List of personalities of the city of Saalfeld / Saale

This list contains personalities born in Saalfeld / Saale . It is irrelevant whether they worked in Saalfeld afterwards. The list does not claim to be complete. Personalities related to the city are also listed.

Saalfeld was the residence of the dukes of Saxony-Saalfeld; they can be looked up in the article Sachsen-Saalfeld .

sons and daughters of the town

To 1900

• Richeza (995-1063), Queen of Poland
• Erasmus Reinhold (1511–1553), astronomer and mathematician
• Casper Pfreund (1517–1574), Mayor of Wittenberg
• Christoph Entzelt (1517–1583), theologian
• Caspar Ratzenberger (1533–1603), doctor and botanist
• Christian Schuchmann (1652–1719), city physician and member of the " Leopoldina " academy of scholars
• Christian Schlegel (1667–1722), numismatist, librarian, writer and member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences
• Christian Ernst (1683–1745), Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
• Sophie Wilhelmine (1693–1727), Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and married Princess of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• Franz Josias (1697–1764), Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
• Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721–1783), composer
• Johann Christoph Reinmann (1723–1761), physician and member of the " Leopoldina " academy of scholars
• Ernst Friedrich (1724–1800), Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
• Johann Salomo Semler (1725–1791), theologian
• Wilhelm Christian Oettel (1744-1829), superintendent
• Ludwig Hofmann (1798–1879), lawyer and politician
• Eduard Bohn (1804–1866), senior teacher, archdeacon and pastor in Saalfeld
• Rudolf Heinze (1825–1896), legal scholar, parliamentarian and university professor
• Maximilian von Oberländer (1834–1898), German administrative and fiscal lawyer
• Albert Weidemann (1848–1922), privy councilor and military director
• Karl Friedrich Geldner (1852–1929), orientalist
• Hermann Pröscholdt (1852–1898), geologist and teacher
• Wilhelm Köhler (1852–1924), church musician
• Ewald Schulz (1856–1942), music director
• Franz Itting (1875–1967), industrialist
• Willy Starcke (1880–1945), entrepreneur
• Edmund Kurt Heller (1884–1954), Germanist in Mexico and the USA
• Alfred Zürtz (1884–1957), district administrator and member of the state parliament
• Hugo Eberlein (1887–1941), politician (SPD, USPD, KPD)
• Max Jüttner (1888–1963), Deputy Chief of Staff of the SA and member of the Reichstag
• Hans Langelütke (1892–1972), economist
• Heinrich Schulz (1893–1979), officer and political assassin
• Hans Jüttner (1894–1965), SS general and head of the SS leadership main office
• Clara Döhring (1899–1987), politician (SPD)

From 1901

• Erich Trautsch (1904–1985), building contractor
• Paul Oßwald (1905–1993), football player and coach
• Hans-Werner Kraus (1915–1990), naval officer
• Berthold Heckscher (1917–1996), politician (SPD)
• Walter Jacobi (1918–2009), space pioneer
• Heinz Pfeiffer (1921–1994), geologist and paleontologist
• Karl Jüttner (1921–2006), sculptor
• Ludwig Engelhardt (1924–2001), sculptor
• Hermann Kreutzer (1924–2007), politician (SPD), resistance fighter
• Ruedi Klapproth (1925–2012), youth writer
• Gudrun Thielemann (* 1926), actress
• Lothar Bock (* 1927), arts and crafts dealer, oldest member of a rococo costume group
• Leni Statz (* 1929), comedian
• Werner Hänold (1929–2007), GDR diplomat
• Ror Wolf (1932-2020), writer
• Renate Jüttner (* 1935), painter and pianist
• Carlo Hirschel (* 1936), painter, graphic artist and illustrator
• Peter Sylvester (1937–2007), painter and graphic artist
• Horst Sakulowski (* 1943), painter
• Paul Drechsel (* 1944), cultural scientist
• Jürgen Pretzsch (1949–2014), town planner and graphic artist
• Harald Mitteldorf (* 1950), archivist and historian
• Thomas Hartmann (1952–2019), choreographer and dancer
• Christine Lehder (* 1952), politician (SPD)
• Harald Stauch (* 1953), politician (CDU)
• Reinhard Pfeiffer (* 1954), metal sculptor
• Reinhard Jahn (* 1955), writer, pseudonym Hanns-Peter Karr
• Andrea Rugbarth (* 1957), graduate engineer, politician (SPD), member of the Hamburg Parliament
• Petra Felke (* 1959), track and field athlete
• Michael Schönheit (* 1961), conductor, conductor, organist
• Andrea Fleischer (* 1963), long-distance runner
• Antje Kempe (* 1963), track and field athlete
• Heike Tischler (* 1964), athlete
• Christian Lippold (* 1965), transport scientist
• Ingo Garschke (1965–2010), professor for artistic anatomy and nature studies at the HGB-Leipzig, sculptor and graphic artist
• Grit Haupt-Hammer (* 1966), shot put
• Hans-Joachim Mentzel (* 1966), Professor of Pediatric Radiology
• Olaf Holetschek (* 1968), footballer
• Britta Bilač (* 1968), high jumper
• Wolfram Grandezka (* 1969), actor
• Marko Wolfram (* 1974), local politician (SPD) and district administrator of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
• Susann Müller (* 1988), handball player
• Charles Franzke (* 1992), extreme obstacle runner
• Jelena Coralie Herrmann (* 1999), actress

Other personalities

• Otto the Great (912–973), first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, stayed in Saalfeld in 951 at the invitation of his son Liudolf
• Liudolf von Schwaben (930–957), ruled for some time in the royal palace in Saalfeld
• Ezzo von Lothringen (955-1035), Count Palatine of Lorraine, lived and died in Saalfeld
• Lampert von Hersfeld (1028-1085), abbot, helped build the Saalfeld monastery
• Caspar Aquila (1488–1560), theologian and reformer, active in Saalfeld from 1527 with interruptions
• Stephan Riccius (1512–1588), theologian, active in Saalfeld from around 1540
• Leonhart Schröter (1532–1601), cantor, from 1561 to 1576 city cantor in Saalfeld
• Caspar Sagittarius (1643–1694), historian, school principal in Saalfeld
• Friedrich Karl Forberg (1770–1848), philosopher, vice rector of the Lyceum in Saalfeld
• Carl Kühner (1804–1872), theologian and educator, headmaster and pastor in Saalfeld
• Otto Ludwig (1813–1865), writer, attended the Saalfeld Lyceum
• Reinhard Richter (1813–1884), from 1837 teacher in Saalfeld, from 1853 director of the secondary school in Saalfeld, geologist and paleontologist
• Leonhard Kohl von Kohlenegg (1834–1875), writer and actor, died in Saalfeld
• Karl Baumbach (1844–1896), district judge in Saalfeld
• August Halm (1869–1929), music teacher, active in the Saalfeld area from 1906, died in Saalfeld
• Grete Weiskopf (1905–1966), children's book author, lived in Saalfeld from 1953
• Ingo Braecklein (1906–2001), bishop, worked as a pastor in Saalfeld
• Hermann Korn (1907–1946), German geologist, spent a large part of his childhood and youth in Saalfeld, the first minerals and rocks in his collection were collected on the Red Mountain
• Karl Ebert (1916–1974), bishop, dean of Saalfeld between 1968 and 1971
• Bruno Carstens (1918–2001), actor, lived and died in Saalfeld
• Walter Schönheit (1927–1985), new founder of the Thuringian Boys' Choir, cantor and organist at the St. Johanniskirche zu Saalfeld, director of the Thuringian Boys' Choir, the Girls' Choir and the Oratorio Choir from 1950 to 1985
• Jo Brauner (* 1937), news anchor, grew up in Saalfeld
• Andreas Baader (1943–1977), the leading head of the first generation of the Red Army Faction , spent his early childhood years in Saalfeld
• Monika Hauff (* 1944), singer, lived in Saalfeld for some time
• Heike Langguth (* 1979), Thai boxer, trained in Saalfeld from 2004