READ Famous Psychologists from Germany

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List of notable or famous psychologists from Germany, with bios and photos, including the top psychologists born in Germany and even some popular psychologists who immigrated to Germany. If you're trying to find out the names of famous German psychologists then this list is the perfect resource for you. These psychologists are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known psychologist from Germany is included when available.

List people include Herbert Simon, Marie-Louise von Franz and more.

This historic psychologists from Germany list can help answer the questions "Who are some German psychologists of note?" and "Who are the most famous psychologists from Germany?" These prominent psychologists of Germany may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected German psychologists.

Use this list of renowned German psychologists to discover some new psychologists that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. (83 items)

1

Adolf Zeising Died at 66 (1810-1876) Adolf Zeising was a German psychologist, whose main interests were mathematics and philosophy. Among his theories, Zeising claimed to have found the golden ratio expressed in the arrangement of ...more

2

Alexander Mitscherlich Died at 74 (1908-1982) Alexander Mitscherlich was a German psychoanalyst.

3

Anton Schelkopf Died at 61 (1914-1975) Dr. Anton Schelkopf was a German Psychologist doctor who also was among other works a Film Producer in the late 1940s and 1950s.

4

Arno Gruen age 94 Arno Gruen is a Swiss-German psychologist and psychoanalyst.

5

Bruno Klopfer Died at 71 (1900-1971) Bruno Klopfer, was a German psychologist, born in Bavaria. He had a profound impact on the development of psychological personality testing, and was an important pioneer and innovator in the ...more

6

Carl Gustav Carus Died at 80 (1789-1869) Carl Gustav Carus was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romantic era. A friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a ...more

7

Carl Stumpf Died at 88 (1848-1936) Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist. He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg before receiving his doctorate at University of Göttingen in 1868. ...more

8

Curt W. Bondy Died at 78 (1894-1972) Curt Werner Bondy was a German psychologist, social educator.

9

David Katz Died at 69 (1884-1953) David Katz was a German-born Swedish psychologist and educator.

10

Dietrich Dörner age 79 Dietrich Dörner is emeritus professor for General and Theoretical Psychology at the Institute of Theoretical Psychology at the Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, Germany. In 1986, he ...more

11

Eberhard Schorsch Died at 56 (1935-1991) Eberhard Schorsch was a German physician, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, author and sexologist. Schorsch was born in Leipzig. After finishing school he studied medicine and psychology at ...more

12

Edith Jacobson Died at 81 (1897-1978) Edith Jacobson was a German psychoanalyst. Her major contributions to psychoanalytic thinking dealt with the development of the sense of identity and self-esteem and with an understanding of ...more

13

Eduard Spranger Died at 81 (1882-1963) Eduard Spranger was a German philosopher and psychologist. A student of Wilhelm Dilthey, Spranger was born in Berlin and died in Tübingen. Spranger's contribution to personality theory, in ...more

14

Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim age 71 Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, is a German sociologist, psychologist, and philosopher. She holds a professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After studying sociology, psychology and ...more

15

Eric Hoffer Died at 81 (1902-1983) Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, ...more

16

Eric Schopler Died at 79 (1927-2006) Eric Schopler was a German born American psychologist whose pioneering research into autism led to the foundation of the TEACCH program.

17

Erich Fromm Died at 80 (1900-1980) Erich Seligmann Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical

18

Erich Neumann Died at 55 (1905-1960) Erich Neumann, was a psychologist, philosopher, writer, and student of Carl Jung.

19

Erich Schröger age 59 Erich Schröger is a German psychologist and neuroscientist.

20

Erik Erikson Died at 92 (1902-1994) Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining ...more

21

Erwin Straus Died at 84 (1891-1975) Erwin Straus was a German-American phenomenologist and neurologist who helped to pioneer anthropological medicine and psychiatry, a holistic approach to medicine that is critical of mechanistic ...more

22

Eugen Drewermann age 77 Eugen Drewermann is a German church critic, theologian, peace activist and former Roman Catholic priest. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Drewermann was born in ...more

23

Friedemann Schulz von Thun age 73 Friedemann Schulz von Thun is a German psychologist and expert for interpersonal communication and intrapersonal communication. Schulz von Thun worked as a professor of psychology at the ...more

24

Fritz Heider Died at 92 (1896-1988) Fritz Heider was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which expanded upon his creations of ...more

25

Fritz Künkel Died at 67 (1889-1956) Fritz Künkel was known both as a German psychiatrist and an American psychologist. He might best be understood as a social scientist who sought to integrate psychology, sociology and ...more

26

Fritz Perls Died at 77 (1893-1970) Friedrich Salomon Perls, better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term 'Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that ...more

27

Georg Elias Müller Died at 84 (1850-1934) Georg Elias Müller was a significant early German experimental psychologist who is credited with the theory of retroactive interference.

28

Georg Groddeck Died at 68 (1866-1934) Georg Groddeck was a physician and writer regarded as a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine.

29

Georg Schramm age 69 Georg Schramm is a German psychologist and Kabarett artist. He was a host of the Kabarett shows Scheibenwischer and Neues aus der Anstalt.

30

Gerd Gigerenzer age 70 Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist who has studied the use of bounded rationality and heuristics in decision making. Gigerenzer is currently director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior ...more

31

Gerd Jüttemann age 84 Gerd Jüttemann is a German psychologist. He is the originator of the "Komparative Kasuistik", a method widely applied in qualitative psychological research and in other social

32

Gottfried Fischer Gottfried Fischer was a German psychologist, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. He is considered to be the founder of psychotraumatology in Germany and has been director of the Institute for ...more

33

Gunter Schmidt age 79 Gunter Schmidt is a German sexologist, psychotherapist and social psychologist. He was born in Berlin. Schmidt was the director of the centre for sexual research in the clinic of the University ...more

34

Gustav Fechner Died at 86 (1801-1887) Gustav Theodor Fechner, was a German philosopher, physicist and experimental psychologist. An early pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics, he inspired many 20th century ...more

35

Gustav Kafka Died at 70 (1883-1953) Gustav Kafka was an Austrian philosopher, psychologist. His son Gustav Eduard Kafka was a sociologist and jurist.

36

Hans Eysenck Died at 81 (1916-1997) Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he ...more

37

Hans-Jürgen Walter age 74 Hans-Jürgen P. Walter is a German psychologist and psychotherapist known as the main founder of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy. Walter worked with Wolfgang Metzger, one of the most ...more

38

Heinrich Klüver Died at 82 (1897-1979) Heinrich Klüver was a German and American psychologist born in Holstein. After having served in the Imperial Germany Army during World War I, he studied at both the University of Hamburg ...more

39

Herbert Freudenberger Died at 73 (1926-1999) Herbert J. Freudenberger was a German-born American psychologist. Though Freudenberger had many jobs in his life, including practitioner, editor, theoretician, and author, his most significant ...more

40

Herbert Simon Died at 85 (1916-2001) Herbert Alexander Simon, a Nobel laureate, was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist, computer scientist, and Richard King Mellon Professor—most notably at ...more

41

Hermann Ebbinghaus Died at 59 (1850-1909) Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first ...more

42

Hugo Münsterberg Died at 53 (1863-1916) Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial/Organizational, legal, medical, ...more

43

Joachim Funke age 64

44

Jochen Fahrenberg age 80 Jochen Fahrenberg is a German psychologist in the fields of personality and psychophysiology

45

Johann Maass Died at 57 (1766-1823) Johann Gebhard Ehrenreich Maass was a German psychologist. Maass was born in 1766 in Krottendorf near Halberstadt. In 1791 he became extraordinary professor of philosophy, and in 1798 full ...more

46

Karen Horney Died at 67 (1885-1952) Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her ...more

47

Karl Groos Died at 85 (1861-1946) Karl Groos was a philosopher and psychologist who proposed an evolutionary instrumentalist theory of play. His 1898 book on The Play of Animals suggested that play is a preparation for later ...more

48

Klaus Holzkamp Died at 68 (1927-1995) Klaus Holzkamp was a German psychologist. He worked as a professor at the Free University of Berlin. He took a central role in defining critical psychology based on the works of Karl Marx. ...more

49

Kurt Goldstein Died at 87 (1878-1965) Kurt Goldstein was a German neurologist and psychiatrist. Goldstein created a holistic theory of the organism based on Gestalt theory which deeply influenced the development of Gestalt therapy. ...more

50

Kurt Koffka Died at 55 (1886-1941) Kurt Koffka was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin. Along with Max Wertheimer and his close associates Wolfgang Kohler they established Gestalt psychology. Koffka’s ...more

1 Adolf Zeising Died at 66 (1810-1876) Adolf Zeising was a German psychologist, whose main interests were mathematics and philosophy. Among his theories, Zeising claimed to have found the golden ratio expressed in the arrangement of ...more

2 Alexander Mitscherlich Died at 74 (1908-1982) Alexander Mitscherlich was a German psychoanalyst.

3 Anton Schelkopf Died at 61 (1914-1975) Dr. Anton Schelkopf was a German Psychologist doctor who also was among other works a Film Producer in the late 1940s and 1950s.

4 Arno Gruen age 94 Arno Gruen is a Swiss-German psychologist and psychoanalyst.

5 Bruno Klopfer Died at 71 (1900-1971) Bruno Klopfer, was a German psychologist, born in Bavaria. He had a profound impact on the development of psychological personality testing, and was an important pioneer and innovator in the ...more

6 Carl Gustav Carus Died at 80 (1789-1869) Carl Gustav Carus was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romantic era. A friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a ...more

7 Carl Stumpf Died at 88 (1848-1936) Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist. He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg before receiving his doctorate at University of Göttingen in 1868. ...more

8 Curt W. Bondy Died at 78 (1894-1972) Curt Werner Bondy was a German psychologist, social educator.

9 David Katz Died at 69 (1884-1953) David Katz was a German-born Swedish psychologist and educator.

10 Dietrich Dörner age 79 Dietrich Dörner is emeritus professor for General and Theoretical Psychology at the Institute of Theoretical Psychology at the Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, Germany. In 1986, he ...more

11 Eberhard Schorsch Died at 56 (1935-1991) Eberhard Schorsch was a German physician, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, author and sexologist. Schorsch was born in Leipzig. After finishing school he studied medicine and psychology at ...more

12 Edith Jacobson Died at 81 (1897-1978) Edith Jacobson was a German psychoanalyst. Her major contributions to psychoanalytic thinking dealt with the development of the sense of identity and self-esteem and with an understanding of ...more

13 Eduard Spranger Died at 81 (1882-1963) Eduard Spranger was a German philosopher and psychologist. A student of Wilhelm Dilthey, Spranger was born in Berlin and died in Tübingen. Spranger's contribution to personality theory, in ...more

14 Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim age 71 Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, is a German sociologist, psychologist, and philosopher. She holds a professorship at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After studying sociology, psychology and ...more

15 Eric Hoffer Died at 81 (1902-1983) Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, ...more

16 Eric Schopler Died at 79 (1927-2006) Eric Schopler was a German born American psychologist whose pioneering research into autism led to the foundation of the TEACCH program.

17 Erich Fromm Died at 80 (1900-1980) Erich Seligmann Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical

18 Erich Neumann Died at 55 (1905-1960) Erich Neumann, was a psychologist, philosopher, writer, and student of Carl Jung.

19 Erich Schröger age 59 Erich Schröger is a German psychologist and neuroscientist.

20 Erik Erikson Died at 92 (1902-1994) Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining ...more

21 Erwin Straus Died at 84 (1891-1975) Erwin Straus was a German-American phenomenologist and neurologist who helped to pioneer anthropological medicine and psychiatry, a holistic approach to medicine that is critical of mechanistic ...more

22 Eugen Drewermann age 77 Eugen Drewermann is a German church critic, theologian, peace activist and former Roman Catholic priest. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Drewermann was born in ...more

23 Friedemann Schulz von Thun age 73 Friedemann Schulz von Thun is a German psychologist and expert for interpersonal communication and intrapersonal communication. Schulz von Thun worked as a professor of psychology at the ...more

24 Fritz Heider Died at 92 (1896-1988) Fritz Heider was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which expanded upon his creations of ...more

25 Fritz Künkel Died at 67 (1889-1956) Fritz Künkel was known both as a German psychiatrist and an American psychologist. He might best be understood as a social scientist who sought to integrate psychology, sociology and ...more

26 Fritz Perls Died at 77 (1893-1970) Friedrich Salomon Perls, better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term 'Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that ...more

27 Georg Elias Müller Died at 84 (1850-1934) Georg Elias Müller was a significant early German experimental psychologist who is credited with the theory of retroactive interference.

28 Georg Groddeck Died at 68 (1866-1934) Georg Groddeck was a physician and writer regarded as a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine.

29 Georg Schramm age 69 Georg Schramm is a German psychologist and Kabarett artist. He was a host of the Kabarett shows Scheibenwischer and Neues aus der Anstalt.

30 Gerd Gigerenzer age 70 Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist who has studied the use of bounded rationality and heuristics in decision making. Gigerenzer is currently director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior ...more

31 Gerd Jüttemann age 84 Gerd Jüttemann is a German psychologist. He is the originator of the "Komparative Kasuistik", a method widely applied in qualitative psychological research and in other social

32 Gottfried Fischer Gottfried Fischer was a German psychologist, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. He is considered to be the founder of psychotraumatology in Germany and has been director of the Institute for ...more

33 Gunter Schmidt age 79 Gunter Schmidt is a German sexologist, psychotherapist and social psychologist. He was born in Berlin. Schmidt was the director of the centre for sexual research in the clinic of the University ...more

34 Gustav Fechner Died at 86 (1801-1887) Gustav Theodor Fechner, was a German philosopher, physicist and experimental psychologist. An early pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics, he inspired many 20th century ...more

35 Gustav Kafka Died at 70 (1883-1953) Gustav Kafka was an Austrian philosopher, psychologist. His son Gustav Eduard Kafka was a sociologist and jurist.

36 Hans Eysenck Died at 81 (1916-1997) Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he ...more

37 Hans-Jürgen Walter age 74 Hans-Jürgen P. Walter is a German psychologist and psychotherapist known as the main founder of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy. Walter worked with Wolfgang Metzger, one of the most ...more

38 Heinrich Klüver Died at 82 (1897-1979) Heinrich Klüver was a German and American psychologist born in Holstein. After having served in the Imperial Germany Army during World War I, he studied at both the University of Hamburg ...more

39 Herbert Freudenberger Died at 73 (1926-1999) Herbert J. Freudenberger was a German-born American psychologist. Though Freudenberger had many jobs in his life, including practitioner, editor, theoretician, and author, his most significant ...more

40 Herbert Simon Died at 85 (1916-2001) Herbert Alexander Simon, a Nobel laureate, was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist, computer scientist, and Richard King Mellon Professor—most notably at ...more

41 Hermann Ebbinghaus Died at 59 (1850-1909) Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first ...more

42 Hugo Münsterberg Died at 53 (1863-1916) Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial/Organizational, legal, medical, ...more

43 Joachim Funke age 64

44 Jochen Fahrenberg age 80 Jochen Fahrenberg is a German psychologist in the fields of personality and psychophysiology

45 Johann Maass Died at 57 (1766-1823) Johann Gebhard Ehrenreich Maass was a German psychologist. Maass was born in 1766 in Krottendorf near Halberstadt. In 1791 he became extraordinary professor of philosophy, and in 1798 full ...more

46 Karen Horney Died at 67 (1885-1952) Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her ...more

47 Karl Groos Died at 85 (1861-1946) Karl Groos was a philosopher and psychologist who proposed an evolutionary instrumentalist theory of play. His 1898 book on The Play of Animals suggested that play is a preparation for later ...more

48 Klaus Holzkamp Died at 68 (1927-1995) Klaus Holzkamp was a German psychologist. He worked as a professor at the Free University of Berlin. He took a central role in defining critical psychology based on the works of Karl Marx. ...more

49 Kurt Goldstein Died at 87 (1878-1965) Kurt Goldstein was a German neurologist and psychiatrist. Goldstein created a holistic theory of the organism based on Gestalt theory which deeply influenced the development of Gestalt therapy. ...more

50 Kurt Koffka Died at 55 (1886-1941) Kurt Koffka was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin. Along with Max Wertheimer and his close associates Wolfgang Kohler they established Gestalt psychology. Koffka’s ...more