// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Detlef a detective? Detlef-initely.

Detlef is a given name of German origin. It is also spelled Detlev.

People with this name

Notable people with this name include:

• Detlef Bothe (canoeist) (born 1957), East German sprint canoeist
• Detlef Bothe (actor) (born 1965), German actor
• Detlef Bruckhoff (born 1958), retired German footballer
• Detlef Enge (1952–2025), East German football player
• Detlef Franke (1952–2007), German Egyptologist
• Detlef Gerstenberg (1957–1993), East German hammer thrower
• Detlef Gromoll (1938–2008), German mathematician
• Detlef Grumbach (born 1955), German author and journalist
• Detlef Hofmann (born 1963), German sprint canoeist
• Detlef Kästner (born 1958), East German boxer
• Detlef Kübeck (born 1956), retired East German sprinter
• Detlef Kirchhoff (born 1967), German rower
• Detlef Kraus (1919–2008), German pianist
• Detlef Laugwitz (1932–2000), German mathematician
• Detlef Lewe (1939–2008), West German sprint canoeist
• Detlef Lienau (1818–1887), German architect born in Denmark
• Detlef Lohse (born 1963), German fluid mechanics researcher
• Detlef Michel (born 1955), German track and field athlete
• Detlef Nebbe (1912–1972), SS-Hauptscharführer and member of staff at Auschwitz concentration camp
• Detleff Neumann-Neurode (1879–1945), pioneering German pediatric physical therapist
• Detlef Okrent (1909–1983), German field hockey player
• Detlef Pirsig (1945–2019), former German football player
• Detlef Quadfasel, professor of geophysics at Niels Bohr Institute
• Detlef Raugust (born 1954), German former footballer
• Detlef Richter (born 1956), East German bobsledder
• Detlef Sack (born 1965), professor of Comparative Political Science at Bielefeld University
• Detlef Schößler (born 1962), German former footballer, now a coach
• Detlef Schmidt (born 1958), West German sprint canoeist
• Detlef Schrempf (born 1963), retired German NBA basketball player
• Detlef Siebert, German television writer, director and producer, working in the UK
• Detlef Soost (born 1970), German dancer and choreographer
• Detlef Thorith (1942–2019), retired East German discus thrower
• Detlef Uhlemann (born 1949), former West German distance runner
• Detlef Ultsch (born 1955), former East German judoka
• Detlef Wagenknecht (born 1959), East German middle-distance runner
• Detlef Weigel (born 1961), German American scientist working at the interface of developmental and evolutionary biology
• Detlef Wiedeke (born 1950), German singer, composer and producer
• Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs (1836–1923), published findings on chemical element periodicity before Dmitri Mendeleev or Lothar Meyer