People from the Rhine Province

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.

Johanna Kinkel (8 July 1810 – 15 November 1858), born Maria Johanna Mockel, was a German composer, writer, pedagogue, and revolutionary.

Armin Theophil Wegner (October 16, 1886 – May 17, 1978) was a German soldier and medic in World War I, a prolific author, and a human rights activist. Stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Wegner was a witness to the Armenian genocide and the photographs he took documenting the plight of the Armenians today "comprises the core of witness images of the Genocide.": 258–259 In the years following World War I, Wegner also voiced his opposition, at great risk to his own life, to the antisemitic policies of the Nazi regime. In 1933, he authored an impassioned plea to Adolf Hitler on behalf of German Jews. He suggested that the persecution of the Jews was not just a question of "the fate of our Jewish brothers alone, [but also] the fate of Germany.": 240  Noting that he was writing the letter as a proud German who could himself trace his Prussian familial roots back to the time of the Crusades, Wegner asked Hitler what would become of Germany if it continued its persecution of Jews. Answering his own question, Wegner declared, "There is no Fatherland without justice!": 244  He was persecuted by the Nazi regime and fled after being released from a concentration camp.
After leaving Germany, Wegner lived the rest of his life in Italy. He was later recognized for his anti-genocide efforts, including recognition by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. His story and his pictures have featured in multiple later efforts to document the Armenian genocide.

Friedrich Carl Duisberg (29 September 1861 – 19 March 1935) was a German chemist and industrialist.

Helmut Thielicke (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈtiːlɪkə]; 4 December 1908 in Wuppertal – 5 March 1986 in Hamburg) was a German Protestant theologian and rector of the University of Hamburg from 1960 to 1978.

August Thyssen (German: [ˈaʊɡʊst ˈtʏsn̩]; 17 May 1842 – 4 April 1926) was a German industrialist, founder and controlling shareholder of Thyssen & Co (presently ThyssenKrupp). He was a prominent member of the Thyssen family.

Wilhelm Dörpfeld (26 December 1853 – 25 April 1940) was a German architect and archaeologist, a pioneer of stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects. He is famous for his work on Bronze Age sites around the Mediterranean, such as Tiryns and Hisarlik (the site of the legendary city of Troy), where he continued Heinrich Schliemann's excavations. Like Schliemann, Dörpfeld was an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. While the details of his claims regarding locations mentioned in Homer's writings are not considered accurate by later archaeologists, his fundamental idea that they correspond to real places is accepted. Thus, his work greatly contributed to not only scientific techniques and study of these historically significant sites but also a renewed public interest in the culture and the mythology of Ancient Greece.

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also been credited with performing the first artificial 'cloning' of an animal in the 1880s, although this claim is dependent on how one defines cloning.

Friedrich Bayer (born Friedrich Beyer, 6 June 1825 in Barmen now Wuppertal – 6 May 1880 in Würzburg) was the founder of what would become Bayer, a German chemical and pharmaceutical company. He founded the dyestuff factory Friedrich Bayer along with Johann Friedrich Weskott in 1863 in Elberfeld, a flourishing city in the early industrialised region of the Wuppertal or Wupper Valley.

Friedrich Bayer changed the spelling of his surname from Beyer in his early twenties, due to the publicity gained by a fraudulent merchant from Leipzig bearing the same name. Friedrich Beyer from Barmen feared that the bad reputation of his namesake could damage his business and consequently changed his surname to Bayer.

Helmut Dörner (26 June 1909 in Mönchengladbach – 11 February 1945 in Budapest) was a German commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. During World War II, he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross during the Battle of France.
Dörner stayed with the Polizei division until late 1943, and was then transferred to Greece. When Karl Schümers (divisional commander) was killed, Dörner took over the command until the arrival of the new commander. In September 1944 the 4th SS Polizei Division was sent to Rumania and Hungary. During the siege of Budapest, he became the commander of a mixed battle group and died during a breakthrough attempt.