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- Gottlieb Daimler: He invented the first high-speed petrol engine and the first four-wheel automobile, also the first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
- Adolf "Adi" Dassler: Sports shoes with and without spikes; founder of Adidas.
- Rudolf Dassler: First sport shoes with screw-in shoe spikes, 1949; founder of Puma.
- Hans Georg Dehmelt: Physicist. Co-developed the non-magnetic quadrupole mass filter which laid the foundation for what we now call an ion trap. Shared the Nobel Prize in 1989.
- Max Delbrück: German American biophysicist. He was awarded the Nobel prize for discovering that bacteria become resistant to viruses (phages) as a result of genetic mutations.
- Johann Christoph Denner: Woodwind instrument maker, inventor of the clarinet.
- Jürgen Dethloff: Inventor and engineer, co-inventor of the Smart card (together with Helmut Gröttrup).
- Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach: Pioneer of skin transplantation and cosmetic surgery.
- Ernst Dickmanns: Developer of the first driverless car.
- Rudolf Diesel: Inventor of the diesel engine 1893.
- Christian Doppler: Discovered the Doppler effect.
- Walter Robert Dornberger: Co-inventor of the V-2 rocket.
- Karl Drais: Inventor of the bicycle and typewriter (1821) among other things.
- Peter Ferdinand Drucker: Invented the science of modern management.
Read more about this topic: List Of German Inventors And Discoverers