People from M\u00f6nchengladbach

August Bach (30 August 1897 – 23 March 1966) was a German politician who led the Christian Democratic Union in East Germany from 1958 to 1966.August Bach was born in Rheydt. From 1915 to 1918 he served in German army. After the War he studied History at the University of Berlin. He worked as a journalist during the Weimar Republic and he was a member of the liberal German Democratic Party. From 1922 to 1944 he was the editor of the Berliner Monatshefte.
After World War II, Bach was the co-founder of East German Christian Democratic Union in Thüringen and was elected in the provincial executive of the CDUD of Thüringen. In 1947 he joined the Society for German-Soviet Russian Friendship (DSF) and he served as the vice-chairman of the DSF-Thüringen (1949). Later he was a member of the Presidium of the DSF.
From May 1950 Bach was the editor of the Thüringen Daily and member of the CDU Executive Commission and the CDU Political Commission. From 1955 to 1958 he served as chairman of the Länderkammer (the upper house of Parliament). A loyal supporter of the Communist SED regime, he helped push out those CDU members not willing to do the Communists' bidding, and led its formal transformation into a loyal partner of the SED in 1952.
After the death of Otto Nuschke, Bach was elected Chairman of the CDUD (as it was now known) in 1958. From 1958 to 1963 he was Vice-President of the Volkskammer and from 1963 to his death he served as member of the Presidium of the Volkskammer.

Werner Gilles (29 August 1894 – 23 June 1961) was a German artist.
Gilles was born in Rheydt/Rheinland (today Mönchengladbach) He found his artistic calling while at the academies of Kassel and Weimar, studying under Lyonel Feininger of the Bauhaus school. He later moved after 1921 to Ischia, Italy. He moved to Düsseldorf in 1923, but between 1925 and 1930 he also worked in Berlin and Paris and lived in both during the period.
The Nazi regime named him as a degenerate artist from the 1930s, and he had to stop working until after the war. From 1951 he moved to München in the winter, and Ischia in the summer. He died in Essen in 1961.

Lisel Haas (1898–1989) was a German photographer. She worked as a photographer at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre where she photographed many plays. She obtained work with the theatre in 1940, photographing almost every production until she left Birmingham in 1962. During this time many promising actors appeared including Paul Scofield, Albert Finney, Ian Richardson and Derek Jacobi. She also covered productions at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and the Kidderminster Playhouse. After the Second World War she was able to set up her own photographic studio at her home in Moseley. She worked from here until she left Birmingham.

August Müller (1864 – 1949), born in Mönchengladbach, was a medical student at the University of Kiel, Germany, and a pioneer in the manufacture of contact lenses. In 1889, he presented at the university his doctoral thesis titled Eyeglasses and corneal lenses in which he described his efforts to grind scleral lenses from blown glass. Refinements in his process led him to be able to correct his own severe -14 dioptre myopia to within 0.50 D.Müller's compatriot Adolf Fick had published his work on contact lenses earlier in 1887, but his lenses were heavy and could only be worn for short periods. Müller's lenses were lighter and shaped to match the curved contour of the cornea. He suggested that the lens would remain in place on the cornea due to capillary action lubricated by the tear film.
Müller called his development Hornhautlinsen or 'corneal lenses'. His efforts to develop a new corrective lens were ultimately unsuccessful, since a patient could only tolerate the lens bearing down heavily on the sclera for half an hour, less than those of Fick. Moreover, it had to be inserted underwater to prevent trapping air bubbles, and cocaine administered to anaesthetise the eye, but he did however lay the groundwork for later researchers and his ideas and recommendations on fit, tear flow and rounded edges still form the basis for contact lens fitting today.In 1932, Müller donated three lenses to the German Museum in Munich. These were the same lenses that he had discussed in his thesis.

Johanna Ey (4 March 1864 – 27 August 1947) was a German art dealer during the 1920s. She became known as Mutter Ey (Mother Ey) for the nurturing support she provided to her artists, who included Max Ernst and Otto Dix.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates (9 December 1883 – 9 October 1967) was a German-born physical trainer, writer, and inventor. He is credited with inventing and promoting the Pilates method of physical fitness. He patented a total of 26 apparatuses in his lifetime.

Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works), was one of the mainstays of the German aircraft industry in the years between World War I and World War II. His multi-engined, all-metal passenger- and freight planes helped establish airlines in Germany and around the world.
In addition to aircraft, Junkers also built both diesel and petrol engines and held various thermodynamic and metallurgical patents. He was also one of the main sponsors of the Bauhaus movement and facilitated the move of the Bauhaus from Weimar to Dessau (where his factory was situated) in 1925.
Amongst the highlights of his career were the Junkers J 1 of 1915, the world's first practical all-metal aircraft, incorporating a cantilever wing design with virtually no external bracing, the Junkers F 13 of 1919 (the world's first all-metal passenger aircraft), the Junkers W 33 (which made the first successful heavier-than-air east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean), the Junkers G.38 "flying wing", and the Junkers Ju 52, affectionately nicknamed "Tante Ju", one of the most famous airliners of the 1930s.
When the Nazis came into power in 1933, they requested Junkers and his businesses aid in the German re-armament. When Junkers declined, the Nazis placed him under house arrest in 1934 and eventually seized control of his patents and company. He died the following year. Under Nazi control, his company produced some of the most successful German warplanes of the Second World War.