BERLIN: German poet, playwright and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has been voted the greatest German of all time in a new poll, beating runners-up chancellor Konrad Adenauer and physicist Albert Einstein.

The author of “The Sorrows of Young Werther” and “Faust”, who died in 1832, received the most votes in a poll of 2,000 people for the daily Bild newspaper, said the Forsa institute which conducted the survey.

The only living people to receive votes were the country's longest-serving leader Helmut Kohl (from 1982 to 1998), in fifth place, and ex-Social Democrat leader Helmut Schmidt (from 1974 to 1982) in seventh.

Adenauer was West Germany's first chancellor after World War II, 1949-63.