mayor of San Francisco (Prussia)
• after 1850 - Robert Koehler (1850–1917), painter (Hamburg)

1851

• Leopold von Gilsa (1824–1870), officer (Prussia)
• August Siemering (1830–1883), journalist, newspaper publisher (Prussia)
• Heinrich Steinweg (1797–1871), piano manufacturer (Kingdom of Hanover)
• Gustav Struve (1805–1870), political activist (Bavaria; Baden)
• Joseph Weydemeyer (1818–1866), journalist, politician

The revolutionary Carl Schurz, who was born in the Prussian Rhine Province , was US Interior Minister from 1877 to 1881.

1852

• Frederick Beinhorn , founder of New Ulm, Minnesota (Württemberg)
• Adolph Douai (1819–1888), scholar, journalist, newspaper publisher (Sachsen-Altenburg)
• Carl Schurz (1829–1906), politician (Prussian Rhine Province)
• Franz Sigel (1824–1902), officer (Baden)
• Friedrich Weyerhäuser (1834–1914), timber entrepreneur (Rheinhessen)

1853

• Heinrich Hilgard (1835–1900), railway magnate (Palatinate)
• Abraham Jacobi (1830–1919), pediatrician, founder of American pediatrics
• Rudolph Melchior (1836–1867), settler (Prussian Province of Saxony)
• Andreas Friedrich Trenckmann (1809–1883), settler (Prussian Province of Saxony)

1854-1870

• 1854 - Hans Kudlich (1823–1917) Member of the first German National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt (Silesia)
• 1854 - Dankmar Adler (1844–1900), architect (Thuringia)
• 1855 - Adolf Neuendorff (1843–1897), composer (Hamburg)
• 1857 - Samuel Adler (1809-1891), Reform Rabbi (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
• 1857 - Peter Conrad Nagel (1825–1911), Catholic clergyman (Westphalia)
• 1858 - John Janssen (1835–1913), Catholic clergyman (Prussian Rhine Province)
• 1859 - Edward Sobolewski (1808–1872), composer (East Prussia)
• 1864 - Oscar Hammerstein I (1847-1919), theater producer (Province of Pomerania in Prussia)
• 1865 - George Henry Griebel (1846–1933), architect (Prussia)
• 1865 - Jakob Heinrich Schiff , banker (Frankfurt)
• 1866 - Henry Morgenthau senior (1856–1946), diplomat (Palatinate)
• 1867 - Moses Alexander (1853–1932), politician (Bavaria)
• 1868 - Adolph Coors (1847–1929), brewery entrepreneur (Prussia)
• 1868 - Bernhard Ziehn (1845–1912), musicologist (Thuringia)
• 1868 - Wilhelm Böing , father of William Edward Boeing , born as Wilhelm Eduard Böing, founder of the Boeing aircraft factory (Limburg an der Lenne (today the Hohenlimburg district of Hagen ) in the Sauerland )

1871–1900 (German Empire)

Walter Damrosch came to the USA at the age of 9 and became a conductor and composer like his father Leopold Damrosch.

• 1871 - Leopold Damrosch (1832–1885), conductor
• 1871 - Walter Damrosch (1862–1950), conductor
• 1872 - Maximilian Berlitz (1852–1921), language teacher
• 1872 - Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854–1899), inventor
• 1872 - August Spies (1855–1887), journalist, socialist functionary
• 1873 - Augusta Holtz (1871–1986), German-American age record holder
• 1873 - Joseph Herzfeld (1853–1939), politician
• 1873 - Friedrich Gretsch (1856–1895), producer of tambourines, banjos and drums, later guitars
• 1877 - Antonio Knauth (1855–1915), lawyer
• 1880 - Otto Reimer (1841–1892), trade unionist, politician
• 1881 - Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche (1825–1905), trade unionist, politician
• 1881 - Wilhelm Hasselmann (1844–1916), politician
• 1881 - Charles Martin Loeffler (1861–1935), composer
• 1881 - Julius Vahlteich (1839–1915), politician
• 1882 - Lee Lawrie (1877–1963), sculptor
• 1882 - Johann Most (1846–1906), politician
• 1884 - Carl Laemmle (1867–1939), film producer
• 1884 - Alfred Wagenknecht (1881–1956), politician
• 1885 - August and Friedrich Düsenberg , founders of the Duesenberg Motor Company (DMC)
• 1885 - Robert F. Wagner (1877–1953), politician
• 1885 - Friedrich Trump (1869–1918), entrepreneur
• 1887 - Ehrhardt Koch (1886–1954), manufacturer
• 1888 - Adolph Germer (1881–1964), politician
• 1889 - Charles P. Steinmetz (1865–1923), electrical engineer
• 1890s - Max Davidson (1895–1950), film actor
• 1891 - Hugo Bertsch (1851–1935), writer
• 1891 - Jacques Loeb (1859–1924), physiologist
• 1891 - Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943), composer
• 1893 - Otto Hermann Kahn (1867–1934)
• 1893 - LE Katterfeld (1881–1974), politician
• 1895 - Arnold Genthe (1869–1942), photographer
• 1895 - Friedrich August Stock (1872–1942), conductor
• 1896 - Louis Viereck (1851–1922), politician, journalist

20th century

1901-1918

• 1902 - Paul Moritz (1868–1932) and James Warburg (1896–1969), bankers
• 1903 - Richard Hellmann (1876–1971), entrepreneur
• 1906 - Emerenz Meier 1874–1928, writer
• 1907 - Max Kade (1882–1967), pharmaceutical entrepreneur
• 1908 - Max Bedacht (1883–1972), politician
• before 1911 - John Steppling (1870–1932), film actor
• before 1911 - Leo White (1882–1948), actor
• before 1916 - Paul Weigel (1867–1951), film actor

1919-1932

Ernst Lubitsch, who immigrated in 1922, was one of the most important American film directors from the 1920s to 1940s.

• 1921 - William Wyler (1902–1981), film director
• 1922 - Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), film director
• 1923 - Otto Kuhler (1894–1977), industrial designer
• 1924 - Sig Ruman (1884–1967), actor
• 1925 - Uta Hagen (1919–2004), stage actress
• 1926 - Paul Mattick (1904–1981), political writer
• 1926 - Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (1888–1931), film director
• 1927 - Erich Pommer (1889–1966), film producer
• 1928 - Fritz Julius Kuhn (1896–1951), National Socialist politician
• 1929 - Felix Schlag (1891–1974), designer
• 1930 - William Dieterle (1893–1972), film director
• 1930 - Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992), film actress
• 1930 - Karen Horney (1885–1952), psychoanalyst
• 1931 - Hanya Holm (1893–1992), choreographer
• 1932 - Albert Einstein (1879–1955), physicist

1933-1938

1933

• Josef Albers (1888–1976), painter
• Kurt Bernhardt (1899–1981), film director
• James Franck (1882–1964), physicist
• Walter Fuchs (1891–1957), chemist
• George Grosz (1893–1959), painter
• Eduard Heimann (1889–1967), economist and social scientist
• Otto Klemperer (1885–1973), conductor
• Hertha Kraus (1897–1968), social scientist
• Kurt Rosenfeld (1877–1943), politician
• Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888–1973), legal historian, sociologist
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965), Protestant theologian

The philosopher Herbert Marcuse in 1955. Marcuse was teaching at Brandeis University in Massachusetts at the time .

1934

• Erich Fromm (1900–1980), psychoanalyst
• Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), philosopher
• Friedrich Kessler (1901–1998), lawyer
• Carl Landauer (1891–1983), economist
• Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), philosopher
• Rudolf Schindler (1888–1968), physician
• Gerhart Seger (1896–1967), politician, publicist
• Hans Simons (1893–1972), political scientist
• Hans Staudinger (1889–1980), politician, economist
• Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988), sociologist

1935

• Hans Bethe (1906–2005), physicist
• Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970), philosopher
• Rudolf Katz (1895–1961), politician
• Kurt Weill (1900–1950), composer
• Luise Rainer (1910–2014), stage and film actress

1936

• Käte Frankenthal (1889–1976), doctor, politician
• Karl Korsch (1886–1961), Marxist philosopher
• Henry Koster (1905–1988), film director
• Günther Anders (1902–1992), social philosopher
• Gabriel Steiner (1883–1965), physician, neurologist

1937

• Max Brauer (1887–1973), politician
• Max Delbrück (1906–1981), biophysicist
• Albert Grzesinski (1879–1947), trade unionist, Prussian Interior Minister
• Walter Gropius (1883–1969), architect
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), architect
• Arthur Rosenberg (1889–1943), historian, politician
• Reinhold Schünzel (1888–1954), film director
• Detlef Sierck (1897–1987), film director
• Wilhelm Sollmann (1881–1951), journalist, politician

The German writer Carl Zuckmayer had to flee Austria after the German invasion in 1938 because his mother came from a Jewish family.

1938

• Albert Bassermann (1867–1952), actor
• Oskar Maria Graf (1894–1967), writer
• Alexander Granach (1890–1945), actor
• Fritz Karsen (1885–1951), school reformer
• Henry Kissinger (* 1923), politician
• Lotte Lehmann (1888–1976), opera singer
• Karl Wilhelm Meissner (1891–1959), physicist
• Grete Mosheim (1905–1986), stage and film actress
• Lily Pringsheim (1887–1954), politician
• Leo Reuss (1891–1946) actor
• Will Schaber (1905–1996), journalist, publicist
• Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977), writer

1939-1945

1939

• Adolf Busch (1891–1952), violinist
• Ossip K. Flechtheim (1909–1998), political scientist
• Ernst Fraenkel (1898–1975), political scientist
• Hugo Heimann (1859–1951), politician
• Thomas Mann (1875–1955), writer
• Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970), writer
• Robert Siodmak (1900–1973), film director
• Bruno Walter (1876–1962), conductor

1940

• Rudolf Arnheim (1904–2007), film theorist
• Hermann Budzislawski (1901–1978), journalist, media scientist
• Max Frankel (* 1930), journalist
• Arcadius Rudolf Lang Gurland (1904–1979), political scientist
• Ernst Hamburger (1890–1980), politician
• Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), composer
• Emil Kirschmann (1888–1948), politician
• Heinrich Mann (1871–1950), writer
• Siegfried Marck (1889–1957), philosopher
• Herbert (1896–1983) and Elsbeth Weichmann (1900–1988), politicians and politicians
• Franz Werfel (1890–1945), writer

1941

• Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), philosopher
• Georg Bernhard (1875–1944), publicist
• Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), writer
• Max Ernst (1891–1976), painter
• Gustav Ferl (1890–1970), politician
• Lion Feuchtwanger (1884–1958), writer
• Norbert Mühlen (1909–1981), publicist
• Walter Oettinghaus (1883–1950), trade unionist, politician
• Georg Reinbold (1885–1946), politician
• Rosi Wolfstein (1888–1987), politician

1943

• Klaus Fuchs (1911–1988), nuclear physicist

1945

• Lilli Palmer (1914–1986), film actress

1946-2000

• 1946 - Alexander Lippisch (1894–1976) aircraft designer
• 1946 - Fritz Baade (1893–1974), economist, politician
• 1946 - Fritz Perls (1893–1970), psychoanalyst, gestalt therapist
• 1947 - Max Beckmann (1884–1950), painter
• 1947 - Hubertus Strughold (1898–1986) aviation physician
• 1947 - Ulrich Cameron Luft (1910–1991) physiologist and university professor
• 1949 - Wernher von Braun (1912–1977), rocket designer
• 1950 - Richard Exner (1929–2008), literary scholar and poet
• 1953 - Harry Groener (* 1951), television actor
• 1953 - Peter Max (* 1937), painter
• 1957 - Sigi Schmid (1953-2018), football coach
• 1959 - Horst Saalbach (* 1938), top manager and president of Festo-USA
• 1959 - Eric Braeden (* 1941), television actor
• 1962 - Margot Scharpenberg (* 1924), writer
• 1964 - Elke Sommer (* 1940), film actress
• 1967 - Reinhard Lettau (1929–1996), writer
• 1967 - Simon Ungers (1957-2006), architect
• 1968 - Peter Thiel (* 1967) computer scientist and investor
• 1974 - Elisabeth Röhm (* 1973), television actress
• 1975 - Andreas von Bechtolsheim (* 1955), computer scientist and entrepreneur
• 1989 - Armin Mueller-Stahl (* 1930), actor
• 1991 - Udo Kier (* 1944), film actor
• 1993 - Heidi Klum (* 1973), model
• 1994 - David D. Stern (* 1956), painter
• 1995 - Werner Herzog (* 1942), film director
• 1998 - Jürgen Klinsmann (* 1964) football player and coach

Since 2001

• 2004 - Konny Reimann (* 1955), entrepreneur
• 2005 - Cornelia Funke (* 1958), writer
• 2008 - Klaus Kleinfeld (* 1957), manager
• 2011 - Jordan Carver (* 1986), photo and glamor model
• 2011 - Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (* 1971), former politician

See also

• List of well-known German-speaking emigrants and exiles (1933–1945)
• History of the Germans in the United States
• German American
• List of American Swiss

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Heister
2. ↑ Joseph Bimeler
3. ↑ Udo Kier - Biography ( English ) Yahoo . Retrieved February 25, 2012.