Timeline Germany (A) to 1820
Best Cities: https://www.bookmundi.com/t/10-best-cities-to-visit-in-germany
History: http://germanculture.com.ua/day/march-6-in-german-history/
Tourism: http://www.germany-tourism.de
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/detoc.html
USLC East Germ.: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/gxtoc.html
USSD: http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/germany_9905_bgn.html
Germany is about the size of Montana.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/22/97, p.A1)
Germany's 16 lander (states) included: Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Saxony, Brandenburg, Berlin (city-state).
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.53)
390Mil BC In 2007 British scientists reported a fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that was 8-feet long, making the entire creature the biggest bug ever. The fossil was from a Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae, a kind of scorpion that lived only in Germany for about 10 million years.
(AP, 11/20/07)
154Mil BC Holger Luedtke, an amateur fossil hunter, found in 1998 the fossils of small dinosaurs in a quarry in Germany's Hartz mountains. They were later identified as a new species from this time and named Europasaurus holgeri.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A7)
150Mil BC Upper Jurassic lithographic limestone at Solenhofen, southern Germany, has fossils of Pterodactylus, a pigeon-sized descendant of Podopteryx. Its wings were supported on elongated and thickened fourth fingers. The effective area of each wing could be controlled by the spread of the hind limbs. The body and limbs were covered by a fine fur indicating some sort of body heat control. A more primitive group was the Rhamphorynchoidea, which had narrower wings and a long stiff tail. Pterosaurs were widespread and have been found on all continents except Antarctica. Pterodaustro scooped plankton from the water. Anurognathus ate insects. Dimorphodon ate meat. Pteranodon caught fishes. Up to this time insects with wingspans of more than 2 feet ruled the skies.
(TE-JB, p.62)(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A9)
47Mil BC In 2009 Scientists in New York unveiled the skeleton of what they said could be the common ancestor to humans, apes and other primates. The tiny creature, officially known as Darwinius masillae, but dubbed Ida, lived about this time and was unusually well preserved. The monkey-like creature, discovered in 1983, was preserved through the ages in Germany's Messel Pit, a crater rich in Eocene Epoch fossils. New analysis soon followed saying Darwinius does not belong in the same primate category as monkeys, apes and humans. Instead, the analysis concluded, it falls into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs.
(AFP, 5/19/09)(AP, 10/21/09)
c500000BC A human jawbone of about this age, homo Heidelbergensis, was found in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1907.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T9)
400000-380000BC Researchers in Germany in 1997 unearthed wooden spears made of spruce of this age from an ancient lakeshore hunting ground. The spears were found in a coal mine in Shöningen, near Hanover.
(SFC, 2/27/97, p.A6)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.25)
40000BC Home sapiens in Germany were making flutes about this time.
38000BC A 30 cm. high figure with human legs, an arm and the head of a lion was carved about this time in southwestern Germany. Its fragments were discovered in 1939 and pieced together over the next three decades.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.71)
33000BC In 2004 archaeologists of the University of Tuebingen said a 35,000BC-year-old flute made from a woolly mammoth's ivory tusk had been unearthed in a German cave and pieced together from 31 fragments. In 2009 a flute from about this same time, made from vulture bone, was displayed. Its 12 pieces had been found in the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany.
(AP, 12/11/04)(SFC, 6/25/09, p.A4)
33000BC Av ivory carving dating to about this time depicted a busty woman. It was found in 2008 in a German cave and was unveiled in 2009 by archaeologists who believed it to be the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.
6200BC In Germany the Adonis of Zschernitz, a male fertility figurine dating to this time, was excavated near Leipzig in 2003. In 2005 a female counterpart was found at the same site.
(SFC, 8/17/09, p.12)
5,500BC Hahnhofersand Man was dated in 2001 to about this time by Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. German Prof. Reiner Protsch von Zieten had earlier dated the fossils to about 34,300BC. In the 1980s the Hahnhofersand fossils were said to have both Neanderthal and human characteristics.
(Arch, 5/05, p.15)
5500BC People sweeping out from Turkey colonized Europe, likely as a part of the agricultural revolution, reaching Germany about 7,500 years ago.
(Live Science, 4/23/13)
5000BC In 2015 scientists reported evidence of a massacre near Frankfurt, Germany, dating to about this time. Skeletal remains in a mass grave of some 26 men, women and children indicated blunt-force marks to the head, arrow wounds smashed shins.
4800BC-4600BC More than 150 large temples, constructed between during this period, were unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia in 2002-2005. A village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to some 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
2500BC The first signs of human habitation at Trier date to this time.
2500BC A study in 2015 said a wave of migrants from the eastern fringes of Europe about this time left their trace in the DNA — and possibly the languages — of modern Europeans. They found that DNA associated with the Yamnaya people appeared strongly in what is now northern Germany. The Yamnaya were herders who lived in the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas.
(AP, 3/3/15)
c1600BC The Nebra disk, a 12-inch bronze and gold disk from this time, was evidence of ancient German astronomy. It recorded images of the sun, moon and 32 stars.
(AM, 3/04, p.42)
53BC Caesar claimed to have wiped out the Celtic Eburones after they conspired with other groups in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones lived in an area that later came be known as part of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
(AP, 11/14/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eburones)
c4CE Romans terraced the steep slopes of the Mosel River for the cultivation of grapes.
9CE Sep 9, Publius Quinctilius Varus (59), Roman governor of Germania (6-9CE), died of likely suicide following defeat at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. Arminius, aka Hermann the German, had stopped a Roman advance eastward across the Rhine at the battle of Teutoburg, setting a limit on the Roman border.
(http://www.fact-index.com/p/pu/publius_quinctilius_varus.html)(Econ, 8/7/10, p.86)
17CE May 26, Germanicus of Rome celebrated a victory over the Germans.
97CE Oct 27, To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopted Trajan, the Spanish born governor of lower Germany.
(HN, 10/27/98)
175 Roman forces defeated Sarmatian tribes on the Danube and Marcus Aurelius ordered them to provide 8,000 cavalry for the Roman fort of Brocavum, later Brougham, England. It had been built in the last decades of the first century. The fort was partially covered by a castle in the 13th century.
352 Sep 12, Maximinus van Trier, bishop of Trier, saint, died.
(MC, 9/12/01)
357 Aug 25, Flavius Claudius Julianus, the cousin of Constantius, beat the Alamanni in a Battle at Strasbourg. Chonodomarius was caught.
(PCh, 1992, p.48)(HN, 8/25/99)
400-500CE St. Ursula, a legendary British princess, and her 11,000 martyr virgins were said to have been slaughtered by the Huns at Cologne in the 5th century.
(WUD, 1994, p.1573)(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.T8)
406 Dec 31, Godagisel, king of the Vandals, died in battle as some 80,000 Vandals attacked over the Rhine at Mainz.
(MC, 12/31/01)
410 Aug 24, Rome was overrun by the Visigoths, an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire. German barbarians sacked Rome. In 2020 Douglas Boin authored "Alaric the Goth".
(AP, 8/24/97)(HN, 8/24/98)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.72)
493 Mar 3, Odovacar, the Herulian leader, surrendered Ravenna to Theodorik, king of the Ostrogoths. Theodorik invited Odovacar to dinner and had him murdered. Theodorik united Italy as an Ostrogoth kingdom until 554. [see Mar 15]
(PCh, 1992, p.52)(V.D.-H.K.p.88)(SC, 3/3/02)
493 Mar 15, Theodoric the Great beat Odoacer of Italy. Odoacer, German army leader, King of Italy (476-93), died. [see Mar 3]
532 Oct 17, Boniface II, 1st "German" Pope, died.
570CE St. Goar, a missionary from the south of France, arrived in Germany.
600 Germanic invaders, who occupied England after 600AD, saw themselves as a nation of immigrants, according to Prof. Nicholas Howe (1953-2006) of UC Berkeley, author of "Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England" (1989).
(SFC, 10/16/06, p.B6)
608 A Slav migration about this time occupied land along the River Spree vacated by Germans. Remnants of the migration came to be called Sorbs who spoke either Lower Sorbian or Upper Sorbian.
796CE Frankfurt, Germany. This 1200 year old city of 650,000 is the hub of Germany's banking and business community.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-7)
800 Dec 25, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish warrior-king Charlemagne as heir of the Roman emperors at the basilica of St. Peter's at Rome.
(V.D.-H.K.p.105)(Econ, 9/4/10, p.56)
c800-900 Archbishop Hatto of Mainz supposedly hoarded grain during a time of famine and said that starving masses were nothing more than mice. He was beleaguered by rodents and took refuge on his island in the Rhine where legend has it that mice devoured him.
814 Jan 28, Charlemagne (71), German emperor, Holy Roman Emperor (800-814), died. In 1968 Jacques Boussard authored "The Civilisation of Charlemagne." In 2004 Alessandro Barbero authored "Charlemagne: Father of a Continent."
(www.tiscali.co.uk)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.39)(Econ, 9/18/04, p.87)
821-822 In Europe the Danube, Rhine and Seine rivers froze this winter thick enough to allow crossing by horse and cart.
(Econ 7/22/17, p.64)
843 Aug 10, Treaty of Verdun: Brothers Lotharius I, Louis the German and Charles the Bare divided France.
860 Aug 1, Peace of Koblenz involved Charles the Bare, Louis the German & Lotharius II.
(MC, 8/1/02)
870 Aug 8, The Treaty of Mersen (Meerssen) partitioned the realm of Lothair II by his uncles Louis the German of East Francia and Charles the Bald of West Francia, the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis I the Pious.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Meerssen)
876 Oct 8, Charles the Bald was defeated at the Battle of Andernach.
(HN, 10/8/98)
c900-1000 Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blatand, 10th-century king of Denmark, attributed to himself the unification of Denmark and the Christianization of the Danes. He also conquered Norway and raided Normandy. He was later invaded and defeated by German emperor Otto II.
(HNQ, 9/3/98)
900-1000 Alsace became part of Germany in the 10th century.
900-1000 Weimar is believed to date back to the 10th century.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
911 The Carolingian period of Frankish rule ended in Germany.
(AHD, 1971, p.205)
912 Nov 23, Otto I, the Great (d.973), German king and Holy Roman emperor (962-73), was born. Otto the Great became King of Germany in 936.
(AHD, 1971, p.931)(MC, 11/23/01)
919 May 12, Duke Henry of Saxon became King Henry I of Eastern Europe.
929 Eadgyth (910-946), the sister of King Athelstan and the granddaughter of Alfred the Great, was given in marriage to Otto I, the king of Saxony and the Holy Roman Emperor. She had at least two children before her death in 946 at age 36. In 2010 her remains were found in Magdeburg Cathedral in northern Germany.
933 Mar 15, Henry the Fowler routed the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany. The Wagner opera Lohengrin is about King Henry and how he united the people of Brabant with the Saxons against the Hungarian foe.
(HN, 3/15/99)(WSJ, 7/28/99, p.A21)
936-1531 Aachen in West Germany was the coronation city for German kings over this period.
(WUD, 1994, p.1)
955 Aug 10, Otto organized his nobles and defeated the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.
962 Feb 2, Otto I (912-973), founder of the Holy Roman Empire, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor)(AHD, 1971, p.931)
973 May 6, Henry II, German King (1002) and Holy Roman Emperor (1014-1024), was born.
(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)
973 Otto I, the Great (b.912), German king and Holy Roman emperor (962-73), died.
974 The army of Denmark's King Harald Gormsson, aka Harald Bluetooth or Harald Blatand, lost to the Germans at the Danevirke.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Bluetooth)(AM, 11/00, p.21)
975 Jul 25, Thietmar bishop of Merseburg, German chronicler, was born.
983 Dec 7, Otto II the Red (~28), German king and emperor (973-83), died in Italy. Otto III [aged 3] took the throne after his father's death.
(HN, 12/7/98)(MC, 12/7/01)
983 The Lutici, a federation of tribes in northeastern Germany, were first recorded by written sources in the context of the uprising of this year, by which they annihilated the rule of the Holy Roman Empire in the Billung and Northern Marches. Hostilities continued until 997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutici)
996 May 21, Otto III (16) was crowned the Roman Emperor by his cousin Pope Gregory V.
(HN, 5/21/98)(MC, 5/21/02)
999 Feb 18, Gregory V, [Bruno] 1st German Pope, died.
c1000 Cloisters take up brewing at about the turn of the first millennium. The monks were particularly interested in the scientific aspects of brewing, and so it was that at the Brabant Cloister zum Würzen that hops were tried for the very first time. That probably led to the legend that Brabant King Gambrinus was the inventor of beer. He is still remembered today as a great patron of the brewers and a beer lover in his own right.
(www.oldworld.ws/okbeerhist.html)
1000-1020 The Bamberg Apocalypse, a richly illuminated manuscript containing the Book of Revelation and a Gospel Lectionary, was created in the scriptorium at Reichenau during this period.
(SSFC, 6/9/13, p.E7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg_Apocalypse)
1001 Otto III was ousted. He had moved his thrown from Germany to Rome and fancied himself Holy Roman Emperor.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R54)
1002 Jun 6, German king Henry II, the Saint, was crowned.
1014 Feb 14, Pope Benedict VIII crowned Henry II, German King (1002), as Roman German emperor (1014-1024).
(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 2/14/02)
1016 Oct 18, Danes defeated the Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon).
1017 Oct 28, Henry III, Roman Catholic German emperor (1046-56), was born.
1016 Nov 30, Edmund II (27), Ironsides, King of Saxons, died.
1024 Jul 13, Henry II, the Monk, German King (1002-24), died.
1024 Sep 4, Conrad II (the Sailor) was chosen as German king.
1026 Mar 23, Koenraad II (Conrad II) crowned himself king of Italy.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1027 Mar 26, John XIX crowned Conrad II the Salier Roman German emperor.
1046 Dec 25, Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, was enthroned as Pope Clement II.
(PTA, 1980, p.296)
1076 Feb 14, Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry IV.
1077 Jan 28, Pope Gregory VII pardoned German emperor Henry IV at Canossa in northern Italy. Henry had insisted that he reserved the right to "invest" bishops and other clergymen, despite the papal decree, but became penitent when faced with permanent excommunication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.88)
1081 Jan 8, Henry V, Roman German king, emperor (1098/1111-25), was born.
1083 Jun 3, Henry IV of Germany stormed Rome capturing St. Peter's Basilica.
1084 Mar 31, Anti-pope Clemens crowned German emperor Hendrik IV.
1096 May 18, Crusaders massacred the Jews of Worms. Before embarking on the First Crusade to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim Turks, Count Emich von Leiningen and his army swept through their own German homeland, murdering thousands of Jews, whom they had declared "murderers of Christ." When Emich arrived in the town of Worms in May, the town's Roman Catholic Bishop tried to protect the Jewish population, but the Crusaders overran his palace and slaughtered some 500 people who had taken shelter there. Another 300 were killed over the next two days. The graves of the massacre victims can still be seen at the Jewish Cemetery at Worms.
(HNPD, 5/12/99)(SC, 5/18/02)
1096 Jun 25, The 1st Crusaders slaughtered the Jews of Werelinghofen, Germany.
1096 Oct 21, Seljuk Turks under Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea slaughtered thousands of German crusaders at Chivitot.
(HN, 10/21/99)(MC, 10/21/01)
1100-1200 The Stammheim Missal was made. It told stories from Creation to the crucifixion of Christ. In 1997 it was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.
1100-1200 Berlin was founded amid the sandy plains and swamps of Brandenburg. In 1998 Alexandra Richie published "Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin."
(WSJ, 5/1/98, p.W5)
1100-1200 The Oberburg Castle was built in the 12th century by the Knights of Leyen.
1100-1200 Two 12th century castles along the Rhine were owned, according to legend, by the brothers Conrad and Heinrich of Boppard. They came to blows over a woman, Hildegarde, and the ruins of the castles were named the Warring Brothers.
c1100-1200 The Festung Ehrenbreitsen, Europe's largest fortress, was built at the convergence of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers.
1125 May 25, Hendrik V, last Salische German king, died.
1133 Jun 4, In Rome Pope Innocentius II crowned German King Lothair II as emperor at the Church of the Lateran.
(MC, 6/4/02)(PCh, 1992, p.92)
1134 In Germany the Cistercian Himmerod Abbey was founded by the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. In 2017 it had just six resident monks before its closure was decided, down from about 30 monks in the 1970s.
1147 Oct 25, At the Battle at Dorylaeum (Turkey) Arabs beat Konrad III's crusaders. Conrad III of Germany and Louis VII of France had assembled 500,000 men for the 2nd Crusade. Most of the men were lost to starvation, disease and battle wounds.
(PCh, 1992, p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dorylaeum_%281147%29)
1148 Jul 24, Crusaders, led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, attacked Damascus. It was a dismal failure and effectively ended the 2nd Crusade.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Crusade)(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(ON, 6/12, p.5)
1152 Mar 4, Frederick Barbarossa was chosen as emperor and united the two factions, which emerged in Germany after the death of Henry V.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1153 Mar 23, Treaty of Konstanz between Frederik I "Barbarossa" and Pope Eugene III.
1155 Jun 18, German-born Frederick I, Barbarossa, was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Adrian IV.
1167 Aug 14, Raynald van Dassel, archbishop of Cologne, died.
1176 May 29, Lombard League defeated Frederick Barbarossa at Battle of Legnano.
1179 Sep 17, Hildegard von Bingen (b.1098), mystic and composer (Ordo Virtutum), died at 81. The abbess Hildegard concocted the Lingua Ignota, an artificial language. Her work included the morality play "Ordo Virtutum." In 2012 she was named a "doctor" of the Catholic church.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)(Wired, 8/96, p.84)(WSJ, 7/30/98, p.A16)(AP, 10/7/12)
1189 May 11, Emperor Frederik I Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders departed Regensburg.
1190 Jun 10, Frederick I van Hohenstaufen, Barbarossa (1123-1190), king of Germany and Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, drowned crossing the Saleph River while leading an army of the Third Crusade. Frederick struggled to extend German influence throughout Europe, maneuvering both politically and militarily. He clashed with the pope, the powerful Lombards and fellow Germans among others throughout the years. He joined the Third Crusade in the Spring of 1189 in their efforts to free Jerusalem from Saladin's army
(WUD, 1994, p.565)(HN, 6/10/98)(HNQ, 2/3/01)
1194 Dec 26, Frederick II, German Emperor (1212-1220) and King of Sicily (1198-1250), was born in Lesi, Italy. He became the Holy Roman emperor and King of Italy in 1220 and continued to 1250.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1200 In Germany "The Nibelungenlied" (the Song of the Nibelungs) was written about this time. The epic poem of some 10,000 lines was based on tales that reached back to the 5th century destruction of the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns. In 2006 Burton Raffel wrote an English translation "Das Nibelungenlied."
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
c1200 The Sorbs, a Slavic people, settled in areas that later became Germany. They spoke a language similar to Czech.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B2)
1200-1300 St. Gertrude, a German nun, was an important Catholic mystic.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A9)
1200-1300 The Mauseturm, Tower of Mice, was built downriver from Rudesheim on an islet on the Rhine in the 13th century. It was named after the plight of the 9th century Archbishop Hatto of Mainz.
1200-1300 Burg Reichenstein, downstream from Assmannshausen on the Rhine, was the stronghold of the 13th century robber-knight Philip von Hohenfels who "robbed ladies, imprisoned the clergy, mistreated vassals and plundered merchants."
1205 Jun 19, Pope Innocent III fired Adolf I as archbishop of Cologne.
1206 The city of Dresden was founded.
1210 Oct 18, Pope Innocent III excommunicated German emperor Otto IV.
1215-1250 Frederick II became emperor and renewed conflicts with the papacy. [see Nov 22, 1220, 1250]
(V.D.-H.K. p.111)
1220 Apr 15, Adolf I, archbishop of Cologne, died.
1220 Nov 22, After promising to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, Hohenstaufen King Frederick II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy by Pope Honorius III.
1225 Nov 7, Engelbert I (40), the Saint, archbishop of Cologne, was murdered.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1227 Roman Emperor Frederick II was first excommunicated by the Catholic Pope because his growing empire threatened the independence of the papal states. [see 1239]
1229 Mar 18, German emperor Frederick II crowned himself king of Jerusalem.
1239 Roman Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated a 2nd time because his growing empire threatened the independence of the papal states.
1241 Apr 9, In the Battle of Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeated the Poles and Germans.
1241 May 25, 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.
1242 Feb 12, Henry VII, Roman Catholic German king (1220-35), committed suicide.
1245 In Germany the Rheinfels castle was built by Count Diether V von Katzenelnbogen to protect the St. Goar tax collectors. It soon developed into one of the mightiest fortresses in the Middle Rhine region. His family was responsible for many of the Rhine castles.
(http://www.st-goar.de/734-1-geschichte-burg-rheinfels-1.html)(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1248 May 15, Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden laid the cornerstone for Köln (Cologne) cathedral. [see Aug 14]
1248 Aug 14, Construction of Cologne Cathedral began. [see May 15]
1249 Feb 7, The Christburg Peace Treaty forced the Prussians to recognize the rule of the Teutonic Knights. Within about 50 years the Teutonic Knights and Knights of the Cross had overcome most of Prussia and established German as the dominant culture and language. The German orders then turned to Lithuania.
(H of L, 1931, p.25)(LHC, 2/7/03)
1250 Dec 13, Frederick II (55), German Emperor (1212-1250), died.
1261 Feb 3, Samogitian fighters defeated the Livonian Knights of the Cross at Lielvarde.
(LHC, 2/3/03)
1264 Aug 5, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Arnstadt, Germany.
1267 Feb 9, Synod of Breslau ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
1268 Oct 19, Konradin von Hohenstaufen, duke of Zwaben, was beheaded. [see Oct 20]
1268 Oct 20, Konradijn Hohenstaufen, son of Koenraad IV, was beheaded in Naples. [see Oct 19]
1273 Oct 1, Rudolf of Hapsburg was elected emperor in Germany.
1273-1291 Rudolf I, King of Germany and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He founded the Hapsburg dynasty.
(WUD, 1994, p.1251)
1279 The castle across the Rhine from Assmannshausen was first mentioned. It was restored by architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the 19th century and named Rheinstein.
1280 Nov 15, Albertus Magnus (87), German leader and bishop Regensburg, died.
1280 German merchants formed the Hanseatic League to facilitate trade.
1280 In Germany a spinning wheel invented in China was demonstrated in Speyer.
1283 The Marksburg Castle was built by the Katzenelbogans to defend the silver and lead mines of Braubach.
1284 Jun 26, The Pied Piper lured away 130 children of Hamelin (Hameln, Germany). Robert Browning used this event for his poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (1842).
1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
1294 Historical records first mentioned the German town of Atterwasch. German plans to eliminate nuclear power by 2022 led to xxpansion of lignite coal mining in the region and called for the removal of Atterwasch and two nearby towns by 2025.
(SSFC, 11/30/14, p.A22)
1298 Jul 2, An army under Albert of Austria defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Worms, Germany.
1298 Jul 23, Jews were massacred at Wurzburg, Germany.
1298 Oct 19, Rindfleish: 140 Jews of Heilbron Germany were murdered.
1300 In southern Germany a scribe identified as Menahem made about this time what came to be called the Birds' Head Haggadah, the world's oldest illustrated Passover manuscript.
1300 A Jewish merchant ransomed the body of Rabbi Meir, imprisoned in 1284, and buried him in Worms.
(NH, 9/96, p.24)
1300-1400 The archbishop of Trier used the castle across from Assmannshausen as his residence.
1304 The Hotel Pilgrim Haus was founded in Soest, Germany.
1308 Nov 8, John Duns Scotus (42), Scottish-born theologian and philosopher, died in Germany. Scotus and his adherents came under attack by critics in the 16th century, giving rise to the term "dunce."
(AP, 11/8/08)(www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj55.htm)
1324 Feb 10, The pope officially chastised the Knights of the Cross for ill treatment of Catholics and for pushing pagans away from Christianity.
(LHC, 2/10/03)
1327 The Pfalzgrafenstein castle was built near the village of Bacharach.
1330 Mar 23, Riga surrendered to the Livonian Order.
1334 Heinrich II of Hesse (Germany) commissioned an illuminated manuscript called The Willehalm Codex.
(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.M2)
1346 Nov 26, Charles of Luxembourg was crowned German king. He succeeded his father John of Luxemburg as King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.128)
1347-1350 The Black Death: A Genoese trading post in the Crimea was besieged by an army of Kipchaks from Hungary and Mongols from the East. The latter brought with them a new form of plague, Yersinia pestis. Infected dead bodies were catapulted into the Genoese town. One Genoese ship managed to escape and brought the disease to Messina, Sicily. The disease quickly became an epidemic. It moved over the next few years to northern Italy, North Africa, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Low countries, England, Scandinavia and the Baltic. There were lesser outbreaks in many cities for the next twenty years. An estimated 25 million died in Europe and economic depression followed. In 2005 John Kelly authored "The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time."
(NG, 5/88, p.678)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.B1)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A6)
1348 Feb 2, The Knights of the Cross defeated a Lithuanian army at Streva.
1349 Feb 14, 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
1349 Mar 21, Some 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt, Germany.
1349 Apr 30, Jewish community at Radolszell, Germany, was exterminated.
1349 Aug 24, Some 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Bubonic Plague, were killed in Mainz.
1349 Aug 24, Jews of Cologne Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism.
1349 Sep 10, The Jews who survived a massacre in Constance, Germany, were burned to death.
1349 Nov 29, Jews of Augsburg, Germany, were massacred.
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg were massacred during Black Death riots.
1349 Nearly all the Jews of Worms were murdered on false accusations that they brought on the plague by poisoning the wells.
1352 May 5, Ruprecht, Roman catholic German king, was born.
1360s The Flagellants of Thuringia engage in self mortification and refused to work.
(www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc04/htm/0341=325.htm)
1368 Feb 14-1368 Feb 15, Sigismund (d.1437), son of Charles IV, was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He served as Holy Roman Emperor from 1433-1437.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1370 Apr 11, Frederick I the Warlike, elector of Saxony, was born.
1372 Sep 21, Frederik I van Hohenzollern, monarch of Brandenburg (1417-40), was born.
1376 Jul 22, The rats were piped out of Hamelin, Germany.
(HFA, '96, p.34)
1380-1471 Thomas a Kempis, German theologian: "Verily, when the day of judgment comes, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done." "Would to God that we might spend a single day really well."
1384 Jan 30, Vytautas handed over Samogitia to the Knights of the Cross and promised to serve as a vassal to the order following receipt of Trakai.
1386 The Univ. of Heidelberg, the oldest in Germany, was founded.
1397 Jan 26, Vytautas signed a treaty with the Knights of the Cross but Samogitia was not included.
1397 Jun 17, The Union of Kalmar united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch. The alliance grew out of the dynastic ties of the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in response to rising German influence in the Baltic. The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions (1397–1523) that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and, prior to their annexation by Scotland in 1471, Shetland and Orkney), and Sweden (including Finland) under a single monarch.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_Union)
1397 Aug 16, Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, was born.
1397 Spaten's roots date back to this time. The company name comes from Munich brewing family Spaeth, which bought a 225 year-old brewery in 1622 ran the firm for seven generations.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1400 Feb 8, The Knights of the Cross with the assistance of Vytautas and the hercog of Lotaringia defeated Samogitia for the 1st time.
c1400 Johann Gutenberg (Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg d.1468), was born in Mainz. He was the inventor of movable, metal type, a stamping mold for casting type, the alloy of lead, tin, and antimony for the cast letters, the printing press itself, and a printing ink with an oil base. The first books were printed around 1450 on rag paper.
(V.D.-H.K.p.153-154)(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)
1400 Klaus Stoertebeker, the most famous German pirate of the Middle Ages, is believed to have been beheaded by authorities in Hamburg, together with 30 of his followers. The heads were nailed on pillars at the entrance of the Hamburg harbor in an effort to deter would-be pirates. The skull, which is perforated by a massive nail, was found during building work in 1878 on the site where the execution is said to have taken place. On Jan 9, 2010, his skull was stolen from the Museum for Hamburg History.
c1400-1500 The 15th century German "Housebook" was produced. It taught the rules and etiquette of jousting, and contained remedies, cooking recipes, information on love and horoscopes.
c1400-1500 Cardinal Nikolaus Cusanus, philosopher, founded a religious and charitable institution complete with vineyard at Kues, across from Bernkastel on the Mosel River.
1407 Jan 21, Duke Vytautas led Polish and German forces for a 2nd time against the Duchy of Moscow.
1410 May 18, Ruprecht, Roman Catholics German king, died.
1411 Feb 1, Lithuania, Poland and the Knights of the Cross signed the Torun Peace Treaty. Samogitia was returned to Lithuania. The Teutonic Knights had regrouped and gone to battle against Vytautas and Jogaila. Peace was signed at Torun and western Lithuania was returned, but not Klaipeda (Memel).
(Ist. L.H., 1948, p. 71)(LHC, 1/31/03)
1414 Nov 16, A council of bishops opened in Constance Germany under Emp. Sigismund. When the council of Constance opened, Christians owed obedience to three different popes: Gregory XII of the Roman party, Benedict XIII of the Avignon party, and John XXIII, who had been elected after the death of Alexander V. John XXIII and Benedict XIII were deposed by the council, and Gregory XII voluntarily resigned. Then Martin V was elected pope on 11 November 1417 and he was regarded as the legitimate pontiff by the church as a whole.
(www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/CONSTANC.HTM)(WUD, 1994 p.313)
1415 Jul 6, Jan Hus, Bohemian religious reformer, a Czech who spoke out against Church corruption, was burned at the stake as a heretic at Constance, Germany.
(NH, 9/96, p.23)(HN, 7/6/98)(MC, 7/6/02)
1415 Sep 21, Frederick III, German Emperor (1440-1493), was born in Innsbruck Austria.
1416 Feb 6, A Samogitian complaint against the Knights of the Cross was read at the Catholic Church Council at Constance.
1416 Feb 13, A Lithuanian and Polish delegation read their grievances against the Teutonic Knights at the Church Council at Constance.
1417 Bibliophile Poggio Bracciolini stumbled on a work by Roman poet Lucretius in a monastery in southern Germany. Lucretius (~99BC-~55BC) had authored "On the Nature of Things" (De Rerum Natura), which laid out in 7,400 lines of Latin verse the radical philosophy of the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341BC-270BC). The work had disappeared in the Middle Ages and lay largely forgotten until Bracciolini found it. In 2011 Stephen Greenblatt authored "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern."
(SSFC, 12/18/11, p.F7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretius)
1418 Feb 25, At the Constance church synod the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Lithuania, Gregory Camblak, proposed a union between the Orthodox and Catholic church.
1418 The Church Council at Constance, Germany, begun in 1914, ended.
(WUD, 1994 p.313)
1419 Aug 16, Wenceslas (b.1361), son of Charles IV and King of Germany, died. He served as King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1363) and King of the Romans (1376).
(MC, 8/16/02)(Internet)
1429 The beginning of coal mining in the Saarland (Germany) dates to this time.
1430 May 5, Jews were expelled from Speyer, Germany.
1430-1494? Hans Memling, German painter of the Flemish school.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.894)
1436 Johannes Gutenburg of Germany invented the printing press with movable type.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
1439 Oct 27, Albrecht II von Habsburg (42), king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, died.
1450 Johannes Gutenberg began printing a bible with movable type in Mainz. He perfected interchangeable type that could be cast in large quantities and invented a new type of press.
(NG, March 1990, p. 117)(WSJ, 10/31/96, p.A21)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1450 Johannes Gutenberg was able to convince financier Johann Fust to loan him 800 guilders, a considerable sum. Gutenberg's experiments with printing were financed in large part by Fust, who later won a suit against Gutenberg to recoup his investment. Fust invested another 800 guilders in 1452, securing a partnership in Gutenberg's business. By 1455, impatient for results or perhaps simply due to estrangement from Gutenberg, Fust sued and won a settlement of just over 2,000 guilders: the sum of the two loans plus interest. Fust also gained control of Gutenberg's movable type and some of his printing equipment. Gutenberg was able to continue some printing and eventually was granted a pension by the archbishop of Mainz in 1465.
1450-1460 The German Master E.S. made his drawing "Girl With a Ring."
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
1454 Johann Fust, the financial backer of Johannes Gutenberg, sued Gutenberg over a loan agreement, and set up his own shop.
1455 Feb 23, Johannes Gutenberg (Johan Gensfleisch, c1400-1468) printed his 1st book, the Bible. Gutenberg printed Latin Bibles of which 11 were still extant in 1987. [see 1450]
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(MC, 2/23/02)
1455 Aug 2, Johan Cicero, elector of Brandenburg (1486-99), was born.
1457 Aug 14, Gutenberg's financier Johann Fust and calligrapher Peter Schoffer published the 2nd printed book. This is the oldest known exactly dated printed book.
1459-1525 Jakob Fugger II, German banker. He minted his own money and maintained banks in every European capital. He held a contract for managing the Pope's money and collected cash for the remission of sins. He bankrolled the election of Charles V.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1465 The archbishop of Mainz made Gutenberg a courtier.
1466 Oct 19, The peace of Torun ended the 13-year War of the Cities (1454-1466), between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia. The Peace of Thorn (Torún) ended the war between the Teutonic knights (a German military and religious order) and their subjects in Prussia, led by King Casimir IV (1427-1492) of Poland. Poland was given Pomerelia and West Prussia, and the knights retained East Prussia, with a new capital at Königsberg (Kaliningrad). The knights, formerly strictly a German order, were forced to accept Poles as members and their grand master became a vassal of the Polish king.
(HN, 10/19/98)(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/T/TeutonKn.html)
1468 Feb 3, Johannes Gutenberg (Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg b.c1400), German inventor of movable type, died.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)
1471 Aug 8, Thomas a Kempis (91), [Thomas Hammerken von Kempen], German writer, monk, died. His popular "Imitation of Christ" went through 99 editions by the end of the century.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(MC, 8/8/02)
1480 In Hamburg a pioneering labor market appeared for hiring day workers.
1480-1538 Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter. He painted "Martyrdom of St. Florian." He also painted a depiction of Alexander's 333BC defeat of Darius at Issus.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.43)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W11)
1481 Mar 2, Franz von Sickingen, German knight, was born.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1483 Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany.
(V.D.-H.K.p.163)
1484 Dec 5, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull deploring the spread of witchcraft and heresy in Germany. He ordered that all cats belonging to witches scheduled to be burned, be also burned. Kraemer and Sprenger, two Dominican friars, had induced Pope Innocent VIII to issue a bull authorizing them to extirpate witchcraft in Germany.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)(HN, 12/5/98)(HNQ, 10/31/99)
1486 Sep 14, Heinrich Agrippa von Nettesheim (d.1535), German occultist, alchemist, royal astrologer, was born in Cologne.
(www.britannica.com)
1486 Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Dominican friars, published Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) or (Hexenhammer in German), which became the authoritative encyclopedia of demonology throughout Christendom. It was first published in Germany in 1487. The authority of their work, which was a synthesis of folk beliefs that had until then been manifested in local outbursts of witch finding, lasted through the European witch craze of the next three centuries [see Dec 5, 1484].
(HNQ, 10/31/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum)
1492 May 15, Cheese and Bread rebellion: German mercenaries killed 232 Alkmaarse.
1492 Nov 7, A meteorite landed in Ensisheim, Germany. Emperor Maximilian visited Ensisheim 15 days after the fall and ordered that the Ensisheim meteorite be preserved in the local church. A piece of the stone was put up for auction in 2007.
(www.meteorite.fr/en/basics/history.htm)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.96)
1493 The 600-page "World Chronicle" by physician Hartmann Schedel (1440-1513) was first published in Nuremburg. One copy is held at the Library of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Anton Koberger, a Nuremberg publisher, published 2,500 copies of the "Nuremberg Chronicle" by Hartmann Schedel. It included woodcuts by Michael Wohlgemuth and Wilhelm Pleyenwurff.
(StuAus, April '95, p.49)(SFC, 3/1/02, p.D18)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/13525a.htm)
1494 Apr 20, John Agricola, [Schneider], German theologian, prime minister, was born.
1494-1576 Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger. He authored stories, songs, poems and dramatic works. He later became the central figure in Wagner's Meistersinger.
(WUD, 1994 p.1258)(WSJ, 10/2/01, p.A17)
1496 In Germany a Benedictine abbey in Altomuenster, a town on the end of the subway line from Munich, began housing the Bridgettine Order, a female religious order founded by Saint Bridget in Sweden in the 14th century. It was ordered closed in 2015 after the number of nuns fell below the three needed to train novices. In 2018 Catholic authorities in Bavaria said the Vatican has granted their request to close the abbey.
(AP, 12/24/17)(AP, 4/12/18)
1497 Feb 16, Philipp Melanchthon, German Protestant reformer (Augsburgse Confessie), was born.
1497 Hans Holbein the Younger (d.1543), painter, was born in Augsburg, Bavaria.
(WSJ, 12/30/06, p.P10)(www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/holbein/)
1498 Albrecht Durer made his woodcut titled "The Bath House."
(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.W1)
1498 The first pawnshop reportedly opened in Nuremberg, Germany.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.8)
1500 Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) of Nuremburg painted a self-portrait later described as the most gorgeous portrait ever painted.
(WSJ, 3/15/08, p.W16)
c1500-1600 George Pencz, 16th century German artist. His work included "Holy Trinity, Seat of Mercy."
1500-1600 Weimar became the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar.
1501 Jul 27, Copernicus was formally installed as canon of Frauenberg Cathedral.
1502 In Germany Peter Henlein of Nuremberg used iron parts and coiled springs to build a portable timepiece.
1503 Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) the Elder, German artist (Saxony), completed his painting "The Crucifiction."
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026747/Lucas-Cranach-the-Elder)
1504 Apr 23, King Maximilian I routed troops to Bavaria.
1507 Apr 25, Martin Waldseemuller, a German geographer working at a small college in Eastern France, labeled the New World "America," for the first time in his book "Cosmographiae Introductio," and gave Amerigo Vespucci (d.1512) credit for discovering it. His map was the first to show North and South America as separate continents. Letters of 1504-1505 had circulated in Florence claimed that Vespucci had discovered the new World. Vespucci was in fact only a passenger or low officer on one of the ships captained by others. Vespucci was later believed to have been the brother of Simonetta Vespucci, the model for Venus in the Botticelli painting. In 2000 the US Library of Congress planned to acquire the original map for $14 million from the Prince Johannes Waldburg-wolfegg. A $10 million purchase was completed in 2003. In 2009 Toby Lester authored "The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the World, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name."
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.T10)(SFC, 10/27/00, p.C14)(WSJ, 7/25/03, p.W19)(AP, 4/25/07)(SSFC, 12/27/09, Books p.E5)(SFC, 11/8/17, p.A4)
1507 Martin Luther was ordained.
(TL-MB, p.9)
1510 Jan 22, Jews were expelled from Colmar, Germany.
1510 Jul 19, In Berlin 38 Jews were burned at the stake.
1511 Nov 22, Erasmus Reinhold, German mathematician (calculated planetary table), was born.
1511 Sebastian Virdung, German musician, published the earliest manual for playing musical instruments.
(TL-MB, p.10)
1515 Sep 22, Anne of Cleeves, fourth wife of Henry the VIII, was born in Cleeves, Germany.
1515 Oct 4, Lucas Cranach (d.1586), the Younger, German painter, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.339)(MC, 10/4/01)
1515 Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and instrument maker, attempted to explain the universe by crafting an artistic dial that tracked the movement of the stars.
1516 Apr 23, Bavarian Dukes Wilhelm IV and his brother Ludwig X enacted the Reinheitsgebot law (purity law). It required that beer be made from malt, hops, water and nothing else. Yeast was added to the list later.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.A2)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.76)(SFC, 4/23/16, p.A2)(Econ, 4/23/15, p.44)
1516 The German Quedlinburg Manuscript of this date and other church treasures were stolen from a cave where they were being stored in 1945 by Lt. Joe Tom Meador of Whitewright, Texas. The items were then sold by his brother and sister. In 1996 a criminal trial focused on the issue.
(WSJ, 12/11/96, p.A20)
1517 Oct 31, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Palace All Saints' Church. He grew to believe in faith alone as man's link to the justice of God, and therefore denied the need for the vast infrastructure of the Church. This event signaled the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Protestantism in general, shattering the external structure of the medieval church and at the same time reviving the religious consciousness of Europe. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born in Eisleben, Germany. He was a monk in the Catholic Church until 1517, when he founded the Lutheran Church.
(V.D.-H.K.p.163)(CU, 6/87)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)(AP, 10/31/97)(AP, 10/31/97) (HN, 10/31/98)
1517 In Germany the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden salt mine began operations.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.G5)
1518 Mar, Martin Luther wrote his "Sermon on Indulgences and Grace" and published the work in his native German avoiding regional vocabulary.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.94)
1518 Oct 12, A pontifical ambassador interrogated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther. Luther was summoned to the Diet of Augsburg where he refused to recant.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(MC, 10/12/01)
1518 Anthony Blatner, German goldsmith, built the first fire-engine in Augsburg, Germany.
1519 Jan 12, Maximilian I of Hapsburg, Holy Roman Emperor and German Kaiser, died.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(AP, 1/12/98)(MC, 1/12/02)
1519 Jul 6, Charles of Spain was elected Holy Roman emperor in Barcelona. The Catholic heir to the Hapsburg dynasty, Charles V, was elected Holy Roman Emperor, combining the crowns of Spain, Burgundy (with the Netherlands), Austria and Germany. He was the grandson of Ferdnand and Isabella of Spain.
(V.D.-H.K.p.162)(NH, 9/96, p.18)(HN, 7/6/98)
1519 Jul 16, There was a public debate between Martin Luther and theologian John Eck.
1519 Aug 11, Johann Tetzel (~79), Dominican monk, died.
1519 Sep 21, Hans Backofen (Backoffen), German sculptor, died at about 49.
1519 Nov 7, University of Leuven condemned the teachings of Rev. Martin Luther.
1520 Oct 23, King Carlos I crowned as German emperor Charles V.
1520 Dec 10, Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant, or face excommunication.
1520 In Germany Jacob Fugger "The Rich" established a Roman Catholic housing settlement for the poor in Augsburg in the name of Augsburg's local St. Ulrich. In return for cheap rent residents agreed to pray for the Fuggers' souls.
1520 The Jews of Rothenburg, Bavaria, were banished entirely and forevermore.
1521 Jan 3, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(AP, 1/3/98)
1521 Apr 16, Martin Luther arrived at Diet of Worms.
1521 Apr 17, Under the protection of Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, Martin Luther first appeared before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Imperial Diet to face charges stemming from his religious writings. The Roman Catholic Church had already excommunicated him on Jan 3, 1521. He was later declared an outlaw by Charles V.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(HN, 4/17/98)(AP, 4/17/07)
1521 Apr 18, Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views which led to his excommunication. Cardinal Alexander questioned the Rev Martin Luther.
1521 Apr 21, Martin Luther was called before an Imperial Diet in Worms. He was already accused of heresy and excommunicated by the Pope. Here he was absolved of all charges.
1521 May 8, Emperor Charles V and the Diet issued the Edict of Worms. It banned Luther's work and enjoined his detention, but was not able to be enforced.
1521 May 26, Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms of because of his religious beliefs and writings.
1522 Mar 9-1522 Mar 16, Marten Luther preached his Invocavit.
1522 Jun 30, Johann Reuchlin (b.1455), German-born humanist, died in Stuttgart. He was the first Christian Hebraist in northern Europe.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Reuchlin)(Econ, 9/10/16, p.72)
1522 Albrecht Durer, German artist and engraver, designed a flying machine for use in war.
1522 Martin Luther completed his translation of the New Testament into German and returned to Wittenberg. His supporter, Ulrich Zwingli, condemned Lenten fasting and celibacy. Luther also published his Christmas Postils as preaching models for other pastors.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.12)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.W15)
1524 cApr, The Peasant's War, in which Protestants fought against Catholics and demanded an end to feudal services and oppression by the landed gentry, broke out in Germany.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.12)
1524 Albrecht Durer drafted a dozen drawings of the same face on a grid. Each grid was transformed as if it were printed on a rubber graph which was then bent and twisted to distort the normal proportions. Computerized morphing only came c1990.
(MT, 10/94, D. Swanbrow, p.9)
1524 Peter Bennewitz, German Prof. of mathematics, produced the first textbook on theoretical geography: "Cosmographia."
1524 Martin Luther and Johann Walther produced jointly a German hymnal: "Geistliche Lieder."
1524-1525 A widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe became known as the Peasant's Revolt. It failed because of the intense opposition of the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. Thomas Muntzer (1489-1525), German preacher and theologian, was among the participants and leaders of the revolt.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Peasants'_War)
1525 May 7, The German peasants' revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
1525 May 15, A German army under Philip of Hesse surrounded and slaughtered 5,000 ending a peasant revolt led by Thomas Muntzer.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M%C3%BCntzer)(PCh, 1992, p.173)
1525 May 17, Duke Anton of Lorraine beat the peasant rebels at Zabern.
(MC, 5/17/02)(PWG, 1850)
1525 May 27, Thomas Muntzer (28), German vicar, Boer leader, head of the German peasant revolt was beheaded. Some 150,000 peasants died in the uprising.
(PCh, 1992, p.173)(MC, 5/27/02)
1525 Jul 19, The Catholic princes of Germany formed the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(HN, 7/19/98)
1525 Dec 30, Jacob Fugger (b.1459), German banker and merchant, died. In 2015 Greg Steinmetz authored "The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Fugger)(Econ, 8/1/15, p.71)
1525 Martin Luther married Katherine von Bora, a former nun, "to spite the devil."
(SFC, 2/28/96, D-10)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1525 William Tyndale (1494-1536), English religious scholar, completed his translation of the New Testament in Hamburg, Germany. It was published in Worms in Spring 1526, and then smuggled to England.
(ON, 11/04, p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale)
1526 Feb 27, Saxony and Hesse formed the League of Gotha, a league of Protestant princes.
1526 Lucas Cranach the elder (1472-1553) painted the "Adam and Eve," typical of the artist's Gothic style as opposed to the "decadent" Italian style.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(WUD, 1994, p.339)
1526 William Tyndale published the first complete version of the New Testament in English at Worms, Germany. "Tyndale was the first translator of the biblical texts from their original Greek and Hebrew into English."
(WSJ, 12/22/94, A-20)(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A20)
1527 May 6, German and Spanish troops under Charles V began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance. Libraries were destroyed, Pope Clement VII was captured and thousands were killed. 147 of 189 of the Pope's Swiss guard were killed.
(HN, 5/6/02)(PCh, 1992, p.174)(WSJ, 4/14/06, p.W5)
1527 May 30, The University of Marburg was founded. It is the oldest Protestant University in Germany.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.797)(HN, 5/30/98)
1528 Apr 6, Albrecht Durer (b.1471), German painter, graphic artist, died in Germany. His wife Agnes inherited his 6,874-florin estate.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, DB p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer)
1528 Philip Melanchthon, Protestant reformer, proposed German educational reforms.
1528 In Germany the Carolinum school was founded in Ansbach, Bavaria.
1529 Apr 19, The 2nd Parliament of Speyer banned Lutheranism. At the Diet of Speyer the Lutheran minority protested against restrictions on their teachings and were called "Protestant" for the first time.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer)
1529 Oct 1-3, Martin Luther met with Huldrych Zwingli.
1530 Sep 20, Luther advised the Protestant monarch compromise.
(MC 9/20/01)
1530 Nov 19, Augsburg Emperor Karel I demanded the Edict of Worms.
1530 Georgius Agricola (1494-1555), German mineralogist and scholar, published his dialogue "Bermannus, sive de re metallica dialogus," the first systematic book on mineralogy.
(TL-MB, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Agricola)
1530 Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon drew up the Augsburg Confessions and presented them unsuccessfully to the German Diet at Augsburg convened by Charles V.
1531 Feb 27, German Protestants formed the League of Schmalkalden to defend themselves against Charles V and the Roman Catholic states.
1531 Sep 14, Philipp Apian (d.1589), German geographer and cartographer, was born.
(http://www.antiquemaps.co.uk/chapter12.html)
1531 Oct 24, Bavaria, despite being a Catholic region, joined the League of Schmalkalden, a Protestant group which opposed Charles V.
1531 German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider (c71) died. Most of his work was unpainted in wood and stone.
1534 Mar 26, Lübeck, Hanseatic League port in the Baltic, accepted free Dutch ships into East Sea.
(SS, 3/26/02)(WUD, 1994 p.851)
1534 May 12, Wurttenburg became Lutheran.
1534 Jul 18, Zacharias Ursinus, German theologian (Heidelberger Catechism), was born.
1534 Regensburg Cathedral, Germany, was completed after 259 years of work.
1539 Apr 19, Emperor Charles V reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
1540 Mar 4, Protestant count Philip of Hessen married his 2nd wife.
1540 German vintner records described this year as the "Great Sun Year," as relentless heat and drought withered the Rhine between Cologne and the Netherlands.
1540 Diethyl ether was produced from alcohol and sulfuric acid. Valerius Cordus (1515-1544), German physician and botanist, discovered the compound.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerius_Cordus)(ON, 10/20/11, p.9)
1544 The University of Konigsberg was founded.
1546 Feb 18, Martin Luther (b.1483), leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben. In 1989 Harvard professor Heiko A. Oberman (1930-2001) authored "Luther."
(V.D.-H.K.p.165)(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.P10)(AP, 2/18/08)
1552 Jan 15, France signed a secret treaty with German Protestants.
1552 Jul 18, Rudolf II of Habsburg, emperor of Germany (1576-1612), was born.
1552 Aug 2, The treaty of Passau gave religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany. The Augsburg Interim was annulled and Lutherans were allowed freedom of worship in Germany.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(HN, 8/2/98)
1553 May 5, Erasmus Alberus (~52), German theologist (Barfesser Munche), died.
1553 Jul 9, Maurice of Saxony was mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany, while defeating Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
1553 Oct 16, Lucas Cranach the elder (b.1472), German painter and graphic artist, died at 81. His work included "Madonna and Child in a Landscape."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(WUD, 1994, p.339)(http://tinyurl.com/ykv47h)
1554 Feb 21, Hieronymus Bock, German doctor (founder of modern botany), died.
1554 Mar 3, Johan Frederik de Greatmoedige (50), ruler of Saxon (1532-47), died.
1554 Jorg Wickram, German writer, wrote the first German romance novel: "Der Goldfaden."
1555 Sep 25, The Religious Peace of Augsburg compromised differences between Catholics and Protestants in the German states. Each prince could chose which religion would be followed in his realm. Lutheranism was acknowledged by the Holy Roman Empire. The Peace of Augsburg was the first permanent legal basis for the existence of Lutheranism as well as Catholicism in Germany. It was promulgated as part of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V's Augsburg Interim of 1548 was a temporary doctrinal agreement between German Catholics and Protestants that was overthrown in 1552.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(PCh, 1992, p.189)(HNQ, 2/8/99)
1555 Nov 21, Georgius Bauer (b.1494), German mineralogist (Agricola), died. His full description of mining, smelting, and chemistry in "De Re Metallica," was published in Basel in 1556. In it he described the hazards of mining, including occupational diseases such as "difficulty in breathing and destruction of the lungs." It was still the major source on the state of technology in the Middle Ages. In 1912 it was translated by Herbert Hoover, mining engineer and future US president.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(WSJ, 7/29/06, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Agricola)
1557 Sep 11, Catholic & Lutheran theology were debated in Worms. Catholics and Protestants met in Worms in a final effort to achieve reconciliation.
(MC, 9/11/01)(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)
1558 The Hamburg exchange was founded.
1560 Aug 10, Hieronymus Praetorius, German composer, was born.
1561 Aug 29, Bartholomeus Pitiscus, German mathematician (Trigonometry), was born.
1562 Jul 23, Gottfried, Gotz von Berlichingen, German Knight of kingdom, died.
1564 Mar 9, David Fabricius, astronomer (discovered variable star), was born in Essen, Germany.
1566 May 10, Leonhard Fuchs (65), German botanist, died.
1568 May 11, Christian I, ruler of Anhalt-Bernburg (Battle of White Mountain), was born.
1570 The Berlin Staatskapelle formed. In 2004 it performed Schumann in San Francisco.
1571 Feb 15, Michael Praetorius, composer (Syntagma music), was born in Kreuzberg, Germany.
1571 Dec 27, Johannes Kepler (d.1630), German astronomer known as the "father of modern astronomy," was born. Working with the data gathered by Tycho Brahe, he established the three laws of planetary motion:
a) The planets do not travel in concentric circles, but in ellipses, with the sun at one of the two foci of the ellipse.
b) A radius vector joining a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
c) The third law asserted a mathematical relation between the periods of revolution of the planets and their distance from the sun.
(V.D.-H.K.p.199)(HN, 12/27/98)
1573 Feb 28, Elias Hill, German architect, city builder (Augsburg), was born.
1574 The Univ. of Berlin was founded.
1575 Jul 25, Christoph Scheiner, astronomer, was born in Germany.
1576 Jan 19, Hans Sachs (81), cobbler, poet, composer, inspiration for Wagner's "Die Meistersinger", died.
1583 Sep 24, Albrecht Eusebius Wenzel von Wallenstein, German general, was born.
1584 The 1582 Gregorian (or New World) calendar was adopted by this time in Belgium, most of the German Roman Catholic states and the Netherlands.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, Par p.27)
1585 Oct 8, Heinrich Schutz, German composer, was born. [see Oct 14]
1585 Oct 14, Heinrich Schutz, German royal chaplain master and composer (Daphne), was born. [see Oct 8]
1586 Jan 20, Johann Hermann Schein, German composer (Fontana d'Israel), was born.
1586 Jan 25, Lucas Cranach "the Younger" (70), German painter, died.
1587 Nov 4, Samuel Scheidt, German organist and composer, was baptized.
1594 Jun 14, Orlando di Lasso (b.~1532), Franco-Flemish composer, died in Munich. He was the most famous and influential musician in Europe at the end of the 16th century. Along with Palestrina (of the Roman School), he is considered to be the chief representative of the mature polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish School.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlande_de_Lassus)
1595 Jul 9, Johannes Kepler inscribed a geometric solid construction of universe.
1597 Aug 11, Germany threw out English salesmen in "a noble experiment."
1597-1602 Adriaen de Vries, Dutch sculptor, supplied Augsburg, Germany, the cast for the "Hercules Fountain."
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1599 Adriaen de Vries, Dutch sculptor, supplied Augsburg, Germany, the cast the "Mercury Fountain."
1601 May 2, Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit, inventor (magic lantern), was born.
1601 Adriaen de Vries, Dutch sculptor, supplied Augsburg, Germany, the cast the "Man Pouring Water From a Conch Shell."
1609 Jul 10, The Catholic states in Germany set up a league under the leadership of Maximillian of Bavaria.
1609 The 1st newspaper was published in Germany.
1609 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), German astronomer and mathematician, authored "Astronomia Nova." Written in 1605, but not published until 1609, it discussed how Mars moves in an elliptical orbit.
(SFC, 10/25/99, p.A4)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler)
1612 Jan 20, Rudolf II von Habsburg (59), emperor of Germany (1576-1612), died in Prague and Matthias became Holy Roman Emperor. In 1912 an enigmatic manuscript, once owned by Rudolf II, was acquired by Wilfrid Voynich and came to be known as the Voynich manuscript. In 2006 Peter Marshall authored "The Magic Circle of Rudolf II."
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)(www.historylearningsite.co)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.71)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P9)
1612 Feb 17, Ernst of Bayern (57), prince, bishop of Luik, archbishop of Cologne, died.
1612 The Passau state library was founded as part of a Jesuit college. In 2011 the library claimed to be home to one of the oldest book collections in Germany.
(ABCNews, 12/7/11)
1614 Aug 22, Trades people under Vincent Fettmilch chased and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt.
1614 Sep 1, Vincent Fettmich expelled Jews from Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany.
1616 Jul 25, Andreas Libavius, German alchemist, died.
1616 A set of silver playing cards was created in Germany about this time engraved by a man named Michael Frömmer. It used a suit seen in Italy, with swords, coins, batons and cups in values from ace to 10. Each of these suits has three face cards — king, knight and knave.
(LiveScience, 11/30/12)
1617 May 7, David Fabricius (53), German astronomer, died.
1618 May 23, The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) ravaged Germany. It began when three opponents of the Reformation were thrown through a window. The "official" Defenestration of Prague was the "official" trigger for the Thirty Year's War. Local Protestants became enraged when Catholic King Ferdinand II reneged on promises of religious freedom and stormed Hradcany Castle and threw 3 Catholic councilors out of the window and into the moat. The conflict spread across Europe with most of the fighting taking place in Germany. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought the war to an end and ended the emperor's authority over Germany outside the Hapsburg domain.
(V.D.-H.K.p.90)(NH, 9/96, p.18,22)(HN, 5/23/98)(HNQ, 2/28/00)
1620 Feb 16, Frederick William, founder of Brandenburg-Prussia, was born.
1620 Mar 9, Aegidius Albertinus (59), German writer (Lucifer's Kingdom), died.
1620 Aug 7, Kepler's mother was arrested for witchcraft.
1621 In Germany potatoes, native to the Andes, were first planted.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.3)
1622 The Spaten's company name comes from Munich brewing family Spaeth, which bought a 225 year-old brewery in 1622 and ran the firm for seven generations.
1625 Apr 7, Albrecht von Wallenstein was appointed German supreme commander.
1626 Aug 27, The Danes were crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.
1630 Apr 17, Christian I, ruler of Anhalt-Bernburg (battle of White Mt), died.
1630 Nov 15, Johann Kepler (b.1571), German astronomer, died at 58.
1630 Nov 19, Johann Hermann Schein (44), German composer (Opella Nova), died.
1631 May 17, Earl Johann Tilly attacked Magdeburg.
1631 May 20, A German army under earl Johann Tilly conquered Magdeburg.
1631 Dec 6, The 1st predicted transit of Venus took place. It had been predicted by Kepler, but he died a year before the event.
(MC, 12/6/01)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.78)
1632 May 25, Albrecht von Wallenstein recaptured Prague on Saksen.
1632 Sep 3, Battle at Nuremberg: Duke Wallenstein beat Sweden.
1633 In Oberammergau, Germany, plague victims swore an oath to portray the suffering and death of the Lord every 10 years. Their first Passion Play was performed in 1634.
(www.passionplay-oberammergau.com/index.php?id=127)
1634 Sep 5, Battle at Nordlingen: King Ferdinand III & Catholic Spain beat Sweden & German protestants.
1634 In Oberammergau, Germany, a re-enactment of the last days of Jesus began to be performed. The Passion Play was performed from then on every ten years with a few rare exceptions. In 1633 plague victims had sworn an oath to portray the suffering and death of the Lord every 10 years.
(WSJ, 5/18/00, p.A1)(www.passionplay-oberammergau.com/index.php?id=127)
1635 A Cistercian nunnery and surrounding villages of Sorbs in Germany's Upper Lusatia remained Catholic after Protestant Saxony priced the land away from Bohemia.
1635-1682 Johann Joachim Becher, German alchemist. ""It is always better to sell goods to others than to buy goods from others, for the former brings a certain advantage and the latter inevitable damage."
1636 Aug 8, The invading armies of Spain, Austria and Bavaria were stopped at the village of St.-Jean-de-Losne, only 50 miles from France.
1637 Feb 15, Ferdinand II (58), King of Bohemia, Hun, German Emperor (1619-37), died. Ferdinand III succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor.
(440 Int'l., 2/15/99)(MC, 2/15/02)
1638 Mar 3, Duke Bernard van Saksen-Weimar occupied Rheinfelden.
1637-1707 Dietrich Buxtehude, German composer. He was a transitional figure between early and later baroque. Bach made a legendary journey on foot to hear the aging composer perform. Handel also journeyed to see him 3 years before Bach. His works include Jubilate Domino and the Trio Sonata for violin, gamba and continuo.
(EMN, 1/96, p.1)
1640-1688 Elector Friedrich Wilhelm acquired a collection of paintings by Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt and others at his home in Oranien. His nephew was Frederick the Great.
1644 Aug 12, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, composer, was born.
1644 Aug 12, Georg Christoph Leuttner, composer, was born.
1646 Gluckel of Hameln was born in Hamburg. She married at 14 and had 12 children and was widowed at age 44. She continued for 3 more decades as a single businesswoman and devoted diarist. Her story was made into a theater production in 1999 by the New York based Great Small Works.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.D1,4)
1648 Oct 24, The Peace of Westphalia ended the German Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaties of Osnabruck and Munster, that ended the Thirty Years" War, divided Pomerania, a historic region that once stretched from Stralsund to the Vistula along the Baltic Sea in north-central Europe, into two parts known as Hither Pomerania and Farther Pomerania. Hither Pomerania, the area west of the Oder River, was granted to Sweden. Farther Pomerania was east of the Oder and went to the state of Brandenburg. Hither Pomerania is now part of the German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania; Farther Pomerania is now part of Poland. The 30 years war had spread from one end of Germany to the other, and left the country a scene of desolation and disorder, wasted by fire, sword and plague. The war was followed by great scarcity, due to the lack of laborers. San Marino did not attend the conference or sign the treaty because it had not been involved in the fighting, however it was linked to states that were fighting and was therefore still at war with Sweden until 1996 when an official end was declared. The treaty abolished private armies and the nation-state acquired a monopoly on maintaining armies and fighting wars.
(AP, 10/24/97)(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A22)(HNQ, 10/6/99)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.80)
1648 Nov 26, Pope Innocent X condemned the Peace of Westphalia, which ended 30 Years War one month earlier.
1649 Jul 1, Gottfried Von Leibniz (Leibnitz, d.1716), German philosopher and mathematician, was born.
(HN, 7/1/98)(WUD, 1994, p.819)
1650-1700 During the last half of the 1600s there were 234 independent countries, 51 free cities and some 1,500 knightly manors governed by their lords.
1652 Ferdinand III, the Habsburg monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, arrived in Regensburg for a year-long gathering of the Reichstag, the imperial diet.
1653 Sep 1, Johann Pachelbel (d.1706), German organist and composer, was born. He is best known for his "Canon in D."
(WUD, 1994, p.1034)(SI-WPC, 1997)(MC, 9/1/02)
1660 Mar 28, Georg Ludwig, German monarch of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, was born.
1663 The Reichstag, the imperial parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, began sitting permanently.
1664 Aug 1, The Turkish army was defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
1664 Aug 6, Johann Christoph Schmidt, composer, was born.
1665 Feb 12, Rudolph J. Camerarius, German botanist, physician (sexuality plant), was born.
1667 May 6-7, Johann Jakob Froberger (b.1616), German organist, singer, composer, died.
(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 5/7/02)
1670 May 12, August II (d.1733), the Strong One, King of Poland (355 children) and elector of Saxony, was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
1671 In Germany Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (Leibniz) devised a mechanical calculator to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
1672 Apr 29, King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands. A French army of 100,000 crossed the Rhine and invaded the Dutch Republic. The Dutch Golden Age fell apart when England, France and a pair of German principalities teamed up to attack the Netherlands and seize its colonies.
(HN, 4/29/99)(PC, 1992ed., p.255)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.38)
1672 Nov 1, Heinrich Schutz (87), composer, died. Pupil of Giovanni Gabrielli from 1609-1672, he was employed by the Elector of Saxony in 1615 and became Kapellmeister two years later. While employed by the Elector, Schütz made several visits to Italy and served three two-year terms as guest court conductor in Copenhagen. Schütz's works include one opera (a first in the German language), Easter and Christmas oratorios, three passions, numerous polychoral Psalm settings in the style of his teacher, Gabrielli, other sacred concerted works in Latin and German, and Italian madrigals.
(http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/schutz.html)
1672 Gerhard Altzenbach (b.1609), German artist, died.
1674 Mar 6, Johann Paul Schor (58), German baroque painter, died.
1675 Jun 28, Frederick William of Brandenburg crushed the Swedes.
1676 Apr 14, Ernst Christian Hesse, composer, was born in Thuringian town of Gros sengottern.
(www.cello.org/heaven/wasiel/intro3.htm)
1678 Jul 26, Joseph I Habsburg, German king, Roman catholic emperor (1705-11), was born.
1678 Frederick William, Brandenburg's Great Elector, gave Bielefeld the privilege of certifying the quality of local linen. This cemented its position as a center for the textile trade.
(Econ, 4/14/12, p.30)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg)
1678 Louis XIV claimed the region of Alsace from Germany.
1680 Nov 27, Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit and inventor of a lantern, died.
1680 In Hamburg, Germany, a cymbal was used for the 1st time in an orchestra.
1681 Mar 14, Georg Philipp Telemann, late baroque composer, was born in Magdeburg, Germany.
1683 Jul 24, The 1st settlers from Germany to US left aboard the ship Concord.
(www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/germantown.html)
1685 Feb 23, Composer and musician George Frideric Handel (d.1759) was born in Halle, Germany.
(LGC-HCS, p.37)(AP, 2/23/98)(HN, 2/23/98)
1685 Mar 21, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach (d.1750) was born in Eisenach, Germany, the youngest of eight children. 2nd source says Mar 21. He composed cantatas, sonatas, preludes, fugues and chorale preludes, and whose works included "Brandenburg Concerto" and "Well-Tempered Clavier."
(AP, 3/21/97)(LGC-HCS.p.17)(HN, 3/21/99)
1685 Jun 30, Dominikus Zimmermann, German architect, painter (Liebfrauenkirche), was born.
1686 May 24, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (d.1736), German physicist, was born. He devised a temperature scale and introduced the use of mercury in thermometers. He assigned the number 32 for the melting point of ice, 96 to the temperature of blood and 212 to the steam point. [see May 14]
(WUD, 1994, p.510)(SFEC, 3/22/98, Par. p.8)(HN, 5/24/98)
1689 May 12, England's King William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The "Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1690 Jan 14, The clarinet was invented in Germany.
1692 Nov 7, Johannes G. Schnabel, German author and surgeon (Insel Felsenburg), was born.
1692 In Germany Rheinfels castle withstood a siege of 28,000 French troops sent by Louis XIV. French troops under Napoleon destroyed it in 1797.
(SSFC, 11/29/15, p.G6)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinfels_Castle)
1693 Heidelberg was torched by the troops of Louis XIV in a dispute over a royal title.
1696 Oct 6, Savoy Germany withdrew from the Grand Alliance.
1696 The Hotel Elephant was founded in Weimar, the capital of Thuringia.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8
1699 Mar 4, Jews were expelled from Lubeck, Germany.
1700 Feb 22, Augustus II (the Strong), elector of Saxony (1694-1733) and King of Poland (1697-1706, 1709-1733), with the help of the Saxon army attacked Swedish controlled Riga. This began the Northern War (1700-1721).
(LHC, 2/22/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_II_the_Strong)
1700 Germany adopted the Gregorian calendar established in 1582.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)
c1700-1800 Anton Graff, 18th cent. German painter.
(SFEC, 10/9/96, C2)
1701 German artisans created an amber room for King Frederick I of Prussia. He presented it as a gift to Peter the Great in 1716.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A20)
1701 German alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger (1682-1719) escaped from Berlin, where he faced arrest for claiming he could turn lead into gold. He was arrested in Wittenberg and sent to Dresden where Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, ordered him to replicate his alleged feat. Bottger soon befriended Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, who was interested in creating true white porcelain. In 1705 Augustus allowed Bottger to work with Tschirnhaus on making porcelain.
(ON, 8/10, p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_B%C3%B6ttger)
1702 Georg Everhard Rumpf, German botanist, died. He was employed by the Dutch East India Company and compiled the "Ambonese Herbal," even after going blind in 1670. The work was published in Amsterdam between 1741 and 1755.
1703 May 18, Dutch and English troops occupied Cologne.
1704 Aug 13, The Battle of Blenheim, Germany, was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1705 Jan 8, Georg F. Handel's 1st opera "Almira," premiered in Hamburg.
1706 Mar 3, Johann Pachelbel (b.1653), German organist and composer best remembered for his "Canon in D," died Nuremberg at age 52.
(WUD, 1994 p.1034)(AP, 3/3/06)
1707 May 9, Dietrich Buxtehude (~69), German organist, composer, died.
1707 Aug 31, The Treaty or Convention of Altranstädt was signed between Charles XII of Sweden and Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. It settled the rights of Protestants in Silesia and forced Augustus the Strong to yield the Polish throne to Stanisław Leszczyński (1677-1766).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Altranst%C3%A4dt_%281707%29)
1707 Oct 17, German composer Johann S. Bach married his niece Maria Bach.
1708 Jan 5, German alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger, under the tutelage of Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, succeeded in creating samples resembling pure porcelain at the Jungfernbastei castle in Dresden. Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, had ordered Bottger to re-create the formula for oriental porcelain. Bottger was imprisoned and joined physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus in a search for the formula. Tschirnhaus died in Oct, 1708. Within 2 years a factory was established in Meissen's Albrechtsburg and Meissenware became Europe's first hard-paste porcelain. In 2020 Suzanne Marchand authored "Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe."
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.88)(ON, 8/10, p.9)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.69)
1708 Apr 23, Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet (Versuch einiger Poem), was born.
1708 Oct 11, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (b.1651), German physicist, died. Three days after Von Tschirnhaus's death, there was a burglary at his house and, according to a report by Böttger, a small piece of porcelain was stolen. This report suggests that Böttger himself recognized that Von Tschirnhaus already knew how to make porcelain, a key piece of evidence that Von Tschirnhaus and not Böttger was the inventor of white porcelain.
{Germany, Physics, Ceramics}
(ON, 8/10, p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_Walther_von_Tschirnhaus)
1708 The German Baptist Brethren were founded as a band of Pietists in the village of Schwarzenau. Due to persecution they soon migrated to America. The Holy Spirit whispers to every believer but can only be heard by those who sacrifice self-will to god's will. They observe the rite of the "holy kiss" and have no leaders.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.W13)
1710 Jan 1, Cölln, a town on the Spree River, united with neighboring Berlin under the latter name.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin)
1710 The Elector of Hanover commissioned the Hanover Cistern and Fountain, a silver buffet service intended to cool wine. In 1997 it had an estimated value of $2-3 million.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.4)
1710 In Germany Baron Johann Bottger invented the Meissen hard-paste porcelain at the Meissen factory on the river Elbe under the auspices of Augustus, King of Poland. Kandler was a virtuoso sculptor and brilliant artist at Meissen and was responsible for the figurine of Mazzetin and Columbine, 2 characters from the Italian comedia dell 'arte. In 2008 Maureen Cassidy-Geiger edited "Fragile Diplomacy," an illustrated look at Meissen porcelain.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.W10)(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.W11)
1712 Jan 24, Frederick II (the Great), the Hohenzollern King of Prussia (1740-1786), was born. He was noted for his social reforms and leading Prussia in military victories.
(HN, 1/24/99)(WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A24)(MC, 1/24/02)
1712 Oct 30, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, German painter, was born.
1713 Bach composed his Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.
1713 European white porcelain was put up for general sale for the first time at the Leipzig trade fair.
1714 Mar 8, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (d.1788), German composer, son of J.S. Bach, was born. He played keyboard at the court of Frederick the Great for 28 years, and succeeded Telemann at Hamburg. Because he was left-handed he did not play the violin. He represented the elegant, noncontrapuntal style gallant that was developed by the Mannheim composers and led into Haydn and Mozart.
(LGC-HCS, p.31)(MC, 3/8/02)
1714 Jul 2, Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck, composer, was born in Erasbach, Germany.
1715 Mar 7, Ewald Christian von Kleist, German lyric poet (Der Freuhling), was born.
1716 Nov 3, Pacification Treaty of Warsaw: Czar Peter the Great guaranteed Saxon monarch August I's Polish kingdom.
1716 Nov 14, Gottfried W. Leibniz (Leibnitz b.1646), German philosopher and theologian, died. In 2005 Matthew Stewart authored "The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World.
(www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Leibniz.html)(WSJ, 12/15/05, p.D8)
1716 Frederick William I of Prussia presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to Peter the Great. In exchange he received his wish: 55 very tall Russian soldiers. Catherine the Great later added four marble panels from Florence, that were inlaid with precious stones. German troops dismantled it in 1941 and moved it to Konigsberg in 1945, where it was lost during WW II. One of the marble panels turned up in Bremen in 1997. In 1979 the Soviet government initiated a reconstruction, which was unveiled in 2003.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A20)(AP, 5/13/03)
1717 Dec 9, Johann J. Winckelmann, German archaeologist (History of Ancient Art), was born.
1717 Johann Martin Schubart, former student of JS Bach, succeeded Bach as organist at the court of Weimar.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.E10)
1717-1723 J.S. Bach worked under Prince Leopold at Anhalt-Cothen. During this period he composed the 1st book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concertos and the sonatas for solo violin. Bach likely composed his "Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello" during this period, when he served as a Kapellmeister in Cothen. They were later acclaimed as some of the greatest works ever written for solo cello. In 2010 Eric Siblin authored "The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece."
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Suites_%28Bach%29)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.82)
1719 Mar 13, German alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger (b.1682) died. He was generally acknowledged as the inventor of European porcelain. Sources later ascribed this to Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Böttger is still credited with the industrial manufacturing process of Meißen porcelain.
(ON, 8/10, p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_B%C3%B6ttger)
1719 Sep 23, Liechtenstein declared independence from the German empire.
1719 Nov 14, Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, composer, was born.
1719 The Zwinger Palace was erected in Dresden, Germany.
(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
1721 Mar 24, In Germany, the supremely talented Johann Sebastian Bach published the Six Brandenburg Concertos.
1722 Nov 24, Johann Adam Reincken (99), German organist and composer, died.
1722 Daniel Schurzfleisch brought his book collection to the "Grünes Schloß" (Green Castle) on 35 horse-drawn carts. Duchess Anna Amalia (1739-1807) converted the palace into a library and made him the 1st librarian.
1722 JS Bach completed the manuscript of the 1st volume "The Well-Tempered Clavier." It circulated underground until it was published in 1801.
(WSJ, 2/18/06, p.P12)
1723 Augustus the Strong, ruler of Saxony and King of Poland, ordered the expansion of the Royal Residence Palace treasure chamber in Dresden, long called the Green Vault because of the color of its walls.
(http://tinyurl.com/gp7uy)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.95)
1723-1750 J.S. Bach worked as the cantor of Leipzig's St. Thomas Church and school.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1724 Apr 7, Johann S. Bach's "St. John Passion" premiered in Leipzig.
1724 Apr 22, Immanuel Kant (d.1804), German philosopher (Critique of Pure Reason), was born in Konigsberg (Kaliningrad). He held that space is just a "form of sensibility" that our minds impose on experience to give it structure. His work included the essay "Perpetual Peace."
(V.D.-H.K.p.40)(HN, 4/22/98)(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W13)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.A10)
1727 In Munich the "Die Andächtige Pilgerfahrt" (The Devout Pilgrimage) by Vincentius Briemle was published. The 2 illustrated volumes consisted of travel writing of journeys to Italy, Austria and the Holy Land.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.93)(www.dartmouth.edu/~wessweb/nl/Fall05/pinews.html)
1728 Feb 10, Peter III Fyodorovich (d.1762), czar of Russia (1761-62), was born in Germany. He married Catherine, who succeeded him following a coup. [see Feb 21]
(WUD, 1994 p.1077)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)(MC, 2/10/02)
1728 Feb 21, Peter III, Russian Tsar (1762), husband of Catherine, was born in Kiel Germany. [see Feb 10]
1729 Apr 15, Johann S. Bach's "Matthew Passion" premiered in Leipzig.
1729 Sep 6, Mozes Mendelssohn, German enlightened philosopher (Haksalah), was born.
1729 Sep 26, Moses Mendelssohn, German philosopher, critic, Bible translator, was born. [see Sep 6]
1729-1781 Gotthold Lessing, German writer, dramatist-critic, saw Faust's pursuit of knowledge as noble, and in an unfinished play he arranged for a reconciliation between God and Faust. "Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases, think for yourself."
(V.D.-H.K.p.239)(AP, 9/9/99)
1730 In Germany A. Ketterer invented the cuckoo clock.
1731 Dec 28, Christian Cannabich, German composer and royal chaplain master, was born.
1732 Jun 21, Johann Christoph Frederic Bach (d.1795), composer, was born. He is known as the Buckeburg Bach for serving in that city his whole life.
(LGC-HCS, p.31)(MC, 6/21/02)
1733 Feb 1, Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1697-1706) and twice King of Poland (1697-1706, 1709-1733), died in Warsaw.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_II_the_Strong)
1733 May 18, Georg Bohm (71), German organist, composer, died.
1735 Sep 5, Johann Christian Bach (d.1782), composer, son of JS Bach, was born. He is known as the London Bach. He traveled to Italy, became a Catholic, and went to England where he was mentor to the young Mozart. He also represented the Style Gallant.
1739 Weimar Duchess Anna Amalia (d.1807) was born.
(www.woodwind.org/Databases/Composers/Names)
1740s Frederick the Great built a summer palace in Potsdam named Sans-Souci (without worries).
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T11)
1741 May 8, France and Bavaria signed the Covenant of Nymphenburg.
1742 May 17, Frederick great (Emperor of Prussia) beat Austrians.
1742 Oct 12, Johan Peter Melchior, German sculptor, was born.
1743 Jun 27, King George of the English defeated the French at Dettingen, Bavaria. English armies were victorious over the French at Dettingen. This event was celebrated by Handel in his composition "Dettingen Te Deum."
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p. 317)(HN, 6/27/98)
1743 The Frauenkirche was built in Dresden, Germany. It was destroyed by allied bombs in 1945, but plans for rebuilding were scheduled for completion by 2006, the 800th birthday of Dresden. A reconstructed version was consecrated in 2005.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.A16)
1744 Aug 25, Johann G. von Herder, German philosopher, theologist, poet, was born.
1744-1812 Mayer Rothschild, banker, rose from a ghetto in Frankfurt to become the banker to Prince William of Prussia. His son, Nathan Rothschild, worked in London as a banker and invested Prussian money in the Napoleonic Wars and smuggled it to Wellington in Spain. His 4 other sons established banks in Vienna, Naples and Paris.
1745 Apr 22, Peace of Fussen was signed, restoring the status quo of Germany.
1745 May 11, French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
1745 Oct 11, The Leyden jar, capable of storing static electricity, was invented by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist. Also about this time Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden) independently came up with the same idea.
(ON, 2/12, p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar)
1747 Mar 31, Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, German composer (Moon has Risen), was born.
c1747 Man-made dykes were built in the Oderbruch region north of Frankfurt an der Oder around land that was drained and cleared for farming. The dykes faced disaster in 1997 during heavy July rains.
1748 Feb 5, Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer, conductor, tutor of Beethoven, was born.
1748 In Germany an oil painting by Elias Gottlob Haussmann showed bewigged composer Johann Sebastian Bach aged around 60 holding the score to one of his canons.
1749 Aug 28, German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (d.1832), "the master spirit of the German people," was born at Frankfurt am Main. Scientist, philosopher, novelist, and critic as well as lyric, dramatic, and epic poet, he was the leading figure of his age after Napoleon. He had early pretensions in the visual arts and was an avid draftsman into old age. He studied law in Leipzig and died in Weimar. He is best known for "Faust." "True excellence is rarely found, even more rarely is it cherished."
(V.D.-H.K.p.239)(AP, 8/28/97)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)(HN, 8/28/98)(AP, 9/4/98) (SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T6)
1750 Mar 16, Caroline Lucretia Herschel, 1st woman astronomer, was born in Hanover, Germany.
1750 Jul 28, Composer Johann Sebastian Bach (65) died in Leipzig, Germany. In 2000 Christoff Wolff authored the biography "Johann Sebastian Bach." In 2005 James Gaines authored "Evening in the Palace of Reasoning," a portrait of Bach in 1747. In 2013 John Eliot Gardiner authored "Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven."
(AP, 7/28/00)(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A12)(SC, 7/28/02)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.96)
1750 Germany returned the island of Aero, which measures 22 by 6 miles, to Denmark.
(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.G3)
1751 Sep 1, Emmanuel Johann Joseph Schikaneder, actor, librettist (The Magic Flute), was born.
1753 Apr 28, Franz K. Achard, German physicist, was born.
1753 Aug 19, [Johann] Balthasar Neumann (66), German architect, died.
1755 Apr 10, Samuel Hahnemann, German physician, was born.
1755 The annual 12-day Bergkirchweih beer festival began in Erlangen, Germany.
1756 Apr 13, Johann T. Gottlieb Goldberg (29), German klavecinist, composer, died.
1758 Jun 23, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
1758 Aug 25, The Prussian army defeated the invading Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1759 Apr 14, Georg Friedrich Handel (74), German-born composer, died in London. He had composed some 30 oratorios.
(LGC-HCS, p.41)(AP, 4/14/97)(SFC, 9/16/97, p.E1)
1759 Jul 23, Russians under Saltikov defeated Prussians at Kay in eastern Germany, and one-fourth of Prussian army of 27,000 was lost.
1759 Aug 1, British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany. The marquis de Lafayette was killed by a British cannonball and his son, Gilbert du Motier (2), inherited the title. In 1777 Lafayette joined the American Continental Army.
(HN, 8/1/98)(ON, 2/09, p.1)
1759 Aug 24, Ewald C. von Kleist (44), German poet, died.
1759-1805 Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, poet, dramatist and historian. "A beautiful soul has no other merit than its own existence." [He was a friend of Goethe.]
(WUD, 1994, p.1277)(AP, 8/2/98)
1760 Jun 23, Austrians defeated the Prussians at Landshut, Germany.
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French army back to Rhine River.
1760 Oct 9, Austrian and Russian troops entered Berlin and began burning structures and looting.
1760 Nov 3, Following the Russian capture of Berlin, Frederick II of Prussia defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Torgau (Germany).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Torgau)
1761 In Germany A.W. Faber created its first pencil. In 1898 the company got the current name Faber-Castell. The 'Castell 9000' pencil was born in 1905, when count Alexander von Faber Castell decided to give it a hexagonal shape to avoid falling when rolling on a desk.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.73)(www.designboom.com/contemporary/fabercastell.html)
1762 May 19, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (d.1814), German philosopher, was born. He developed ethical idealism out of Immanuel Kant's work.
1763 Frederick the Great took over Die Konigliche Porzelan-Manufaktur. The royal porcelain factory was privatized by the state of Berlin in 2006.
1763-1825 Jean Paul Richter, German author: "A timid person is frightened before a danger; a coward during the time; and a courageous person afterward." "Spring makes everything young again except man."
(AP, 7/3/97)(AP, 3/20/98)
1764 Jan 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8) played for the Royal Family at Versailles, France.
(http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/23-1764.html)
1767 Jun 25, Georg Philipp Telemann (b.1681), German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist, died. He was one of the most prolific composers in history.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Philipp_Telemann)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.74)
1769 Sep 14, Baron Freidrich von Humboldt (d.1859), German naturalist and explorer who made the first isothermic and isobaric maps, was born.
1770 Aug 27, The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was born in Stuttgart. He wrote "The Science of Logic." Hegel greatly influenced Karl Marx. His method was to metaphysicize everything, that is, to discern in concrete reality the working of some Idea or Universal Mind. Hegel proposed that all change, all progress, is brought about by the conflict of vast forces. A world-historical figure or nation or event lays down a challenge. This thesis, as he called it, is opposed by an antithesis. The conflict between them is resolved, inevitably, by a synthesis of the two forces on a higher plane of being.
(V.D.-H.K.p.258)(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1770 Dec 16, Ludwig Von Beethoven (d.1827), deaf German composer best known for his 9th Symphony, was born in Bonn. His Sixth Symphony "Pastorale" was in F-Major. Locks of his hair were cut off after his death and preserved by a number of collectors.
(CFA, '96, p.60)(WUD, 1994, p.134)(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A1,5)(AP, 12/16/97)(SFC, 7/7/98, p.B3)(HN, 12/16/98)
1770 Prussia issued the first covered bonds. They were paid back from the issuer's cash flow and were secured against a pool of assets.
1772 Mar 10, Friedrich Von Schlegel (d.1829) was born. He was a German romantic poet and critic whose books included "Philosophy of History" and "History of Literature." "A historian is a prophet in reverse."
1772 In Germany the silver and most of the silver-gilt in the Green Vault of Dresden was melted down and made into coin.
1774 Dec 2, Johann Friedrich Agricola (54), German court composer and organist, died.
1774 Kaspar David Friedrich (d.1840), German painter and master of numinous landscapes, was born. He painted "Wreck of the Hope."
(AAP, 1964)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) published his novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther." In 1887 French composer Jules Massenet (1842-1912) turned into an opera. The opera premiered at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna on February 16, 1892.
(SFC, 9/17/10, p.F1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werther)
1775 Sep 13, Gotthold Lessing's "Die Juden," premiered in Frankfurt-am-Main.
1775 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe moved to Weimar after Carl August asked him to be his secretary of state.
1776 Feb 8, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Stella," premiered in Hamburg.
1776 Apr 1, Friedrich von Klinger's "Sturm und Drang," premiered in Leipzig.
1776 Apr 22, Johann Adolph Scheibe (67), German music theorist, composer, died.
1776 Dec 26, Johann Gottlieb Rall, Hessian colonel and mercenary, died in battle of Trenton.
1776-1781 It is estimated that 30,000 Hessian soldiers fought for the British during the American Revolution. After Russia refused to provide troops for the war, the German states of Brunswick, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Hanau, Waldeck, Anspach-Bayreuth and Anhalt-Zerbst supplied mercenary soldiers, collectively referred to as Hessians. Seven thousand Hessians died in the war and another 5,000 deserted and settled in America. The British paid the German rulers for each soldier sent to North America and an additional sum for each killed.
1777 Sep 16, Nathan Rothschild (d.1836), banker, was born in Frankfurt. He was the son of Mayer Rothschild (1744-1812), who rose from the Frankfurt ghetto to become the banker to Prince William of Prussia. Nathan worked in London as a banker and invested Prussian money in the Napoleonic Wars and smuggled it to Wellington in Spain. He was the first to hear news from Waterloo and sold stock to convince other investors that the British had lost. His agents bought the stock at low prices. His 4 brothers established banks in Vienna, Naples and Paris.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/?doc=/ib/articles/BW3bNathan)
1777-1810 Phillip Otto Runge, German artist.
1777-1811 Heinrich von Kleist, writer. His work included "St. Cecilia or The Power of Music."
1778 Feb 23, Baron von Steuben joined the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
1778 Nov 14, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, composer, was born.
1779 May 13, War of Bavarian Succession ended.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)(HN, 5/13/98)
1779 The play "Nathan der Weise" (Nathan the Wise) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German playwright, was 1st produced. It is set in Jerusalem in 1193 and shows a humane Jewish merchant, Nathan, spreading benevolence and reconciliation among local Muslims and Christians. Nathan tells Saladin a story: "My council is: Accept the matter wholly as it stands …Let each one believe his ring to be the true one."
(WSJ, 11/24/95, p.A-6)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R55)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A11)
1780 Jan 2, Johann Ludwig Krebs (b.1713), German composer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Ludwig_Krebs)
1780 Mar 27, August L. Crelle, German inventor, mathematician (1st Prussian Railway), was born.
1780 Goethe published a fragment of Faust.
1780 Salomon Gessner, printer, poet and friend of Goethe, founded the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ). In 2005 the newspaper celebrated its 225th birthday.
1780-1831 Karl von Clausewitz, German military officer and author of books on military science. In his 1st book "On War" he wrote: "War is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."
(WUD, 1994, p.273)(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A10)
1781-1841 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect and artist.
1782 Apr 21, Friedrich Froebel, German educator and founder of kindergarten, was born.
1784 Apr 5, Louis [Ludwig] Spohr, German violin virtuoso, composer (Faust), was born.
1784 Jul 1, Wilhelm Friedmann Bach (73), composer (Sinfonias 64), died.
1785 Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Grimm, German philosopher who wrote Grimm's Fairy Tales, was born.
1785 Jan 20, Theodor Grotthus, the 1st Lithuanian physical chemist, was born in Leipzig. He committed suicide Mar 26, 1822.
1785 Jul 23, Prussia's Frederick the Great formed Die Furstenbund (League of German Princes).
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
1786 Feb 24, Wilhelm Carl Grimm (d.1859), compiler of "Grimm's Fairytales," was born in Germany.
(HN, 2/24/98)(WUD, 1994, p.623)
1786 Aug 25, Ludwig I (d.1868), King of Bavaria, was born. He later had an affair with international courtesan, Lola Montez.
1786 Nov 18, Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, German composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
1786 Dec 18, Carl Maria von Weber, German romantic composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
1787 Mar 16, George S. Ohm, German scientist, was born. He gave his name to the ohm unit of electrical resistance. [HN later said Mar 16, 1789]
(HN, 3/16/99)(WUD, 1994 p.1001)
1787 Aug 10, Mozart completed his "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik."
1788 Feb 22, Arthur Schopenhauer (d.1860), German philosopher (Great Pessimist), was born: "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control."
(AP, 12/9/99)(MC, 2/22/02)
1788 Apr 5, Franz Pforr, German painter, cartoonist (Lukasbund), was born.
1788 An arched bridge over the River Necker was completed in Heidelberg. It was damaged during WW II and restored.
1789 Mar 16, George S. Ohm (d.1854), German scientist, was born. He gave his name to the ohm unit of electrical resistance. [WUD says Mar 16, 1787]
1789 Johann Friedrich Overbeck (d.1869), German Nazarene artist, was born.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)
1789 The Brandenburg Gate of Berlin was built.
1789 Tobias Schmidt, a German piano maker, built the first guillotine.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.E4)
1789 Martin Klaproth, German chemist, discovered Uranium. It named after the planet Uranus discovered 8 years earlier.
(NH, 7/02, p.36)(WSJ, 3/18/05, p.C1)
1791 Sep 5, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Vogelsdorf Germany, opera composer (Les Huguenots, Le Prophete), was born.
1791 In Berlin, Germany, the Brandenburg Gate was completed. It stood 66 feet tall and 213 feet wide, and was topped by the copper Quadriga, a sculpture of a goddess riding into the city aboard a chariot. It was restored in 2002.
(AP, 10/2/02)
1791 The Berlin Sing-Academie was established.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.C13)
1792 Sep 2, Verdun, France, surrendered to the Prussian Army.
1793 Jul 23, The French garrison at Mainz, Germany, fell to the Prussians.
1794 Ernst Chladni, German scientist, proposed that meteorites were masses of iron-rich extraterrestrial rock, which occasionally penetrated the earth's atmosphere to strike the surface.
1794 The Royal Bayreuth porcelain factory was founded in Bavaria. The factory stamped this date on dishes made after 1900.
1794-1872 Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German artist.
1795 Mar 29, Beethoven (24) debuted as pianist in Vienna.
1795 Oct 7, Johann Georg Zimmermann (b.1728), Swiss philosophical writer, naturalist, and physician, died in Hanover, Germany. His books included "Solitude Considered with Respect to Its Dangerous Influence Upon the Mind and Heart" (1791).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Ritter_von_Zimmermann)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.71)
c1795 Wilhelm von Kobell made his watercolor "Staff Officers Listening to the Reading of the Day's Orders."
1795-1818 Carl Phillip Fohr, German artist.
1796 Mar 31, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Egmont," premiered in Weimar.
1797 Jan 31, Franz Schubert, German composer, was born in Vienna, Austria.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B11)(AP, 1/31/98)
1797 Feb 15, Henry Steinway (d.1871), German-American piano maker, was born in Germany as Heinrich Steinweg. He move to the US in 1851. The name was anglicized in 1864.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.P8)(http://tinyurl.com/qn6dy)
1797 Mar 22, Kaiser Wilhelm I, German Emperor (1871-88), was born.
1797 May 18, Frederik Augustus II, King of Saxon (1836-54), was born.
1797 Dec 13, Heinrich Heine (d.1856), German lyric poet, critic, satirist and journalist, was born. His works included "Trip to the Hartz Mountains" and "Germany, a Winter Tale." "In these times we fight for ideas, and newspapers are our fortresses."
(AHD, p.611)(AP, 7/18/97)(HN, 12/13/99)
1797 Franz Kruger (d.1857), Biedermeier artist of cityscapes and rural genre scenes, was born.
1797 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher, authored "The Metaphysics of Morals," in which he wrote "If justice perishes, then it is no longer worthwhile for men to live upon the earth".
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metaphysics_of_Morals)
1798 Sep 11, Franz E Neumann, German mineralogist, mathematician and physicist, was born.
1798 Oct 12, The play "Wallenstein's Camp" by Friedrich von Schiller premiered in Weimar. It was set in 3 parts during the 30 Years War as Gen. Albrecht von Wallenstein fought for Catholic Emp. Ferdinand II.
(www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_02-06/2005/051-2_Schiller_friends.html)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.78)
c1798 Aloys Hirt, founder of the Berlin Academy of Art, laid plans for an art museum to present art in a systematic fashion. This led to the 1830 Altes Museum.
1799 Feb 24, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German scientist, satirist, and Anglophile, died. He is remembered for his posthumously published notebooks, which he himself called Sudelbücher, a description modelled on the English bookkeeping term "scrapbooks", and for his discovery of the strange tree-like patterns now called Lichtenberg figures. "It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Christoph_Lichtenberg)(http://tinyurl.com/qzlpuna)
1799 Apr 20, Friedrich Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod," the third part of his Wallenstein trilogy, premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 4/20/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallenstein_%28play%29)
1799-1804 Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), German explorer, and Aime Bonpland, botanist, led an expedition to South America. They collected over 60,000 plants.
(http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa020298.htm)(CW, Spring '99, p.49)
1800 Apr 2, 1st performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's 1st Symphony in C.
1800 May 14, Friedrich Schiller's translation of "Macbeth" premiered in Weimar.
1800 Oct 26, Helmuth Karl von Moltke, Prussian Field Marshal and Count, was born. His reorganization of the Prussian Army led to military victories that allowed the unification of Germany. His father was a German officer serving in the Danish army. His greatest innovation was the creation of a fighting force that could mobilize quickly and strike when and where it chose. He was one of the first generals to grasp the importance of railroads in moving troops. In 1995 Otto Friedrich authored a biography of the Moltke family line from Bismarck to Hitler: "Blood and Iron: From Bismarck to Hitler the von Moltke Family's Impact on German History."
(WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-20)(HN, 10/26/98)
1800 Nov 24, Weber's opera "Das Waldmadchen," premiered in Freiburg.
1800 Dec 3, Austrians were defeated by the French at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
c1800 Johann Christian Reinhart, artist, created his "The History Painter, Caricature."
1800 Friedrich Schiller wrote his drama "Mary Stuart." The play is compressed into the last 3 days of Mary's life.
(SFC, 4/3/98, p.C1)(WSJ, 9/27/01, p.A16)
1801 Apr 11, Johann von Schiller's "Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans)," premieres in Leipzig.
1801 Oct 23, Johann Gottlieb Naumann (60), German composer, died.
1801 Nov 3, Karl Baedeker, German publisher, was born. He became well known for travel guides. His 1835 "Travel on the Rhine" is widely considered as the 1st modern guidebook.
(HN, 11/3/00)(SSFC, 11/30/02, p.C3)
1801 Friedrich von Hardenberg (b.1772), German poet (Novalis), died. He was later known as the father of German romantic nationalism.
(WUD, 1994 p.645)(WSJ, 4/8/03, p.D4)
1802 Aug 13, Nikolaus Lenau, German poet (Faust, Die Albigenser), was born in Hungary.
1803 Feb 25, The 1,800 sovereign German states united into 60 states.
1803 Mar 14, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (78), German poet, died.
1803 Mar 19, Johann von Schiller's "Die Braut von Messina," premiered in Weimar.
1803 Apr 5, 1st performance of Beethoven's 2nd Symphony in D.
1803 Beethoven composed his "Kreutzer Sonata" dedicated to the French violinist Rudolphe Kreutzer.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E4)
1807 Bavaria made vaccination compulsory to stop the spread of smallpox.
(Econ., 2/13/21, p.20)
1804 Immanuel Kant (b. 1724), German philosopher, died. His "categorical imperative" helped to ascertain the proper course under any circumstances: "Act only on the maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." Kant had described how the sun and planets might have condensed from a primordial cloud with no divine intervention.
(V.D.-H.K.p.40)(HN, 4/22/98)(SFC, 4/25/01, p.E5)(SFC, 6/17/02, p.A6)
1805 Apr 7, Beethoven conducted the premiere of his "Eroica" symphony.
1805 May 9, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (45), poet, playwright, died in Weimar.
(MC, 5/9/02)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1805 Sep 30, Napoleon's army entered the Rhine valley.
1806 Jan 1, Bavaria was proclaimed as a kingdom. A crowning celebration for the crown prince Max Joseph, however, never took place.
1806 Jul 12, The Confederation of the Rhine was established in Germany.
1806 Aug 10, Johann Michael Haydn (68), composer, died.
1806 Oct 27, Emperor Napoleon entered Berlin.
1807 Mar 5, 1st performance of Ludwig von Beethoven's 4th Symphony in B.
1807 Weimar Duchess Anna Amalia (b.1739) died.
1808 May 18, Jacob Albright [Albrecht] (49), German-US preacher, died.
1809 Feb 3, Felix Mendelssohn (d.1847), German composer and pianist, was born. His work included: "Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream".
(HN, 2/3/01)(WUD, 1994 p.895)
1809 Apr 10, Austria declared war on France and her forces entered Bavaria.
1809 Apr 20, Napoleon defeated Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.
1810 Jun 8, Robert Schumann (d.1856), German composer, was born in Zwickau, Germany.
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p.49)(HN, 6/8/01)
1810 Oct 12, Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. In honor of the wedding a horse race took place at the Theresienwiese (the Theresien meadow). The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.
(www.ofest.com/history.html)
1810 Dec 7, Theodor Schwann, German physiologist, was born.
1810 A German folk tale appeared in "Gespensterbuch" (The Book of Ghosts), which formed the basis for the 1821 opera "Der Freishutz" (The Free-Shooter) by Carl Maria von Weber. In 1991 American writer William Burroughs wrote "The Black Rider," an English version of the story with music by Tom Waits.
1810 Friedrich Wilhelm III began the construction of Museum Island in Berlin.
(WSJ, 2/1/96, p.A-16)
1810 Wilhelm von Humboldt founded the Univ. of Berlin, later Humboldt University, to give students a broad humanist education.
(WSJ, 2/26/00, p.A8)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.56)
1810 Construction of the first brew kettle at the Hallerbräustadel, the "factory," as it is called in the books, that Gabriel Sedlmayr leased in 1808 at the west end of the Neuhauserstraße. The kettle is only used to refine vinegar. Today at this site stands the Hertie department store.
1811 Feb 26, Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger was born.
1811 Mar 31, Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen, German inventor of the Bunsen burner, was born.
1811 Apr 25, The state ordered "Biersatzregulativ" (beer composition regulation) passed and had far-reaching consequences for brewers. It regulated the profits of the brewers, and set standards for watered-down or unhealthy beer. In addition, beer prices were set as well as how much beer could be produced from a specific amount of malt. Though the "Regulativ" set many standards, it actually brought about greater industrial freedom than had earlier bans and rules.
1811 Nov 21, Heinrich W. von Kleist (34), German playwright, died.
1811 The construction of a grain elevator with threshers and an enlargement of the kilns led to expanded capacity, just four years after the take over of the Spaten-Brauerei by Gabriel Sedlmayr the Elder.
1812 Apr 26, Alfred Krupp, German arms merchant, was born.
1813 May 22, Richard Wagner, German composer, conductor and writer, was born in Leipzig, Germany. He composed "The Flying Dutchman."
1813 Aug 26-1813 Aug 27, The Battle of Dresden was Napoleon's last major victory against the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia. French forces under Napoleon scored a victory against the Allied army led by Field Marshal Schwarzenberg. Three days after the battle, the Allies surrounded and captured a French corps at the Battle of Kulm.
(www.napoleonguide.com/battle_dresden.htm)
1813 Oct 16, In the Battle at Leipzig Napoleon faced Prussia, Austria & Russia.
1813 Oct 17, Georg Buchner, German playwright (Danton's Death, Woyzeck), was born.
1813 Oct 18, The Allies defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
1813 Nov 2, Treaty of Fulda. After the Battle of Leipzig (Oct 16-19) King Frederick I of Württemberg (1754-1816) deserted Napoleon's waning fortunes. By a treaty made with Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich (1773-1858) at Fulda, Hessen, Germany he secured the confirmation of his royal title and of his recent acquisitions of territory, while his troops marched with those of the allies into France.
(DoW, 1999, p.325)
1813 Dec 8, Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premiered.
1813 Dec 31, Some 83,000 Prussian and Russian soldiers pursued Napoleon across the Rhine at Pfalzgrafenstein Castle.
1813 Prussia took over Danzig.
1813 The Prussians introduced the Iron Cross during the Napoleonic wars.
(WSJ, 4/23/99, A1)
1814 Jan 27, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (b.1762), German philosopher, died.
1814 Feb 27, Ludwig von Beethoven's 8th Symphony in F, premiered.
1805 Nov 14, Fanny Cecilia Mendelssohn Hensel (d.1847), composer, was born in Hamburg, Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/dypbhbo)
1915 Feb 18, Germany began a blockade of England.
1815 Mar 5, Friedrich (Franz) Anton Mesmer (b.1734), German physician who pioneered the medical field of hypnotic therapy, died in obscurity in Meersburg, Swabia (now Germany). He was suspected of having seduced a pretty pianist while attempting to cure her blindness through hypnosis.
(HN, 5/23/98)(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A24)(MC, 3/5/02)
1815 Apr 1, Otto von Bismarck (d.1898), German statesman, was born. He founded the German Empire and was the chancellor of Germany, the Second Reich, from 1866-90 [1971-1990]. The Iron Chancellor created the modern social insurance state when he introduced transfer payments to appease worker insecurities. "History is simply a piece of paper covered with print; the main thing is still to make history, not to write it." "Every man had his basic worth - from which must be subtracted his vanity.
(WUD, 1994, p.151)(AP, 11/6/97)(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.A14)(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.8)(HN, 4/1/99)
1815 Adolph Menzel (d.1905), German painter, was born. He combined elements of many styles and was considered the greatest artist in Germany at the time and was Prussia's foremost historical artist. He was considered Germany's French Impressionist.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1815 Gabriel Sedlmayr the Elder applied with the authorities to brew a "white barley beer." Any approval of the application is unknown.
1815 The first German Burschenschaft (fraternity) was founded in Jena, Germany.
(Econ, 2/11/06, Survey p.15)
1816 Mar 6, Jews were expelled from Free city of Lubeck, Germany.
1816 Jul 21, Paul Julius Baron von Reuter (d.1899), founder of the British news agency bearing his name, was born in Hesse, Germany, as Israel Beer Josaphat.
(AP, 7/21/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Julius_Reuter)
1816 Dec 13, E. Werner von Siemens, German artillery officer and inventor, was born.
1816 Caspar David Friedrich, German romantic artist, painted "View of a Harbor." It was soon purchased by Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia as a birthday present for the crown prince.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A7)
1816 Rain, hail and frost during the summer caused starvation in all of Europe. Because of this, Gabriel Sedlmayr baked bread from dough using the spent grains of his mash tun. The bread is somewhat dark, but smells and tastes good.
1816 In Germany Johann Maelzel patented the metronome a couple of years after it was drawn up by Dutch inventor Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel.
1817 Jun 12, Karl von Drais (1785-1851), German forest official and inventor, reportedly first rode his Laufmaschine ("running machine"), later called the velocipede, from about 7km from Mannheim to the "Schwetzinger Relaishaus." His machine incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Drais)
1817 Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun of Germany invented the draisienne, the first 2-wheeled, rider-propelled machine and exhibited it in Paris in 1818. The vehicle came to be known as the "velocipede," a 2-wheeled running machine without pedals.
(www.cycle-info.bpaj.or.jp/english/learn/bcc02.html)(Wired, 2/98, p.172)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1818 Oct 24, Felix Mendelssohn (9) performed his 1st public concert in Berlin.
1818 Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), German Romantic landscape artist, creating his painting "Wanderer Above a Sea of Clouds."
(Econ, 10/29/11, IL p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich)
1819 Mar 26, Louise Otto, German feminist author, was born.
1819 Aug 26, Albert "Bertie" von Saxon-Coburg-Gotha (d.1861), husband of queen Victoria, was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Bavaria.
(WUD, 1994, p.34)(http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
1819 Sep 13, Clara Josephine Schumann, [nee Wieck], pianist and composer, was born in Leipzig, Germ.
1819 Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), German Romantic painter, created his "Two Men Contemplating the Moon." He painted it as part of a series of 3 (1824,1830). The 3rd had the same title, the 2nd was titled "Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon."
(WSJ, 9/21/01, p.W2)(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A24)
1819 The brew house of the Spaten-Brauerei (brewery) in the Neuhausergasser 4 is expanded and renovated by Gabriel Sedlmayr. The same year, the disagreement between the city of Munich and its breweries (Spaten included) over payment for deliveries to French troops in 1800/1801 is finally resolved.
1819-1898 Theodor Fontane, German author: "Happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: first, in being where you belong, and second -- and best -- in comfortably going through everyday life, that is, having had a good night's sleep and not being hurt by new shoes." His work included practical hiking guides to Brandenburg, poetry theater criticism, foreign correspondence and novels. His novels included "Effi Briest" and "L'Adultera." In 1998 a biography by Gordon Craig was scheduled to be published.
(AP, 8/7/97)(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A20)
1820 May 13, The opera "Die Jearsbraut" was completed.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1820 Nov 28, Friedrich Engels (d.1895), German social philosopher; Marx's collaborator, was born.
(V.D.-H.K.p.257)(MC, 11/28/01)
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