Who Was Alive
Paul Celan
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Paul Celan

French poet and translator

Born 23 November 1920 · died c. 1970
Also known as Paul Ancel

Who was alive at the same time as Paul Celan?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  3. Marie Curie, 1867 – 1934
  4. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  5. Vladimir Lenin, 1870 – 1924
  6. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  7. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  8. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  9. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  10. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  11. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  12. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  13. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  14. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  15. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  16. Paul Celan, 1920 – c. 1970
  17. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  18. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  19. Joe Biden, born 1942
  20. Donald Trump, born 1946
  21. George W. Bush, born 1946
  22. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  23. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  24. Barack Obama, born 1961

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Paul Celan was born, Adolf Hitler was 31, Albert Einstein was 41, Ronald Reagan was 9, Vladimir Lenin was 50 and Nelson Mandela was 2.

Born during Paul Celan’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Elizabeth II and Martin Luther King Jr..

Not quite contemporaries: Leo Tolstoy died about 10 years before Paul Celan was born, Mark Twain died about 10 years before Paul Celan was born, Shakira was born about 5 years after Paul Celan died and Basshunter was born about 12 years after Paul Celan died.

What happened in Paul Celan’s lifetime

Where Paul Celan’s contemporaries were born

Paul Celan is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (79 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Paul Celan

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,370 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Paul Celan. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1944.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Adolf Hitler 1889 – 1945
  4. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  5. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  6. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  7. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  8. Vladimir Lenin 1870 – 1924
  9. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  10. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  11. George W. Bush born 1946
  12. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  13. Joe Biden born 1942
  14. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  15. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  16. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  17. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  18. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  19. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  20. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  21. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  22. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  23. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  24. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  25. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  26. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  27. Bill Gates born 1955
  28. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  29. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  30. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  31. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  32. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  33. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  34. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  35. Bill Clinton born 1946
  36. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  37. Angela Merkel born 1954
  38. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  39. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  40. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  41. François Hollande born 1954
  42. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  43. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  44. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  45. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  46. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  47. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  48. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  49. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  50. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  51. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  52. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  53. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  54. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  55. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  56. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  57. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  58. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  59. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  60. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  61. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  62. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  63. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  64. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  65. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  66. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  67. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  68. Sarah Bernhardt 1844 – 1923
  69. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  70. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  71. Madonna born 1958
  72. Kamala Harris born 1964
  73. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  74. Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922
  75. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  76. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  77. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  78. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  79. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  80. Xi Jinping born 1953
  81. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  82. Naruhito born 1960
  83. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  84. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  85. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  86. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  87. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  88. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  89. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  90. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  91. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  92. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  93. Bob Dylan born 1941
  94. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  95. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  96. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  97. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  98. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  99. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  100. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  101. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  102. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  103. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  104. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  105. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  106. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  107. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  108. Charles III born 1948
  109. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  110. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  111. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  112. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  113. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  114. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  115. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  116. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  117. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  118. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  119. Narendra Modi born 1950
  120. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  121. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  122. Rafael Correa born 1963
  123. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  124. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  125. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  126. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  127. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  128. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  129. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  130. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  131. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  132. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  133. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  134. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  135. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  136. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  137. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  138. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  139. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  140. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  141. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  142. David Hilbert 1862 – 1943
  143. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  144. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  145. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  146. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  147. Herbert Hoover 1874 – 1964
  148. Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
  149. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  150. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955