Famous people named Koenig

Engineers and scientists

• Friedrich Koenig (1774–1833), who built the first steam-powered printing press; The Times of London was printed on his machine from 1814.
• Alexander Koenig (1858–1940), naturalist whose collections became the Museum Koenig in Bonn, where West Germany's parliamentary council met in 1948.
• Arthur König (1856–1901), physician and researcher in optics and colour vision.
• Gyula Kőnig (1849–1913) and his son Dénes Kőnig (1884–1944), Hungarian mathematicians; Dénes wrote the first textbook of graph theory.

Faith and public life

Franz König (1905–2004), Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, was a leading voice at the Second Vatican Council and in dialogue with Eastern Europe. The surgeon Franz König (1832–1910) carried the same name a century earlier.

From König to Koenig

The name appears as König in Germany and Austria and as Koenig or Konig where the umlaut was dropped. The German sculptor Fritz Koenig (1924–2017) made The Sphere, the bronze that stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center and survived the 2001 attacks. Gottfried Michael Koenig (1926–2021) was a pioneer of electronic and computer music in Cologne and Utrecht, and Imre König (1899–1992) was a Hungarian-born chess master. The German-born naturalist Charles Konig (1774–1851) became Keeper of Mineralogy at the British Museum. In sport, American basketball guard Bronson Koenig (born 1994) and baseball player and coach Fred Koenig (1931–1993) kept the anglicised spelling. The German judge Doris König (born 1957) became vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Entertainment

• Walter Koenig (1936–2026), who played Pavel Chekov in Star Trek.
• Ezra Koenig (born 1984), singer and songwriter of Vampire Weekend.
• Andrew Koenig (1968–2010), actor, Walter's son.

Like English King, the surname began as a nickname, for a festival king or a guild leader, so Koenigs are many families. You can read more on our Koenig coat of arms page, and find research tips in Koenig family history and genealogy.