People with a strong Berlin connection - M
- Heinrich Gustav Magnus
(1802–70) chemist and physicist. In 1831 he became lecturer and in 1834 professor of physics and technology at the University of Berlin. A brilliant and highly popular teacher, Magnus introduced the seminar and the teaching laboratory and was influential in the science of his time. The scope of his interests was broad; he was the first to prepare a platino-ammonium compound (Magnus’s green salt) and several acids and their salts. From his study of projectiles was developed the theory of the “Magnus effect,” the lateral force on rotating cylinders in air currents. His other investigations included studies in thermoelectricity, electrolysis, and vapor pressure.
- Karl Marx
Came to Berlin in 1836 and stayed until 1841. Studied philosophy and law at Berlin University, where he came under the influence of the ideas of Hegel. His teachers included Friedrich Karl von Savigny and Eduard Gans. He lived in Schützenstrasse. Became acquainted with Bettina von Arnim who he once invited to his home in Trier. After Wilhelm 1 came to power in 1862, he felt safe enough to return
- Walter Mehring co-founder of Berlin circle of Dada.
- Lise Meitner Discovered proactinium and fission in uranium. Her co-worker Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1944.
- Felix Mendelssohn In 1820 he re-introduced St. Mathew's Passion to Berlin. Apparently should hace succeeded to the directorship of the Singakademie but was passed over, in this mediocre Beidermeier age, in favor of Karl Rungenhagen.
- Moses Mendelssohn Best known as grandfather of the composer. Came to Berlin at 14. Made his fortune as silk manufacturer and built a reputation as philosopher. Reputedly the model for Lessing's Nathan der Weise.
- Yehudi Menuhin
- Adolf Menzel painter, professor of Berlin Academy from 1856. His unfinished painting of the funeral of those killed in 1848 is displayed in Hamburg Kunsthalle.
- Theodor Mommsen historian, also member of the Prussian Landtag and German Reichstag. Critic of Bismarck as well as of the nationalistic and anti-semitic historian Treitschke. First German to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.