1885 births

André Maurois (French: [mɔʁwa]; born Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog; 26 July 1885 – 9 October 1967) was a French author.

George F. L. Hampel, Sr., (August 27, 1885 – May 15, 1954) was an American politician, accountant and bookseller from Milwaukee who served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Socialist (1931–1932) and two terms in the Wisconsin State Senate as a Progressive (1937–1944). Hampel at various times identified himself as a Social Democrat/Socialist, and Progressive; and joined the Republicans when the Progressives rejoined the latter party.

Henri Valbel (1885–1956) was a French film actor. Valbel was also noted for his work as voice actor.

Fritz Georg Arndt (6 July 1885 – 8 December 1969) was a German chemist recognised for his contributions to synthetic methodology, who together with Bernd Eistert discovered the Arndt-Eistert synthesis.

Irène Bordoni (16 January 1885 – 19 March 1953) was a Franco-American actress and singer.

Kurt Max Julius Sternberg (19 June 1885 – 21 September 1942) was a Neo-Kantian German philosopher, author, and Holocaust victim.

Fritz Heinrich Lewy (; January 28, 1885 – October 5, 1950), known in his later years as Frederic Henry Lewey, was a German-born American neurologist. He is best known for the discovery of Lewy bodies, which are a characteristic indicator of Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.Lewy was born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, on January 28, 1885. He trained in Berlin and Zürich and graduated from Berlin in 1910. He worked in Alois Alzheimer's Munich laboratory and was contemporary with Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885–1964), Alfons Maria Jakob (1884–1931) and Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963). In 1933, he fled Nazi Germany and moved to the United States. Lewy died in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 1950, aged 65.

Karl M. Baer (20 May 1885 – 26 June 1956) was a German-Israeli author, social worker, reformer, suffragist and Zionist.
Born intersex and assigned female at birth, he came out as a trans man in 1904 at the age of 21. In December 1906, he became the first transgender person to undergo sex reassignment surgery, and he became one of the first transgender people to gain full legal recognition of his gender identity by having a male birth certificate issued in January 1907. However, some researchers have disputed his label as a trans man, theorizing that he was intersex, and not transgender.Baer wrote notes for sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld on his experiences growing up female while feeling inside that he was male. Together they developed these notes into the semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical Aus eines Mannes Mädchenjahren (Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years) (1907) which was published under the pseudonym N.O. Body. The book "was immensely popular," being "adapted twice to film, in 1912 and 1919." Baer also gained the right to marry and did so in October 1907.
Despite him having undergone gender reaffirming surgery in 1906, exact records of the medical procedures he went through are unknown, as his medical records were burned in the 1930s Nazi book burning, that targeted Hirschfield studies specifically.

Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger (Wilhem Otto Walther Schwieger) (7 April 1885 – 5 September 1917) was a U-boat commander in the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) during First World War. In 1915, he sank the passenger liner RMS Lusitania with the loss of 1,199 lives.

Hulda Martha Arendsee (29 March 1885 – 22 May 1953) was a German politician (KPD) and women's rights activist.