The 100 most important Germans: Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt (* 18. Dezember 1913 in Lübeck; † 8. Oktober 1992 in Unkel)
What JFK was for the American was Willy for the West Germans.
After twenty years with three chancellors from the Christ Democrats and one year after massive protest from the APO (außerparlamentarische Opposition/ outer parliament opposition) it was time for a change. This change was embodied in Willy Brandt, the former Mayor of West Berlin and first social democratic Chancellor.

The 100 most important Germans: Helmut Kohl

Helmut Kohl (CDU) (* 3. April 1930 in Ludwigshafen )
The Chancellor who was in charge during the reunification of Germany, he is also known for achievements in …

Errm

I am really sorry for speaking it out loud, but beside the fact, that Kohl was coincidently Chancellor at the time when the wall falls down and therefore sixteen years in total in charge, there is nothing important what comes into my mind when it comes to him.

The 100 most important Germans: Immanuel Kant

Imanuel Kant (* 22. April 1724 in Königsberg; † 12. Februar 1804 the very same)
Only idiots or kooky people would try to recap the whole work of this man, so I will just sum up the central points of his work:

The 100 most important Germans: Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Adenauer (* 5. Januar 1876 in Köln; † 19. April 1967 in Rhöndorf)
There are three things that describe Adenauer at is best: He was old, he was clean and he had his own will.  Those were also the reasons why the Nazis never really trusted him, he was too quick witted for them. He maybe never saw an equal in them. During the Weimarer Republic he recognized them most certainly only as the smaller damage compared to the social democrats and communists.

The 100 most important germans: Josef Goebbels

Josef Goebbels ( born 29. Oktober 1897 in Rheydt ; died 1. Mai 1945 in Berlin)
This guy scares me much more than the failed painter, because he influenced the German language more than the man with the mustache. When you don’t belive me read “Lingua tertii imperii”, a book from Victor Klemperer (btw. also a survivor of the Holocaust). Goebbels was the head of the NSDAP propaganda. He was the one who had screamed this terrible question “Do want the total war?!” and the people shouted in raged agony “YEAH”
What is much more scaring is the obvious fact, that propaganda cannot work, when there is no ground to grow on.
I would like to take a thread from the German journalist Gerhard Wisnewski who writes every year a critical retrospect. Wisnewski argued that Bin Laden, Hussein and the other leaders, deemed for god or not, are having people behind them. Those people are just the head of a group. And when you cut of the head, you still got the group. So when you cut of Hitler, Goebbels, Mengele, Röhm and all the other what is left over? It was the people who supported them, maybe because of fear or maybe they believed in them, nevertheless they supported them.

The 100 most important germans: Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (born 20. April 1889 in Braunau am Inn; died 30. April 1945 in Berlin)
And here we are. He is maybe one of the most famous men working in our country. And what do we learn out of this? Never underestimate a failed painter, because our Uncle Adolf was one of those artists and went through cheap bars to sell his horrible kitsch paintings. This was the way he came in contact with the NSDAP. The rest is history.
The germans decided to elect him and went to war.

The 100 most important germans: Heinrich Zille

Heinrich Zille (born 10. Januar 1858 in Radeburg; died 9. August 1929 in Berlin)
Berlin is and was always one of the melting pots in Germany. There was always poor and rich close to each other. Today we’ve got Mitte, Zehlendorf as the places where the prosperity is, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg where the students are and Wedding and Neukölln where the working people are living.

The 100 most important germans: Wilhelm Busch

Wilhelm Busch (born 15. April 1832 in Wiedensahl; died 9. Januar 1908 in Mechtshausen)
When you are thinking of comics, Wilhelm Busch is most likely not the very first person you think of even when you are from Germany. But the fact is, that he is one of the most important comic artist of our country, but his work is mostly called pictured stories. It is the same difference like between graphic novels and sequential art, there is no such thing.

The 100 most important Germans

And it came the day, where I was looking on YouTube for german history and only found Hitler and Prostitutes.

I mean WTF? Two thousand years of history and the only thing i can find outside from Wikipedia are Hitler and prostitutes. That sucks pretty much.

And what it makes even worse is, that the british BBC once asked their viewership to name the 100 most important british people, a concept copied by the german Broadcast. And did they gave us? A collection of Top Ten Rankings which also includes our most famous vehicle and shows us, that the germans think, that the wheel was the most important invention of all time is the wheel.

That is just plain stupid.

So here is now my alternative collection, the order of apereance don't reflect the importance of each person. It is just the order how I came up with them and nobody is a former "Idol" singer or producer.

Every week there will be at least one new name one the list.

Enjoy!

1. Wilhelm Busch

2. Heinrich Zille