Famous Gdansk / Danzig citizens
| Anton van Obberghen (1543 - 1611) Gdansk architect, the originator of Gdansk Renaissance. He designed the south-western part of Gdansk fortifications, including St. Gertrude bastion. He was involved in control of the Vistula river, in the construction of the Gdansk Head. The most significant work of van Obberghen is the Great Arsenal, built in the period of 1602-1609. |
| Anton Möller (1563 - 1611) A painter and a graphic artist, known not only as the painter from Danzig but olso of Danzig. He often choose parts of the city as the background for his works, copying with great precission the architectural elements of those buildings. The authorship of the great anonymous graphic panorama of Danzig from 1592 - 1593 is also attributed to him. In 1602 - 1603 at the order of Danzig councillors, Möller painted his most famous work "Last Judgement" for Arthus Court. |
) | Johann Hevelius (1611 - 1687) He was born in Danzig at Pfefferstadt 53 on January 18th in a Danzig family of Hevelke. He was a distinguished astronomer and the creator of modern selenography. In 1664 he became a member of the Royal Society. He studied in England and France. In 1634 he returned to Danzig, where he lived to the end of his life and where he built his astronomical observatory. From 1651 to 1661 Hevelius was the councillor of the Old Town in The Town Council of Danzig. |
 | Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686 - 1736) He was born on May 21st in Danzig. His studies at Academic School were abruptly stopped by the death of his parents in 1701. His guardians sent him to study in Amsterdam. During his life, Fahrenheit visited Danzig many times. While working on thermometry he established the 0 degree, basing it on the lowest Baltic temperature, he measured and 100 degrees as the temperature of the human body (about 37,5 Celsius degrees). In 1721 he discovered the relationship between the temperature of boiling of water and the outward pressure. He also constructed the mercury thermometer. His scale of temperature is still in use, i.e. in the United States. |
) | Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726 - 1801) Engraver and painter. Born on October 26th 1736 in Danzig at Heilige Geistgasse 54. Educated to be a merchant in 1743 decided to start his artistic activity. He became famous painter. In 1797 became a director of Academy of Arts in Berlin. Died in Berlin, on February 7th 1801. |
) | Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) Philosopher. He was born in a house in ¦w. Ducha Street 114 (Heilig-Geist-Gasse). In 1793 he moved with his parents to Hamburg. After his father died in 1806 he was trained in commerce in Hamburg. Shortly afterwards he started to study medicine and natural science in Getynga, and then classical philosophy in Berlin. He was an assistant professor at the university, where he continued his his studies and philosophical considerations. His philosophy exerted great influence on the personality and opinion of the famous representative of German philosophy of the later part of 19th century, F. Nietzsche. |
) | Günter Grass (1927 - ) He was born on October 16th in Danzig. In 1945 he was expeled with other Gdansk citizens to Germany, where he still lives. Grass is a writer and the background for his books make old Danzig, especially Langfuhr - Wrzeszcz, the place of his birth and childhood. In 1999 he became the Nobel Prize laureate in literature. |
Of course, there were many more famous people in Danzig: Jan Dantiscus, Jan Bonifacio, Jan Falk, Zachariasz Zappio, Willem i Abraham van den Block, Jan Strakowski, Daniel Gralath, Johan Uphagen, Hans Vredeman de Vries, Izaak van den Block, Wilhelm Stryowski, Daniel Chodowiecki, Gottfried Lengnich, Theodor Hirsch, Leopold Winter, Robert Reinick, Johannes Trojan and others. For the lack of time and place I described only few persons.
Three Danzig citizens became the Nobel Prize laureates. Except, the described above, Günter Grass, who received Nobel Prize in literature in 1999, the other laureates are: in 1939, in chemistry - prof. Adolf Butenandt (1903 - 1995) and in 1983 r. - Lech Wa³êsa, for the peace activity.