List of Famous people born in Poland

Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius was a German chemist known for the Bergius process for producing synthetic fuel from coal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of contributions to the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods. Having worked with IG Farben during World War II, his citizenship came into question following the war, causing him to ultimately flee to Argentina, where he acted as adviser to the Ministry of Industry.

Margaret of Münsterberg was a German regent: Duchess of Anhalt by marriage to Prince Ernest I, she ruled the principality as a regent for her underage sons from 1516.

Hans Hellmut Kirst was a German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English. Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoing struggle of an honest individual to maintain his identity and humanity amidst the criminality and corruption of Nazi Germany.

Maria Helene Françoise Izabel Gräfin von Maltzan, Freiin zu Wartenberg und Penzlin was an aristocrat who, as part of the German Resistance against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, saved the lives of many Jewish people in Berlin.

Antoni Krauze was a Polish screenwriter and director.

Przemysł II, was the Duke of Poznań from 1257–1279, of Greater Poland from 1279–1296, of Kraków from 1290–1291, and Gdańsk Pomerania (Pomerelia) from 1294–1296, and then King of Poland from 1295 until his death. After a long period of Polish high dukes and two nominal kings, he was the first to obtain the hereditary title of king, and thus to return Poland to the rank of kingdom. A member of the Greater Poland branch of the House of Piast as the only son of Duke Przemysł I and the Silesian princess Elisabeth, he was born posthumously; for this reason he was brought up at the court of his uncle Bolesław the Pious and received his own district to rule, the Duchy of Poznań in 1273. Six years later, after the death of his uncle, he also obtained the Duchy of Kalisz.

Anna Karolina Orzelska was an adventuress and Polish szlachcianka (noblewoman), the illegitimate daughter of August II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, by Henriette Rénard.

Prince Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł was a Polish nobleman, politician, diplomat and member of the Polish-Lithuanian Radziwill family. He was a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle and a holder of the Order of the Black Eagle. His paternal great-grandfather was Dominik Mikołaj Radziwiłł.

Jerzy Katlewicz was a Polish music conductor, pianist and Professor of the Academy of Music in Kraków since 1990. Katlewicz graduated from the same Academy in 1952, and served as conductor of the Kraków Philharmonic between 1952 and 1958 during the period of Stalinism in Poland. He was appointed artistic director there a decade later, in 1968 and remained at his post until 1981. In 1961-68 he was artistic director of Polish Baltic Opera and Philharmonic in Gdańsk. In 1984–1985 he was artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of the Polish Radio and Television state agency in Kraków. Katlewicz was the recipient of the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1993), among other distinctions.

Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language.