About Deutsche Biographie | About NDB-online
About Deutsche Biographie (German Biography)
Deutsche Biographie is the primary historical biographical information system of the German-speaking world. As a joint service of Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (HiKo) and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB), it offers biographical articles that are both concise and well-founded. The portraits of more than 1,000,000men and women (as of 2025), spanning from the early Middle Ages to the present day, can be accessed online free of charge .
Content of Deutsche Biographie
The digitized full texts of ca. 50,000 biographies, originally published in the mutli-volume series Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB, 56 volumes, 1875-1912) and Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB, 28 volumes, 1953–2024) make up the core content. Starting in 2022, new online-exclusive articles have been added continuously as part of the NDB-online project (see below). The artciles of ADB and NDB were published over a long period of time. Therefore, each text reproduces political and cultural perspectives and biases contemporary to the time at which it was first written. Older NDB articles that are now considered problematic or inadequate by the NDB editorial team will be rewritten and published consecutively as part of the NDB-online projec. For the sake of transparency, the original versions will also remain accessible.
Links and partnering institutions
Operating with Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND), the name authority file overseen by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Deutsche Biographie offers cross-references to
- further academically insightful information on the people mentioned,
- articles in other biographical dictionaries,
- sources and literature documented in major library catalogues,
- objects, works and portraits or references thereof.
As part of the successive expansion of Deutsche Biographie, holdings by important cultural heritage institutions were integrated into Deutsche Biographie and can be accessed using a detailed map-based search function. Additionally, there are new forms of presentation based on computerlinguistic analyses including personal network visualizations, location-based search functions referring to places of birth, death and work, as well as searching by date of birth and death.
Governance
Prof Dr Michaela Geierhos (HiKo/University of the Bundeswehr, Munich)
Dr Martin Hermann (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
Copyright
All texts featured on websites of Deutsche Biographie as well as the programming of search functions and text layouts are protected by copyright. All protected elements may only be used with an expressed permission given by Historische Kommission or the specified copyright holders.
You may download the material displayed on the website for academic and private, non-commercial use, provided you comply with all copyright and other proprietary notices relating to the material. You may not distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, republish or use any content of the website, including text, images, audio or video files, for public or commercial purposes without the written permission of Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Since 1.9.2015, exceptions to this apply when “Deutsche Biographie” is mentioned under the following licenses:
• - Articles of Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie CC-BY-NC-SA,
• - Articles of Neue Deutsche Biographie CC-BY-NC-ND,
• - Index Register data CC0.
If research results based on the data offered here are published, please send a link or a specimen copy to the editorial office of the NDB.
A link to this website, e.g. via the BEACON format, is expressly desired. The “Neue Deutsche Biographie” is also published in printed form and available in bookshops. Publishing rights are held by Duncker & Humblot.
About NDB-online
Since 2020, the biographical dictionary NDB-online is being published on behalf of HiKo by Prof Dr Peter Hoeres (HiKo/University of Würzburg). The dictionary continues in the tradition of ADB and NDB by publishing new articles digitally and forms the basis of Deutsche Biographie together with their ca. 50,000 digitised articles.
Objectives of NDB-online
NDB-online pays particular attention to those women and men who have received little attention in older biographical encyclopaedias, by featuring leading figures from fields like sport, technology, management and administration as well as popular culture, the media and civil society (Neue Soziale Bewegungen etc.). Each article is an non-anynomous original publication written by established experts and offers a balanced picture of the person portrayed..
Articles on NDB-online
The articles in NDB-online follow a fixed framework:
– the header containing information on name variants and biographical data, the places of birth, death, and burial, as well as the religious denomination of the respective person, and adittionally if possible, a visual portrait;
– a brief critical assessment at the beginning of the article summarising the historical significance and key achievements of the person;
– a tabular presentation of their curriculum vitae and genealogy;
– a biographical account outlining life and work of the person, which outlines their influence and reception, and concludes with a brief contextualisation.
– reference index detailing accolades and memberships, estates and other archival sources, works, secondary literature, online resources and portraits.
The articles of NDB-online can be discovered by researching the biographical index of Deutsche Biographie using the different search functions available on the Deutsche Biographie website. Through this index, the historical personalities and their articles are linked to each other and to entries in the ADB and NDB. Further online resources on the respective personalities can also be accessed via the index entry.
Editorial team and departments
Editor NDB-online: Prof Dr Peter Hoeres (HiKo/ University of Würzburg)
Editor-in-chief: Dr Stefan Jordan, Munich
Dr. Bernhard Ebneth, 089-23031-1155, e-mail: bernhard.ebneth@ndb.badw.de
- Politics and Military (early modern period)
- Archaeology
- Classical Studies
- Classical Philology
- Archival, Library, Information and Documentation Sciences
- Cross-sectional tasks:
- ◦ Genealogies
- ◦ Biographical Portal / Germany
Dr. Stefan Jordan, 089-23031-1199, e-mail: stefan.jordan@ndb.badw.de
- Politics and Military (19th century)
- Literature
- Modern Philology and Linguistics
- Theology and church
- Jewish religion and culture
- Philosophy
- Pedagogy
- Psychology
- Historiography
- Sports
Dr. Maria Schimke, 089-23031-1200, e-mail: maria.schimke@ndb.badw.de
- Politics and Military (since 1945)
- Economy and Business
- Economics and social sciences
- Justice and Jurisprudence
- Women's movement
- Printing and Publishing (with entrepreneurial focus)
Dr. Susan Splinter, 089-23031-1148, e-mail: susan.splinter@ndb.badw.de
- Natural sciences
- Medicine and Pharmacy
- Mathematics and Computer Science
- Technical sciences
- Agricultural Science and Forestry
- Expeditions and cartography
PD Dr. Werner Tschacher, 089-23031-1211, e-mail: werner.tschacher@ndb.badw.de
- Politics and Military (Middle Ages)
- Visual and Performing Arts
- Entertainment
- Music and theater
- Film
- Design
Dr. Thomas Vordermayer, 089-23031-1205, e-mail: thomas.vordermayer@ndb.badw.de
- Politics and Military (1918-1945)
- Journalism and Communication Science
- Printing and Publishing (focus on journalism)
- Ethnology and Folklore Studies
- Cross-sectional task: editor of visual media
For any questions or remarks on the content of Deutsche Biographie please contact: info@hk.badw.de.