Herbert Wittmann (3 January 1914, Döllnitz – 26 July 2007) was a highly decorated Oberst in the Luftwaffe during World War II, and one of only 882 recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Herbert Wittmann joined the post-war Deutsche Luftwaffe in 1956, retiring in 1972.

Anneliese Rothenberger (19 June 1924 – 24 May 2010) was a German operatic soprano who had an active international performance career which spanned from 1943 to 1983. She specialized in the lyric coloratura soprano repertoire, and was particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.

Rothenberger was born in Mannheim, Germany. She studied with Erika Müller, and took up her first engagement in Koblenz in 1943. In 1947 Günther Rennert offered her a job at the Hamburg Opera House, where she sang in Rennert's now famous production of Alban Berg's Lulu twenty years later, a role she would also perform at the Munich Opera Festival, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi.^{[citation needed]}

1954 saw her make her debut at the Salzburg Festival, and she appeared in Rolf Liebermann's Schule der Frauen, three years later. From 1954 she became a guest singer at the Vienna State Opera. New York audiences had their first chance to hear the soprano's fine voice in 1960, when she sang there in Der Rosenkavalier. Her performance prompted Lotte Lehmann to call her 'the best Sophie in the world'. Herbert von Karajan chose her to appear alongside Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Sena Jurinac for the filmed performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival.

Hans Herbert Fiedler (born November 10, 1907, Triest, died February 14, 2004 in Munich) was a German operatic bass and actor. He is best known today for portraying the role of Moses in the original 1954 production of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron.

Fiedler studied Germanistics (German Studies) and acting at the University of Graz. He joined the Theater von Troppau in Opava in 1930 where he appeared in stage plays for one season. He joined the Stadttheater von Würzburg in 1931 where he appeared in roles until 1935 when he joined the Volkstheater München. From 1937 through 1940 he worked as a radio broadcaster for the Sender München. During this he became interested in opera and began studying singing in Munich and later with Moratti in Salzburg.

Fiedler made his professional opera debut in 1940 at the Landestheater in Salzburg portraying the role of Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. He sang two seasons with that opera house before joining the Theater von Aussig for the 1942-1943 season. He next joined the roster at the Stadttheater von Bremen where he sang roles from 1943-1953. After a commitment at the Stadttheater von Mainz (1953–55), his career became more centered within the concert repertoire than in opera, although he still occasionally appeared in stage works. He notably sang the bass solos in Germany's first performance of Bartok's Cantata Profana in Cologne in 1954.

Michael Wittmann (April 22, 1914 – August 8, 1944) was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. Wittmann would rise to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and was a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holder.

He was credited with the destruction of 138 tanks and 132 anti-tank guns, along with an unknown number of other armoured vehicles, making him one of Germany's top scoring panzer aces, together with Johannes Bölter, Ernst Barkmann, Otto Carius and Kurt Knispel who was the top scoring ace of the war with 168 tank kills.

Wittmann is most famous for his ambush of elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, during the Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. While in command of a single Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger he destroyed up to 14 tanks and 15 personnel carriers along with 2 anti-tank guns within the space of 15 minutes.

The circumstances behind Wittmann’s death have caused some debate and discussion over the years, but it had been historically accepted that Trooper Joe Ekins, the gunner in a Sherman Firefly of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, fired the fatal shot. However, in recent years, some historians have suggested that members of the Canadian Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment may have been responsible instead.