Who Was Alive

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

German writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic

Born 22 January 1729 · died 15 February 1781, aged 52

Who was alive at the same time as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing?

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach
  2. Voltaire
  3. Benjamin Franklin
  4. Leonhard Euler
  5. Carl Linnaeus
  6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  7. Adam Smith
  8. Immanuel Kant
  9. James Cook
  10. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  11. George Washington
  12. John Adams
  13. Thomas Jefferson
  14. Francisco Goya
  15. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  16. James Madison
  17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  18. Friedrich Schiller
  19. Katsushika Hokusai
  20. Ludwig van Beethoven
  21. Napoleon
  22. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
  23. Jane Austen
  24. Carl Friedrich Gauss
Drag across the timeline to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born, Johann Sebastian Bach was 43, Voltaire was 34, Immanuel Kant was 4, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 16 and Adam Smith was 5.

When Gotthold Ephraim Lessing died, Napoleon was 11, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 31, George Washington was 48, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 25 and Immanuel Kant was 56.

Born during Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s lifetime: Napoleon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Thomas Jefferson, Jane Austen and Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Not quite contemporaries: Isaac Newton died 2 years before Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born, Lord Byron was born 7 years after Gotthold Ephraim Lessing died, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz died 13 years before Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born and Louis XIV of France died 14 years before Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born.

Compare

All 116 contemporaries we track

  1. Napoleon 1769 – 1821
  2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  3. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 – 1791
  5. Ludwig van Beethoven c. 1770 – 1827
  6. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  7. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  8. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  10. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  11. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  12. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  13. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  14. Jane Austen 1775 – 1817
  15. Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855
  16. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770 – 1831
  17. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  18. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  19. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  20. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  21. Friedrich Schiller 1759 – 1805
  22. Katsushika Hokusai 1760 – 1849
  23. James Madison 1751 – 1836
  24. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  25. John Quincy Adams 1767 – 1848
  26. Andrew Jackson 1767 – 1845
  27. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  28. William Blake 1757 – 1827
  29. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  30. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  31. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  32. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  33. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  34. James Monroe 1758 – 1831
  35. Catherine II of Russia 1729 – 1796
  36. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  37. Daniel Defoe 1659–1662 – 1731
  38. Alexander von Humboldt 1769 – 1859
  39. William Wordsworth 1770 – 1850
  40. William Henry Harrison 1773 – 1841
  41. Walter Scott 1771 – 1832
  42. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  43. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  44. Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793
  45. Maximilien Robespierre 1758 – 1794
  46. Joseph Fourier 1768 – 1830
  47. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1780 – 1867
  48. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  49. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797
  50. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  51. Louis XVI of France 1754 – 1793
  52. Frederick II of Prussia 1712 – 1786
  53. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  54. Robert Burns 1759 – 1796
  55. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 – 1834
  56. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  57. André-Marie Ampère 1775 – 1836
  58. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  59. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  60. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  61. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  62. Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1762 – 1814
  63. Novalis 1772 – 1801
  64. John Dalton 1766 – 1844
  65. Alexander I of Russia 1777 – 1825
  66. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  67. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  68. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  69. George III of Great Britain 1738 – 1820
  70. Carl von Clausewitz 1780 – 1831
  71. Louis XV of France 1710 – 1774
  72. Maria Theresa of Austria 1717 – 1780
  73. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  74. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  75. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  76. Thomas Robert Malthus 1766 – 1834
  77. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  78. Horatio Nelson 1758 – 1805
  79. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  80. Alexander Hamilton 1757 – 1804
  81. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 1769 – 1852
  82. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  83. Humphry Davy 1778 – 1829
  84. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  85. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  86. Hans Christian Ørsted 1777 – 1851
  87. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  88. Gregory XVI 1765 – 1846
  89. Wilhelm von Humboldt 1767 – 1835
  90. David Ricardo 1772 – 1823
  91. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  92. Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  93. William IV 1765 – 1837
  94. Friedrich Hölderlin 1770 – 1843
  95. Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856
  96. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  97. Klemens von Metternich 1773 – 1859
  98. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  99. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754 – 1839
  100. Paul I of Russia 1754 – 1801
  101. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  102. George IV of the United Kingdom 1762 – 1830
  103. François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1768 – 1848
  104. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  105. Georges Danton 1759 – 1794
  106. Leo XII 1760 – 1829
  107. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling 1775 – 1854
  108. E. T. A. Hoffmann 1776 – 1822
  109. Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  110. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  111. Thomas Young 1773 – 1829
  112. Caspar David Friedrich 1774 – 1840
  113. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  114. Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  115. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810
  116. Germaine de Staël 1766 – 1817