Famous People Who Died In 1925

Erik Satie was a French pianist and composer. An influential artist during his time, Satie's works served as a predecessor to later artistic movements like repetitive music, minimalism, and the Theatre of the Absurd. Apart from being a musician, Erik Satie was also a prolific writer, who contributed to publications, such as Vanity Fair and 391.

Henri Fayol was a French mining engineer, author, mining executive, and director of mines. He is credited with developing a theory of business administration called Fayolism. Along with Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol is credited with founding modern management methods.

Austrian philosopher and architect and Rudolf Steiner gained fame as a literary critic and published works such as The Philosophy of Freedom. His interests included esotericism and clairvoyance. He termed his work spiritual science. He designed the Goetheanum and also laid down concepts such as Waldorf education and biodynamic agriculture.

John Singer Sargent, an artist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation." Prolific in his output, he created more than 2,000 watercolors and around 900 oil paintings. He also made numerous sketches and charcoal drawings. He painted with remarkable technical acumen and was internationally known for his expertise.   

Felix Christian Klein was a German mathematician and educator remembered for his work on complex analysis, group theory, and non-Euclidean geometry. He is also popular for his work on the relationship between group theory and geometry. He is credited with teaching advanced courses to students like Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, who went on to become a renowned mathematician in his own right.

Born in Russia, Sigmund Rosenblum was the illegitimate son of a doctor. He later joined the British intelligence services as a spy under the alias Sidney Reilly and mostly reported on the oil deals of Russia. He wished to topple the Bolshevik regime but was eventually executed by Russian authorities.

Friedrich Ebert was a German politician who served as the president of Germany from 1919 to 1925. He played an important role during the German Revolution of 1918–19, which helped replace the federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary republic, which came to be known as the Weimar Republic. Friedrich Ebert also worked towards restoring peace in Germany.

Russian statesman Georgy Lvov created history by becoming the first prime minister of the Russian provisional government formed during the 1917 February Revolution. A qualified lawyer, he worked in civil service for a few years, before joining the Kadet Party, or the Constitutional Democratic Party.

Born into a peasant family, Russian lyrical poet Sergei Yesenin was a significant figure of Imaginism. Known as "the last poet of wooden Russia," Yesenin soared to fame with works such as Radunitsa. He later committed suicide in a hotel, having written his last poem in his own blood.

Psychoanalyst and physician Josef Breuer inspired what later came to be known as Sigmund Freud’s cathartic method to treat mental ailments. His experiments with his patient Anna O. proved the therapeutic effect of the talking cure. He had also conducted research on the respiratory cycle and discovered the Hering-Breuer reflex.

Born in Switzerland, Félix Vallotton later moved to Paris to study art and grew to be one of the prominent members of the Les Nabis. Renowned for his woodcuts, he mostly focused on nudes and interiors. Politically conscious, he often infused political themes in his art, such as The Demonstration.

Though born to a ballet dancer father and a pianist mother, Alexander Friedmann grew up to be a talented mathematician and cosmologist. He had served as an aviator during World War I and later also taught. He died of typhoid at age 37 after eating a pear during his honeymoon.

Though trained as a tailor, Władysław Stanisław Reymont never worked as one and joined a traveling theater instead. He later devoted himself to writing and gained fame with novels such as The Promised Land and Revolt. His 4-volume novel The Peasants won him the Nobel Prize and was also filmed.

Oliver Heaviside was an English mathematician and physicist. He invented a new technique for solving differential equations and independently developed vector calculus. He is also credited with rewriting Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He formulated the telegrapher’s equations and invented the Heaviside step function as well. In 1922, he received the Faraday Medal.

Clément Ader was a French engineer and inventor best remembered for his pioneering work in aviation. Widely regarded as the father of aviation in France, Clément Ader is still revered for his early powered-flight efforts. His aircraft models are still displayed at Paris' Musée des Arts et Métiers.

Léon Bourgeois was a French statesman known for his progressive political ideals. He studied law as a young man and soon entered politics. With time, he steadily rose through the political ranks and became the prime minister of France in 1895. He promoted social insurance schemes, economic equality, controlled disarmament, economic sanctions, and expanded educational opportunities.

French comedian, filmmaker, and screenwriter of the silent-film era, Gabriel Leuvielle, better known as Max Linder, is remembered as the world’s first movie star. He is known to have influenced Charlie Chaplin. He also created his iconic character Max, beginning with The Skater's Debut, and played it in several comedies later.

British colonial administrator George Taubman Goldie who is known for his efforts in founding the country Nigeria. He led the Royal Niger Company and marked clear boundaries of control in his negotiations with the French and the German authorities. He was eventually knighted for his achievements.

Moritz Moszkowski was a pianist, teacher, and composer of Polish-Jewish descent. He achieved popularity during the late 19th century and was well respected by his peers. Moritz Moszkowski is credited with teaching future composers like Ernest Schelling, Joaquín Nin, Carl Lachmund, and Joaquín Turina.

French silent-era director Louis Feuillade is remembered primarily for his crime film serials such as Fantômas, Judex, and Les Vampires. Initially a journalist, he began his career in the movie industry as a screenwriter. His powerful films breathed life into the French film industry, which, back then, was suffering due to foreign competition.

Stefan Żeromski was a dramatist and novelist who received four nominations for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature during his illustrious career. He was a leading Polish neoromantic writer and many of his novels like Dzieje grzechu and Przedwiośnie were adapted into films. Stefan Żeromski's works have also been translated into many languages including Croatian.

French astronomer Camille Flammarion began his career as a human computer at the Paris Observatory at 16. He believed intelligent beings from Mars had tried to communicate with people on Earth in the past. He also published L'Astronomie and penned sci-fi novels such as Omega: The Last Days of the World.

Lovis Corinth was a German writer and artist whose work as a printmaker and painter realized a synthesis of expressionism and impressionism. An important member of the Berlin Secession group, Corinth went on to serve as the group's president as Max Liebermann's successor. Apart from creating landscapes and portraits of extraordinary vitality, Lovis Corinth also painted biblical scenes and nudes.

One of the prominent names in the formation of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden and also its leader from 1907 to 1925, Karl Hjalmar Branting served thrice as the Prime Minister of Sweden between 1920 and 1925. In 1921, the father of socialism in Sweden was awarded Nobel Peace Prize together with Norwegian diplomat Christian Lous Lange.

Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro pioneered the study of absolute differential calculus, or Ricci calculus, which later came to be known as tensor analysis. His studies were later used by Albert Einstein in his discovery of the theory of relativity, which is why the Ricci tensor is also known as the Einstein tensor.