• Adam Schlesinger (born 1967), American composer and musician
• Adolf Martin Schlesinger (1769-1838), German founder of A.M. Schlesingers Musikhandlung
• Alan Schlesinger (born 1960), American politician and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 2006
• Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965), American historian and professor at Harvard University
• Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007), son of the above, American historian, social critic and former John F. Kennedy associate
• Bruno Schlesinger (1876-1962), American German-born conductor and composer who changed his name to "Bruno Walter" in 1911
• Carl Schlesinger (1813-1871), Austrian cellist
• Cory Schlesinger (born 1972), American football player
• David Schlesinger (born 1960), American journalist who is the Editor-in-Chief of Reuters
• Don Schlesinger, American gaming mathematician, author, lecturer and famous blackjack player
• Frank Schlesinger (1871-1943), American astronomer
• Hermann Irving Schlesinger (1882-1960), American chemist
• James R. Schlesinger (born 1929), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1973-1974)
• Joe Schlesinger (born 1928), Canadian television journalist and author
• John Schlesinger (1926-2003), British film director
• Katharine Schlesinger, British actress
• Kathleen Schlesinger, British musicologist (1862 Holywood near Belfast - 1953 London)
• Klaus Schlesinger (1937-2001), German writer and winner of the 2000 Erich Fried Prize
• Leon Schlesinger (1884-1949), American Looney Tunes producer
• Ludwig Schlesinger (1864-1933), Hungarian-German mathematician, proved Hilbert's twenty-first problem
• Rudolf B. Schlesinger (professor) (1901-1969), Scottish Marxist theoritician and sovietologist of the University of Glasgow
• Rudolf Schlesinger (1909-1996), German-born Professor of Comparative Law at Cornell University, Director of the Cornell Common Core Project
• Walter Schlesinger (1908-1984), German historian

Things and that are named after people with this surname:

• Leon Schlesinger Productions, the 1933 founding name of The Warner Bros. animation division, named after Leon Schlesinger
• Schlesinger (crater), a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon
• Schlesinger Building, a skyscraper in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Schlesinger Library, a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, named after Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.

See also

• Schlessinger
• Slesinger