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- Martin Waldseemüller: Cartographer, used the name "America" on his map Universalis Cosmographia in honour of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The map was drawn at St-Die in 1507 and it was the first time "America" was used on a map.
- Otto Wallach: Chemist who researched, amongst others, alicyclic compounds. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1910.
- Hellmuth Walter: Engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines.
- Felix Wankel: Inventor of the Rotary Motor.
- Max Weber: Discovered the mass effects of capitalism and modernity.
- Wilhelm Eduard Weber: Inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph together with Carl Friedrich Gauss.
- Alfred Wegener: He is most notable for proposing continental drift in 1912
- Gustav Weißkopf: Aviation pioneer - Worlds First Motorized Flight: August 14, 1901.
- Clemens Alexander Winkler: Chemist who discovered the element germanium in 1886.
- August Wöhler: Investigated fatigue phenomena in the behavior of materials
- Friedrich Wöhler: The first to synthesize urea. Wöhler is regarded as a pioneer in organic chemistry.
Read more about this topic: List Of German Inventors And Discoverers