A timeline of artists in Germany's Historic Highlights cities provides a veritable who's who of some of the world's most outstanding artists. Throughout the centuries, the relative wealth of many cities drew talent from across the continent.

8th/9th century Goldsmith's work, ivory carvings, wall paintings

11th /13th century Romanesque period

13th /15th century Gothic period

11th /16th century. Painted-glass windows in the cathedrals of Regensburg, Freiburg and Erfurt

1455/60 - 1531 T. Riemenschneider (sculptor) in Würzburg

1460/75 - 1528 Matthias Grünewald (painter) in Würzburg

1465 -1524 Holbein the Elder (painter) in Augsburg

1471 - 1528 Albrecht Dürer (painter) in Augsburg

1476 - 1545 Hans Baldung Grien (painter) in Freiburg

1472 - 1553 Lucas Cranach the Elder (painter) Augsburg

1473 – 1531 Hans Burgkmair (painter) in Augsburg

1480 - 1538 Albrecht Altdorfer (painter) in Regensburg

1497/98 - 1543 Holbein the Younger (painter) in Augsburg

1573 - 1646 Elias Holl (master builder) in Augsburg

1578 - 1625 Vicke Schorler (pen-and-ink artist) in Rostock

16th/17th century Renaissance period

17th/18th century Baroque and Rococo periods

1664 - 1721 Josef Greising (master builder) in Würzburg

1687 - 1753 Balthasar Neumann (master builder) in Würzburg and Koblenz

1695 - 1773 Johann C. Schlaun (master builder) in Münster

1696 - 1770 Giovanni B. Tiepolo (painter) in Würzburg

1699 - 1753 G. v. Knobelsdorff (architect) in Potsdam

1731 - 1791 Christian v. Gontard (architect) in Potsdam

1781 - 1841 Karl F. Schinkel (court architect) in Potsdam and Koblenz

1789 - 1866 Peter J. Lenné (garden architect) in Potsdam

1790 - 1866 Johann A. Ramboux (painter) in Trier

1795 - 1818 Carl P. Forl (painter) in Heidelberg

1797 - 1850 Carl Rottmann (painter) in Heidelberg

1801 - 1833 Ernst Fries (painter) in Heidelberg

1803 - 1845 Ludwig Persius (master builder) in Potsdam

1805  Napoleon donates valuable works of art to citizens of Mainz, creating the origins of the Landesmuseum.


19th century Classical period

1885 - 1958 Josef Achmann (painter) in Regensburg

1863 - 1944 Edvard Munch (painter) in Rostock

1864 - 1941 Alexej von Jawlensky (Russian painter)  in Wiesbaden

1904 – 1944  Painter Felix Nussbaum born in Osnabrück. The Jewish painter was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944