20th-century German non-fiction writers

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

German politician (SPD), chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

German-American political theorist and philosopher (1906–1975)

German philosopher, sociologist and theorist (1903–1969)

German admiral and former president of Nazi Germany in 1945 (born 1891-1980)

Nazi SS doctor and Military Officer at Auschwitz (1911–1979)

German philosopher and logician (1891–1970)

German lawyer, Nazi politician, General Governor of Nazi occupied Poland and convicted war criminal (1900-1946)

German philosopher and psychologist as well as refounder of the theory of intentionality (1838–1917)

Austrian school economist and libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher

cardinal and bishop of the Catholic Church

German Catholic theologian (1904–1984)

German actress (1914–1986)

German Catholic philosopher (1885–1968)

German writer, philosopher, academic and film director (1932–2026)

anarcho-syndicalist writer and activist (1873-1958)

German bodybuilder and strongman (1867–1925)

German anarchist, editor (1870-1919)

German-American anarchist

German-Jewish anarchist writer (1878–1934)

German SS and police general and convicted war criminal (1895-1952)

German Catholic philosopher and theologian (1889–1977)

German Jesuit priest, and philosopher of the German Resistance (1907-1945)

German writer, psychologist and philosopher (1905-1960)

German judge (1903-1968)

German politician (1902-1999)

German philosopher (1905-1975)

German writer (1901-1977)

German philosopher (1910-1990)

German sociologist (1931–2023)

German-American psychiatrist (1895-1981)

German writer (1867–1948)

American philosopher

German psychoanalyst and writer (1908–1982)

German theologian (1876-1966)

SS officer, German writer and politician (1911-1997)

German politician (1875-1950)

Swiss writer (1888-1965)

German journalist and conspiracy theorist (1960–2017)

Recipient of the Knight's Cross (1918–1981)

German linguist (1855-1908)

German anarchist (1892–1984)

German art historian (1851–1907)

German politician (1871-1949)

political scientist (1898-1975)

German egyptologist (1885-1967)

German sociologist

German writer (1896–1981)

German art historian and archaeologist (1889–1961)

German university teacher (1879-1942)

German anarchist writer and activist (1882-1914)

German lexicographer, bibliographer, literary scholar, philologist and university teacher (1933-2009)

German philosopher and writer

German writer

German botanist and mycologist

German artist and writer (1935–2020)

German lawyer, writer and pacifist (1853–1929)

German writer, literary critic, and literature scientist (1922–2003)

German theologian (1853–1931)

German parson, writer and journalist (1926–2011)