Walther () is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

form of

Walter Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

, which is derived from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

Walthari Walthari (also Waltheri, ) son of Wacho from his third wife Silinga, was a king of the Lombards from 539 to 546. He was an infant king, and rulership of the kingdom was administered by Audoin. Audoin probably killed Waltari before he reached manho ...

'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was first popularized by the famous epic German hero Walther von Aquitaine and later with the

Minnesänger (; "love song") was a tradition of German lyric- and song-writing that flourished in the Middle High German period (12th to 14th centuries). The name derives from '' minne'', the Middle High German word for love, as that was ''Minnesangs m ...

Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (; ) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs ('' Sprüche'') in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or s ...

Given name

Walther Bauersfeld Walther Bauersfeld (23 January 1879 – 28 October 1959) was a German engineer. Life He was employed by the Carl Zeiss Jena, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomer Max Wolf, started work on the first projection planetarium in 1912. Th ...

(1879–1959), German engineer who built the first projection planetarium *

Walther Bothe Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (; 8 January 1891 – 8 February 1957) was a German physicist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Max Born "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith". He served in the military durin ...

(1891–1957), German nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate *

Walther von Brauchitsch Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch (4 October 1881 – 18 October 1948) was a German ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (Field Marshal) and Commander-in-Chief (''Oberbefehlshaber'') of the German Army during the first two years of World War ...

(1881–1948), German World War II field marshal *

Walther Dahl Walther Dahl (27 March 1916 – 25 November 1985) was a German pilot and a fighter ace during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. Dahl claimed some 128 enemy aircraft shot dow ...

(1916–1985), German World War II flying ace * Walther von Dyck (1856–1934), German mathematician * Walther Flemming (1843–1905), German biologist and a founder of cytogenetics * Walther Funk (1890–1960), economist and Nazi official convicted of war crimes in the Nuremberg Trials * Walther Hahm (1894–1951), German World War II general * Walther Hewel (1904–1945), German diplomat and one of Hitler's few personal friends * Walther von Klingen (died March 1, 1284), Minnesänger and Nobleman from Thurgau * Walther Kossel (1888–1956), German physicist * Walther von Lüttwitz (1859–1942), German general and a leader of the unsuccessful Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch against the Weimar Republic * Walther Meissner (1882–1974), German technical physicist and discoverer of the Meissner effect * Walther Müller (1905–1979), German physicist * Walther Otto Müller (1833–1887), German botanist * Walther Nehring (1892–1983), German World War II general * Walther Nernst (1864–1941), German physical chemist and physicist; Nobel laureate in chemistry * Walther Rathenau (1867–1922), German industrialist, politician, writer, statesman and Foreign Minister of Germany for the Weimar Republic * Walther Ritz (1878–1909), Swiss theoretical physicist * Walther Schroth (1882–1944), German World War II general * Walther Schwieger (1885–1917), German World War I U-boat commander who sank the ''Lusitania'' * Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, German World War II general * Walther Stampfli (1884–1965), Swiss politician *

(c. 1170–c. 1230), High German lyric poet * Walther Wenck (1900–1982), youngest general in the German Army during World War II * Walther Wever (general) (1887–1936), German general, commander of the Luftwaffe and proponent of strategic bombing * Walther Wever (pilot) (1923–1945), German flying ace and son of the above

Surname

* Andrea Walther (born 1970), German mathematician * Augustin Friedrich Walther (1688–1746), German anatomist * Bernhard Walther (1430–1504), German astronomer for whom a lunar crater is named * C. F. W. Walther (1811–1887), German-American first President of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and its most influential theologian * Carl Walther (1858–1915), German gunsmith and founder of Walther Arms * Christoph Walther (born 1950), German computer scientist * Edgar Walther (1930-2013), Swiss chess player * Eric Walther (born 1975), German pentathlete * Erich Walther (1903–1947), German World War II general * Frédéric Henri Walther (1761–1813), Alsatian-born general in Napoleon's army * George Walther Sr. (1876–1961), American inventor * George H. Walther (1828–1895), American politician * Geraldine Walther (born 1950), American violist * Gesine Walther (born 1962), German sprinter * Johann Gottfried Walther (1684–1748), German organist and composer * Johann Jakob Walther (composer) (1650–1704), German composer/violinist * Johann Jakob Walther (artist), Johann Jakob Walther (1600–1679), German artist and botanical illustrator * Johannes Walther (1860–1937), German geologist * Kerstin Walther (born 1961), German sprinter * Kirsten Walther (1933–1987), Danish actress * Philipp Franz von Walther (1782–1849), German doctor * Christoph Theodosius Walther (1699–1741), German missionary

Given name

Surname

See also