Curated playlist
University of Bonn alumni
- Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche's sister edited his writings to fit her own ultranationalist views.
- Max ErnstMax Ernst wrote that he died in 1914 and was resurrected in 1918. He meant his years as a soldier.
- Karl Joseph SimrockKarl Simrock lost his government job for writing a poem praising a revolution.
- Karl MarxKarl Marx left an estate valued at just 250 pounds when he died in 1883. He died stateless in London at 64.
- Joseph GoebbelsJoseph Goebbels was Chancellor of Germany for a single day.
- Wilhelm IIWilhelm II, the last German Emperor, spent much of his adult life holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand. The gloves made that arm look longer than it was. He reigned from 1888 to 1918 over a country that had become Europe's…
- Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and GothaPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha never wore a crown, yet the clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville, once wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes." Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria, and Greville's line…
- Konrad AdenauerObservers said Konrad Adenauer became West Germany's first chancellor by one vote, his own. He was 73.
- Luigi PirandelloNobel winner Luigi Pirandello gave his medal to the government to be melted down.
- Carl SchurzCarl Schurz slipped back into Prussia in 1850 and broke a friend out of prison.
- Jacob BurckhardtIn 1872, Jacob Burckhardt turned down Ranke's famous history chair at Berlin. He stayed in Basel.