The 100 most influential Europeans

The 100 Most Influential Europeans

er... Charlemagne was belgian...and from a historical point of view he was the founder of the holy roman empire...and therefore kind of the father of europe!

He's listed as being Belgian along with a few others.

Hitler was (Germany) btw. He never liked his Austrian Nationality and gave it up long before he became influental. He served in WWI in a German Unit.

I also thought Sigmund Freud was Austrian but he is listed as being from the Czech Republic.

EDIT: Ah I see the confusion lies in the changing boarders

i think these polls are stupid.
(just thought i share that with you)

Every leader that followed him wanted to be like him or at least control the territory he did.

every single leader since then?

Most influential but not necessarily the greatest. Some will only be remembered for starting wars and terrible attrotrities...

John Lennon more influential than Adam Smith. Pah! Stupid poll.

Definetly. Atatürk isnt even on it. This is more a 'most popular european'-poll, and i doubt it was anywhere near a representative sample of europeans that voted.
Kant isnt on the list either, and neither is Goethe or Schiller and it gets completely inane with the omission of Marc Aurel and even Machiavelli.

I think some of these folks should be on a list entitled Europe's most notorious leaders .

Indeed he did, but only with the King of Bavaria's express permission - he was officially Austrian until the 20's, whereupon he was without nationality for a while, before acquiring German nationality from some shitty Staat - can't remember which one.

for some of those "influential europeans", influential has been mixed up with powerful which imo is not the same.

I wonder just how many people have ever heard of Mihai Eminescu (No. 17, no less), for example.

Braunschweig.
He was made so via a trick - he was given a position as Beamter (he never showed up at his job of course), which automatically made him eligible for a Braunschweig Pass which in turn gave him German Nationality. That was a last-minute thing before von Brüning declared him Reichskanzler (via Notstandsgesetze).

This is a classic case of self-dismantling of a democracy, and i can only recommend anyone to read up on how it was achieved. History does repeat itself from time to time.

They obviously wouldn't include the people of Coventry in this poll - he was prepared to sacrifice thousands of them for the "greater good".
My mother hated him too - when I read his books "history of the English speaking peoples" his face was on the covers and she would always turn the books over whenever she came in my room.
Basically she blamed him for the death of her brother who was fighting in the tanks in the North African desert. Churchil gave orders that they were to push forward at all costs and her brother got slaughtered in an ambush at the hands of Rommel at the battle of Halfaya Pass that became known as Hellfire Pass.
I think he was a great man but surely Nelson, Duke of Wellington or Newton must rank above him.

Three out of four of Charlemagne's supposed birthplaces lie in todays Nordrhein Westfalen or Rheinlandpfalz, therefore I wouldn't state him as belgian...

Hitler got the german citizenship in 1932 when he was running for Reichspräsident, only Germans could run for this and so he was quickly "made" german in the Freistaat Braunschweig, where the NSDAP was in charge at the time. He simply was made a "Beamter" by the local government, because the awarding of a "Beamtenstelle" automatically made the grantee a German citizen. He put down his Austrian citizenship in 1925...

Edit: Beaten...

Agree Kay, two Romanians in the top 25? Give me a map of the country and I couldn't place a pin which Bucharest is!

I initially thought this was an EU-sponsored poll or at least a remotely serious one, but the truth is much more prosaic. As copied from the home page of the site:


It's hardly surprising that we were wondering about weird rankings and inexplicable omissions!

And if it was a most popular poll, Hitler does look a bit odd up there at thetop end of the 100.

But at least he finally beat Churchill at something !

Karl der Große, aka Charlemagne was as German as they come.

How so? He was a Frank and as such a member of a Germanic tribe but that doesn't make him German by a long way. What language did he speak? Genuine question BTW, I've no idea.

He probably spoke germanic and, being of noble blood, french.
These are just educated guesses tho. IIRC his place of birth is not known. Both wouldnt be very good criteria to determine his 'nationality' anyway. But being of Karl Martell's blood (The alleged inventor of "Lets kill them all, let god sort 'em out" IIRC) of the House of the "Karolinger" ( The rulers of Frankonia) very much qualifies him as a German i'd say.

Mind ya this is all just from Memory, i give no guarantees here.

Both Charlemagne's father and grandfather were Belgian, the man was a Belgian, period.

I beg to differ... Belgium or Belgians didn't even exist at that time, hence he wasn't a Belgian, period.

HS is right, the concept of Belgium didn't exist at the time.

Imperialist made up country innit.

I cannot seem to find my name on this list. Hmmm

Editor Bob's not there?

I have it on good info BD that EB goes by Socrates in real life. Question is "Does Pootle go by Plato in real life?"

Thats just because you weren't born in Europe i suppose.

You have to look under The 100 most influential Americans, Perdido.

Germany didn't exist either. Martel and Pepin were both born in what is modern day Belgium, and Charlemagne was most probably born there too; therefore if anything, he is a Belgian.

Well my last name is Portuguese. So I am going to with the “I’m German although I have never been there, but grandparents were from there so I am German� argument. ha-ha

Like all those lists it is based on a populist vote and in no way addresses the actual question of influential. Gutenberg at number 14 is ridiculous - if not for his pioneering of the printing press then about 75% of the rest on that list would never have got an education or been anything more than farming peasants. No mention of Watt or Faraday either! And how was Mother Teresa so influential as to rank above Euclid? No mention of Liebniz either but Newton makes it to the top 10! Rubbish.

Plato Schweinshax'nund'neHellesbittsch'n in fact.

Only #44 for Adam Smith? Bonkers.