Hanns Bruno Geinitz was born on October 16, 1814, in Altenberg, Hessen, Germany.

He was a German geologist, mineralogist, paleontologist, and author. He was educated at the universities of Berlin and Jena and received his Ph.D. in 1837. In 1850, he became Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the Royal Polytechnic School at Dresden, and in 1857, he was made director of the Royal Mineralogical and Geological Museum, the posts he held until 1894. He was distinguished for his research on the Carboniferous and Cretaceous rocks and fossils of Saxony. He also described the graptolites of the local Silurian strata; and the flora of the coal-formation of the Altay Mountains and of Nebraska. From 1863 to 1878 he was one of the editors of the Neues Jahrbuch. He was awarded the Murchison Medal by the Geological Society of London in 1878. His son Franz Eugen Geinitz (1854–1925) became a Professor of Geology at the University of Rostock.

He married Margareta Will (1827-1906). He died on January 28, 1900, in Dresden, Sachsen, Germany.