List of Famous people named Erich

Emil Erich Kästner was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including Emil and the Detectives. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1960 for his autobiography Als ich ein kleiner Junge war. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

Erich Maria Remarque was a German novelist. His landmark novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1928), about the German military experience of World War I, was an international best-seller which created a new literary genre, and was subsequently made into the film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

Erich Gimpel was a German spy during World War II. Together with William Colepaugh, he took part in Operation Elster ("Magpie") an espionage mission to the United States in 1944, but was subsequently captured by the FBI in New York City.

Erich Ernst Paul Honecker was a German communist politician who led East Germany from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989. He held the posts of General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and Chairman of the National Defense Council; in 1976, he replaced Willi Stoph as Chairman of the State Council, the official head of state. As leader of East Germany, Honecker had close ties to the Soviet Union, which maintained a large army in the country.

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. Upon his rise to First Quartermaster-general of the Imperial Army's Great General Staff in 1916, he became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship that dominated Germany for the rest of the war. After Germany's defeat, he emerged as a leading figure in the nation's right-wing fringe and contributed significantly to the Nazis' rise to power.

Erich Kempka was a member of the SS in Nazi Germany who served as Adolf Hitler's primary chauffeur from 1934 to April 1945. He was present in the area of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945, when Hitler shot himself in the Führerbunker. Kempka delivered the petrol to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned.

Erich Fritz Emil Mielke was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi, from 1957 until shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Erich Johannes Bruno Ponto was a German film and stage actor.

Erich Alfred Hartmann was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. He was credited with shooting down a total of 352 Allied aircraft, Those being 345 Soviet planes and seven American while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash-land his fighter 16 times due to either damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down or mechanical failure.

Erich Kühnhackl is a German former professional ice hockey player, born and raised in Czechoslovakia. He is one of the all-time greats of German ice hockey and was named Germany's ice hockey player of the 20th century in 2000. Kühnhackl is a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame as well as of the German ice hockey Hall of Fame and Germany's Sport Hall of Fame.