A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.
Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller was a German lyric poet, best known as the author of Die schöne Müllerin (1821) and Winterreise (1823). These would later be the source of inspiration for two song cycles composed by Franz Schubert.
Johann Ludwig Uhland was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician.
Ferdinand Ludwig Adam von Saar was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet.
Johann Georg von Eckhart was a German historian and linguist.
Johann Wilhelm of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was the last Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.
Ernst Zacharias Platner was a German painter, writer, and diplomat.
August Becker was a German landscape painter; associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule.
Adolf Schrödter or Adolph Schroedter was a German painter and graphic artist; associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of German comics.
Ferdinand Franz Wallraf was a German botanist, mathematician, theologian, art collector and Roman Catholic priest. His collection formed the founding nucleus of the Wallraf–Richartz Museum.
Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer was a German jurist, poet, satirist and Protestant hymn writer. He worked as an advocate at the court of Wolfenbüttel. Johann Sebastian Bach used a stanza from his hymn "Gott fähret auf gen Himmel" to conclude his Ascension Oratorio. Another hymn, Jesu, meines Glaubens Zier, appears in the 1736 Schemelli Gesangbuch in a setting attributed to Bach.
Caspar Ziegler, also Kaspar Ziegler, was a German jurist, poet, hymnwriter and composer. He was the Rektor of the University of Wittenberg.
Carl Ernst Christoph Hess, or Carl Ernst Heß was a German copper engraver and painter.
Maria Karoline Herder was a German editor who collected and published the works of her famous husband, philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder.
Johann Theodor Mosewius also Johann Theodor Mosevius was a German operatic bass, choirmaster and music director of the University of Wroclaw.
Christian Johann Christoph Schreiber was a German theologian, philologist, philosopher, and poet. He was also the Superintendent of the dioceses of Lengsfeld and Dermbach. He was connected in friendship or correspondence to writers and philosophers of his time, and published poetry, sermons, historical and philosophical works.
Johann Daniel Overbeck was an evangelical theologian and Rector at the Katharineum.
Johann Friedrich Ahlfeld was a German Lutheran theologian and preacher.
Traugott Maximilian Eberwein, was a German composer and conductor, who is attributed with the start of early musical history in Rudolstadt.
Lawrence J. Ryan is a scholar of German literature. He is an emeritus professor of German from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an honorary professor of German at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
