List of bearers of the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon

This list includes holders of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in the category Great Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon with brief information about the person.

A.

Wolfgang Altenburg , General (1989)
Karl Joseph Alter , Archbishop of Cincinnati, Chairman of the American Bishops' Conference (1953)
Bernard Andreae , archaeologist (2008)

B.

Francesco Babuscio Rizzo , Ambassador (1954)
Daniel Barenboim , pianist and conductor (2013)
Wolf Graf von Baudissin , General and Peace Researcher (1967)
Rudolf Beckmann , entrepreneur and politician (1973)
Johannes Georg Bednorz , physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1988)
Berthold Beitz , entrepreneur and sports official (1979)
Lennart Bernadotte , President of the German Horticultural Society, owner of the Mainau Flower Island (1958)
Philipp von Bismarck , politician, chairman of the CDU Economic Council (1991)
Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde , judge (2016)
Wolfgang Böhmer , Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt (2007)
Volker Bouffier , Prime Minister of Hesse (2018)
Karl Branner , Lord Mayor (1990)
Hans Brox , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1975)
Brun-Otto Bryde , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (2011)

C.

Peter Harry Carstensen , politician (2013)
Mathias Cormann , Belgian-Australian politician (2018)

D.

Max Danz , Chairman of the German Athletics Association (1989)
Karl Josef Denzer , President of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia (1989)
Udo Di Fabio , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (2011)
Günter Diehl , diplomat (1986)

E.

Erwin Josef Ender , Nuncio in Germany (2007)
Mohammed el-Baradei , Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2010)

F.

Josef Felder , politician (1990)
Artur Fischer , entrepreneur and inventor (2006)
Adolf Flecken , politician (1957)
Friedrich Flick , entrepreneur (1963)
Manuel Fraga Iribarne , Spanish politician (1969)
Wolfgang Frühwald , literary scholar (2010)
Jockel Fuchs , politician, Lord Mayor of Mainz (1987)

G

Reinhard Gaier , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (2016)
Reinhard Gehlen , Major General, first President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) (1968)
Hans-Dietrich Genscher , politician (1975)
Johannes Gerster , politician, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Israel (1999)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , politician (1965)
Leonhard Gleske , economist (1989)
Günther Granser , President of the International Council of OIER (1998)
Dieter Grimm , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1999)
Martin Grüner , German politician (1983)

H

Karl Haager , Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1979)
Evelyn Haas , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (2006)
Hanns Haberer , politician (1955)
Otto Hahn , nuclear chemist, Nobel Prize winner 1944 (1954)
Hamengkubuwono IX. , Sultan (1963)
Hildegard Hamm-Brücher , politician (1993)
Wilhelm Hausenstein , diplomat (1952)
Karl Heck , Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1965)
Werner Heisenberg , physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1964)
Anton Henneka , Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1968)
Franz Hengsbach , Cardinal, Bishop of Essen (1973)
Karl Herz , State Secretary (1963)
Adolf Heusinger , General, Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (1963)
Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt , judge (2011)
Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem , Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (2008)
Wildor Hollmann , sports medicine specialist (2000)
Gerhart Holzinger , Austrian constitutional judge (2017)
Wolfgang Huber , Bishop (2007)
Dieter Hundt , entrepreneur and BDA President (2007)
Rudolf Hüttebräuker , politician and State Secretary (1966)

J

Gerhard Jahn , Federal Minister of Justice (1984)
Hans-Joachim Jentsch , Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court (2006)
Jean-Claude Juncker , Luxembourg politician (1988)
Ernst Jünger , author (1985)

K

Hugo Karpf , politician (1991)
Walter Kasper , Cardinal (2004)
Hans Katzer , politician (CDU) (1973)
Wolfgang Ketterle , physicist (2001)
Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg , General (1968)
Paul Kirchhof , lawyer, university lecturer and judge (1999)
Kurt Koch , Cardinal (2016)
Roland Koch , politician (CDU) (2007)
Erich Köhler , politician (CDU) (1957)
Hannelore Kraft , Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia (2018)
Heinz Kühn , politician (SPD) (1967)

L.

Giovanni Lajolo , Apostolic Nuncio in Germany (2003)
Julius von Lautz , Minister of the Interior and Justice of the Saarland (1967)
Georg Leber , Federal Minister (1973)
Hans Ledwinka , Austrian automobile designer (1965)
Eugen Leibfried , Baden-Württemberg Minister for Food, Agriculture, Viticulture and Forests (1962)
Karl Lehmann , Cardinal and Bishop of Mainz, Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (2001)
Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff , legal scholar (2014)
Irene Ludwig , art patron (2007)
Peter Ludwig , industrialist, art patron (1992)
Günter Luther , Admiral (1982)

M.

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz , nuclear physicist, President of the German Research Foundation (1991)
Kurt Masur , conductor and orchestra leader (2007)
David D. McKiernan , American General, Commander US Army Europe (2008)
Joachim Meisner , Cardinal and Archbishop of Cologne (2003)
Georg Meistermann , painter, draftsman and graphic artist (1990)
Rudolf Mellinghoff , Richter (2011)
Andreas Meyer-Landrut , diplomat (2002)
Peter Müller , Prime Minister of Saarland (2007)
Karl Münchinger , conductor (1985)
Michelle Muscat , First Lady of Malta (2015)

N

Tyll Necker , President of the BDI (1990)
Engelbert Niebler , judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (1987)
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard , developmental biologist, Nobel Prize winner (2003)

O

Walter Odersky , President of the Federal Court of Justice (1996)
Albert Osswald , Prime Minister of Hesse (1975)
Lerke Osterloh , judge (2010)

P

Wolfgang Paul , physicist, Nobel Laureate (1989)
Matthias Platzeck , politician (2011)
Hippolyt Poschinger von Frauenau , entrepreneur, forest manager and politician (1978)
Hans-Gert Pöttering , President of the European Parliament (2010)
Avi Primor , Israeli diplomat and publicist (2003)
Martin Purtscher , Austrian politician, Governor of Vorarlberg (1996)

R.

Konrad Raiser , Protestant theologian (2004)
Joseph Ratzinger , Cardinal (1985)
Kurt Rebmann , Attorney General (1990)
Janusz Reiter , Polish diplomat (1995)
Harald Ringstorff , Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2007)
Manfred Rommel , Lord Mayor of Stuttgart (1996)
Joachim Rottmann , Honorary Professor, Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court (1983)
Heinz Rühmann , actor (1972)
Friedrich Ruge , Inspector of the German Navy and military writer (1961)

S.

Grete Schickedanz , entrepreneur (1991)
Karl Schiller , economist and politician (1991)
Wilhelm Schluckebier , judge (2017)
Peter Schmidhuber , politician, EU commissioner (1995)
Erich Schneider , politician (1992)
Ernst Schneider , entrepreneur and association official (1969)
Josef Schneider , Archbishop of Bamberg (1960)
Nikolaus Schneider , Chairman of the Council of the EKD (2015)
Oscar Schneider , politician (2002)
Ottomar Schreiber , politician (1954)
Martin Schulz , politician (2016)
Otto Seidl , lawyer (1998)
Erwin Sellering , Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2018)
Hermann Otto Solms , politician (FDP) (2019)
Hans Speidel , General (1963)
Rudolf Seiters , politician and DRK President (2018)
Friedrich Spennrath , government official and industry manager (1956)
Helmut Steinberger , Judge, Vice-President of the OSCE Court of Arbitration (1987)
Udo Steiner , lawyer (2007)
Hans Stempel , Church President of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (1956)
Fritz Stern , German-American historian (2006)
Georg Sterzinsky , Archbishop of Berlin and Cardinal (2000)

T

Christine Teusch , Minister of Education in North Rhine-Westphalia (1956)
Stanislaw Tillich , Prime Minister of Saxony (2018)
Rudolf Titzck , Minister of the Interior and Finance in Schleswig-Holstein (1984)
Erkki Tuomioja , Finnish politician (2017)

V

Heinrich Vockel , economic politician (1957)

Wilhelm Vorwerk , entrepreneur and President of the IHK Wuppertal (1959)

W.

Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner , Member of the Reichstag and Bundestag (SPD), Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court (1964)
Wolfgang Wagner , opera director (2009)
Helene Weber , politician (center, CDU) (1961)
Gerhard Weiser , Baden-Württemberg Minister of Agriculture (1997)
Hans Weiß , politician (CSU), President of the Bavarian Senate from 1982 to 1993 (1984)
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , physicist, philosopher and peace researcher (1973)
Dieter Wellershoff , Admiral (1993)
Heinrich Welsch , politician
Friedrich Wetter , Cardinal and Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Chairman of the Bavarian Bishops' Conference (1993)
Bernhard Worms , politician (CDU), former State Secretary D. (1995)
Klaus Wowereit , politician (2011)

Z

Konrad Zuse , civil engineer and entrepreneur, designer of the first freely programmable computer (1995)