Landauers

Landauers is a surname of German origin. It is derived from place names such as Landau, or from topographic and occupational roots, and is found among German-speaking populations as well as Ashkenazi Jewish communities. Variants include Landauer, and the plural form Landauers is used in English-language references when discussing multiple people who bear the name.

Notable individuals with the surname include Gustav Landauer (1870–1919), a German anarchist, writer, and theorist associated with libertarian socialist currents and the Bavarian Soviet Republic. He died in the aftermath of the republic’s suppression. Rolf Landauer (1927–1999) was a physicist known for Landauer’s principle, which states that erasing one bit of information dissipates a minimum amount of energy proportional to temperature and the Boltzmann constant; his work contributed to the study of the thermodynamics of computation.

Beyond these figures, the surname appears across various fields, including academia, arts, and public life, in different countries. As with many surnames of German origin, Landauer/Landauers can reflect historical migratory patterns and regional affiliations, and present-day bearers may be found in diverse professions around the world.