Musician

Michael Wieck (born 1928), German violinist and author
Michael Wieck was born on July 19th in what was then Köngsberg. After the Second World War, Wieck first emigrated to Berlin, where, after studying music, he played the first violin in the RIAS Symphony Orchestra from 1952 and was the second concertmaster of the Berlin Chamber Orchestra. Later he became first concertmaster of the Stuttgart Chamber Choir and from 1974 first violinist of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1989 his book “Testimony to the Fall of Königsberg – A Jew of Validity Reports” was published.

Natural scientist

Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (1865 to 1949), German polar explorer
The geographer and geophysicist Erich Dagobert von Drygalski, who was born on February 9, 1865 in what was then Königsberg, led the first German Antarctic expedition in 1898. He died on January 10, 1949 in Munich.

Otto Wallach (1847 to 1931), chemist
The scientist Otto Wallach, born on March 27, 1847 in what was then Königsberg, studied, researched and taught at the University of Göttingen. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1910 as his work was groundbreaking in the development of the chemical industry. He died on February 26, 1931 in Göttingen.

Actor, director

Volker Lechtenbrink (born 1944), actor
The Hamburg artist, also known as director, artistic director, lyricist and pop singer, was born in the former East Prussian town of Cranz in what is now Selenogorskin in Kaliningrad Oblast.

Armin Mueller-Stahl (born 1930), actor
The actor and passionate painter Mueller-Stahl was born on December 17, 1930 in what was then Tilsit, Germany, and what is now Sovietsk in the Kaliningrad Oblast. He left the city at the age of eight. He lived in the GDR until 1980 and then in the Federal Republic of Germany and later in the USA. He has both German and American citizenship. His residence in California is in the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles – near the home of Thomas Mann at the time. In 2011 he received honorary citizenship of his hometown. At the age of 81, he visited his hometown to hand over the certificate of honor.

Writer and poet

Johann Georg Hamann (1730 to 1788), German writer and philosopher
Hamann was born on August 27, 1730 in what was then Königsberg. He is considered a pioneer of the Sturm und Drang and German Romanticism in literature, he influenced numerous poets and philosophers such as Herder, Goethe, Hegel and Kierkegaard.
He died on June 21, 1788 in Munster.
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 to 1822), German writer and composer
The lawyer ETA Hoffmann, born on January 24, 1776 in what was then Königesberg, was not only active as a composer and romantic writer, but also as a bandmaster, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. In addition to numerous z. T. satirical literary works also include the composition of the opera “Undine”. He died on June 25, 1822 in Berlin.
Agnes Miegel (1879 to 1964), German writer, poet and journalist
Agnes Miegel was born on March 9, 1879 in what was then Königsberg. The author, who was also a supporter of National Socialism and a member of the NSDAP, received numerous prizes and awards for her work. She lived mostly in her native city of Königsberg, from where she fled from the Red Army towards the end of the Second World War. She died on October 26, 1964 in Bad Salzuflern.

Theologians and philosophers

Immanuel Kant (1724 to 1804), German philosopher
Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in what was then Königsberg. The famous Königsberg thinker ushered in a turning point in the history of philosophy with his work “Critique of Pure Reason”. He is considered a founder of modern philosophy, whose views are still discussed today. His categorical imperative is particularly well-known: “act as if the maxim of your action should become a general law of nature through your will!”

Hannah Arendt (1906 to 1975), political scientist
Although she was born in Hanover, her parents came from Königsberg and returned to their hometown in 1909. That is why Hannah grew up in this city until she moved to Marburg to study philosophy in 1924. The Jewish woman who later emigrated to the USA became world-famous for her concept of the “banality of evil”, which she coined in connection with the Nuremberg Trial. She died on December 4, 1975 in New York.

Others

Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld (1892 to 1929), German aviation pioneer
In 1928, Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, who was born on May 1st in what was then Königsberg, initiated the first east-west flight over the North Atlantic, which he successfully carried out together with Hermann Köhl would have. In the same year, Hünefeld also undertook a sensational East Asia flight. He had also written dramas and poems. He had died on February 5, 1929 as a result of stomach cancer.

Beate Uhse-Köstlin (1919 to 2001), German pilot and entrepreneur
The first and at the end of the 1930s and early 1940s also the only German stunt pilot was born on October 25, 1919 in the former East Prussian town of Cranz (today Selenogorsk in the Oblast Kaliningrad) born. After the Second World War, she founded the world’s first erotic shop. Beate Uhse AG went public in 1999 and has remained the German market leader in the erotic “accessories trade” to this day. Beate Uhse received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1989.
She died on July 16, 2001 in St. Gallen, Switzerland.