Timeline Germany to 1820
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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)
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.
(AFP, 5/19/09)
c500000BC A human jawbone of about this age, homo
Heidelbergensis, was found in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1907.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T9)
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.
(AP, 5/14/09)
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)
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)
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.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2500BC The first signs of human habitation at Trier
date to this time.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T8)
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.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T8)
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.
(http://www.fact-index.com/p/pu/publius_quinctilius_varus.html)
17CE May 26, Germanicus of Rome
celebrated a victory over the Germans.
(AP, 5/26/98)
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.
(Arch, 5/05, p.62)
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 [see Aug 18].
(V.D.-H.K.p.87)(AP, 8/24/97)(HN, 8/24/98)
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]
(MC, 3/15/02)
532 Oct 17, Boniface II, 1st
"German" Pope, died.
(MC, 10/17/01)
570CE St. Goar, a missionary from
the south of France, arrived in Germany.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
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.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.59)
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)
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.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)
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)
843 Aug 10, Treaty of Verdun:
Brothers Lotharius I, Louis the German and Charles the Bare divided
France.
(MC, 8/10/02)
860 Aug 1, Peace of Koblenz
involved Charles the Bare, Louis the German & Lotharius II.
(MC, 8/1/02)
870 In the Treaty of Mersen Louis
II, the Holy Roman Emperor, forced the partition of Lorraine under King
Charles the Bald. The realm was divided on the basis of revenue.
(PC, 1992, p.71)
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.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
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.
(MC, 5/12/02)
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.
(HN, 8/10/98)
962 Feb 2, Otto I (912-973)
invaded Italy and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
(AHD, 1971, p.931)(HN, 2/2/99)
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.
(AHD, 1971, p.931)(MC, 11/23/01)
975 Jul 25, Thietmar bishop of
Merseburg, German chronicler, was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
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)
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.
(MC, 2/18/02)
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)
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.
(MC, 6/6/02)
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).
(MC, 10/18/01)
1017 Oct 28, Henry III, Roman
Catholic German emperor (1046-56), was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1016 Nov 30, Edmund II (27),
Ironsides, King of Saxons, died.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1024 Jul 13, Henry II, the Monk,
German King (1002-24), died.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1024 Sep 4, Conrad II (the Sailor)
was chosen as German king.
(MC, 9/4/01)
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.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1076 Feb 14, Pope Gregory VII
excommunicated Henry IV.
(MC, 2/14/02)
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.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1083 Jun 3, Henry IV of Germany
stormed Rome capturing St. Peter's Basilica.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1084 Mar 31, Anti-pope Clemens
crowned German emperor Hendrik IV.
(MC, 3/31/02)
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.
(MC, 6/25/02)
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.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.E3)
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.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T8)
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.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
c1100-1200 The Festung Ehrenbreitsen, Europe’s
largest fortress, was built at the convergence of the Mosel and Rhine
Rivers.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T1)
1125 May 25, Hendrik V, last
Salische German king, died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
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)
1147 Oct 25, At the Battle at
Doryleum 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)(MC, 10/25/01)
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.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1155 Jun 18, German-born Frederick
I, Barbarossa, was crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Adrian IV.
(HN, 6/18/98)(MC, 6/18/02)
1167 Aug 14, Raynald van Dassel,
archbishop of Cologne, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1176 May 29, Lombard League
defeated Frederick Barbarossa at Battle of Legnano.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1179 Sep 17, Hildegard van Bingen,
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."
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A16)(Wired, 8/96, p.84)(WSJ,
7/30/98, p.A16)(MC, 9/17/01)
1189 May 11, Emperor Frederik I
Barbarossa and 100,000 crusaders departed Regensburg.
(MC, 5/11/02)
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 (1212-1250) and King of Sicily, was born in Lesi, Italy.
(HN, 12/26/98)(MC, 12/26/01)
1194 Dec 27, Frederick II, German
Emperor, was born.
(HN, 12/27/98)
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.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)
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."
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)
1205 Jun 19, Pope Innocent III
fired Adolf I as archbishop of Cologne.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1206 The city of Dresden was
founded.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T6)
1210 Oct 18, Pope Innocent III
excommunicated German emperor Otto IV.
(MC, 10/18/01)
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.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1220 Nov 22, After promising to go
to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, German King
Frederick II was crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
(HN, 11/22/98)(PCh, 1992, p.106)
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]
(AP, 5/5/06)
1229 Mar 18, German emperor
Frederick II crowned himself king of Jerusalem.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1239 Roman Emperor Frederick II
was excommunicated a 2nd time because his growing empire threatened the
independence of the papal states.
(AP, 5/5/06)
1241 Apr 9, In the Battle of
Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeated the Poles and Germans.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1241 May 25, 1st attack on Jewish
community of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1242 Feb 12, Henry VII, Roman
Catholic German king (1220-35), committed suicide.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1245 The Rheinfels Castle above
St. Goar was erected by Count Diether III of Katzenelbogen to enforce a
new toll on the Rhine. His family was responsible for many of the Rhine
castles.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1248 May 15, Archbishop Konrad von
Hochstaden laid the cornerstone for Köln (Cologne) cathedral. [see
Aug 14]
(MC, 5/15/02)
1248 Aug 14, Construction of
Cologne Cathedral began. [see May 15]
(MC, 8/14/02)
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.
(MC, 12/13/01)
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.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1267 Feb 9, Synod of Breslau
ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1268 Oct 19, Konradin von
Hohenstaufen, duke of Zwaben, was beheaded. [see Oct 20]
(MC, 10/19/01)
1268 Oct 20, Konradijn
Hohenstaufen, son of Koenraad IV, was beheaded in Naples. [see Oct 19]
(MC, 10/20/01)
1273 Oct 1, Rudolf of Hapsburg was
elected emperor in Germany.
(HN, 10/1/98)
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.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)
1280 Nov 15, Albertus Magnus (87),
German leader and bishop Regensburg, died.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1280 German merchants formed the
Hanseatic League to facilitate trade.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1280 In Germany a spinning wheel
invented in China was demonstrated in Speyer.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1283 The Marksburg Castle was
built by the Katzenelbogans to defend the silver and lead mines of
Braubach.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
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).
(MC, 6/26/02)
1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused
baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1298 Jul 2, An army under Albert
of Austria defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Worms, Germany.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1298 Jul 23, Jews were massacred
at Wurzburg, Germany.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1298 Oct 19, Rindfleish: 140 Jews
of Heilbron Germany were murdered.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1300-1400 The archbishop of Trier used the castle
across from Assmannshausen as his residence.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)
1304 The Hotel Pilgrim Haus was
founded in Soest, Germany.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)
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.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1330 Mar 23, Riga surrendered to
the Livonian Order.
(LHC, 3/23/03)
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 Oct, 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. Infected dead bodies were catapulted into the Genoese town. One
Genoese ship managed to escape and brought the disease to Messina, in
Sicily. From this time forth the disease 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.
(V.D.-H.K.p.151)(NG, 5/88, p.678)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R42)
1348 Feb 2, The Knights of the
Cross defeated a Lithuanian army at Streva.
(LHC, 2/2/03)
1349 Feb 14, 2,000 Jews were
burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1349 Mar 21, Some 3,000 Jews were
killed in Black Death riots in Efurt, Germany.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1349 Apr 30, Jewish community at
Radolszell, Germany, was exterminated.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1349 Aug 24, Some 6,000 Jews,
blamed for the Bubonic Plague, were killed in Mainz.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Aug 24, Jews of Cologne
Germany set themselves on fire to avoid baptism.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1349 Sep 10, The Jews who survived
a massacre in Constance, Germany, were burned to death.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1349 Nov 29, Jews of Augsburg,
Germany, were massacred.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1349 Dec 5, 500 Jews of Nuremberg
were massacred during Black Death riots.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1349 Nearly all the Jews of Worms
were murdered on false accusations that they brought on the plague by
poisoning the wells.
(NH, 9/96, p.24)
1352 May 5, Ruprecht, Roman
catholic German king, was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
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.
(HN, 4/11/98)
1372 Sep 21, Frederik I van
Hohenzollern, monarch of Brandenburg (1417-40), was born.
(MC, 9/21/01)
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."
(AP, 1/28/98)(AP, 7/28/00)
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.
(LHC, 1/30/03)
1386 The Univ. of Heidelberg, the
oldest in Germany, was founded.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T8)
1397 Jan 26, Vytautas signed a
treaty with the Knights of the Cross but Samogitia was not included.
(LHC, 1/26/03)
1397 Aug 16, Albrecht II von
Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Hungary and Germany, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
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.
(LHC, 2/8/03)
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)
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.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T3)
c1400-1500 Cardinal Nikolaus Cusanus, philosopher,
founded a religious and charitable institution complete with vineyard
at Kues, across from Bernkastel on the Mosel River.
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T8)
1407 Jan 21, Duke Vytautas led
Polish and German forces for a 2nd time against the Duchy of Moscow.
(LHC, 1/18/03)
1410 May 18, Ruprecht, Roman
Catholics German king, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
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.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1416 Feb 6, A Samogitian complaint
against the Knights of the Cross was read at the Catholic Church
Council at Constance.
(LHC, 2/6/03)
1416 Feb 13, A Lithuanian and
Polish delegation read their grievances against the Teutonic Knights at
the Church Council at Constance.
(LHC, 2/13/03)
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.
(LHC, 2/25/03)
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.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.71)
1430 May 5, Jews were expelled
from Speyer, Germany.
(MC, 5/5/02)
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.
(MC, 10/27/01)
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.
(HNQ, 1/12/01)
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.
(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)
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.
(MC, 8/2/02)
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.
(HN, 8/14/00)(MC, 8/14/02)
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.
(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)
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.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
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.
(MC, 5/15/02)
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.
(MC, 4/20/02)
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)
1497 Feb 16, Philipp Melanchthon,
German Protestant reformer (Augsburgse Confessie), was born.
(MC, 2/16/02)
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."
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.B1)
1500-1600 Weimar became the capital of the duchy of
Saxe-Weimar.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1501 Jul 27, Copernicus was
formally installed as canon of Frauenberg Cathedral.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1502 In Germany Peter Henlein of
Nuremberg used iron parts and coiled springs to build a portable
timepiece.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
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.
(MC, 4/23/02)
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. 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 captioned 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.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.T10)(SFC, 10/27/00, p.C14)(WSJ,
7/25/03, p.W19)(AP, 4/25/07)
1507 Martin Luther was ordained.
(TL-MB, p.9)
1510 Jan 22, Jews were expelled
from Colmar, Germany.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1510 Jul 19, In Berlin 38
Jews were burned at the stake.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1511 Nov 22, Erasmus Reinhold,
German mathematician (calculated planetary table), was born.
(MC, 11/22/01)
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.
(HN, 9/22/00)
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.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.E3)
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)
1516 In Bavaria, Germany, the
Reinheitsgebot law was enacted. It required that beer be made from
malt, hops, yeast, water and nothing else.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.A2)
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 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.
(TL-MB, p.11)
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.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1519 Aug 11, Johann Tetzel (~79),
Dominican monk, died.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1519 Sep 21, Hans Backofen
(Backoffen), German sculptor, died at about 49.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1519 Nov 7, University of Leuven
condemned the teachings of Rev. Martin Luther.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1520 Oct 23, King Carlos I crowned
as German emperor Charles V.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1520 Dec 10, Martin Luther
publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant, or face
excommunication.
(AP, 12/10/97)
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.
(WSJ, 12/26/08, p.A10)
1520 The Jews of Rothenburg,
Bavaria, were banished entirely and forevermore.
(NH, 9/96, p.24)
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.
(MC, 4/16/02)
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.
(HN, 4/18/99)(MC, 4/18/02)
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.
(V.D.-H.K.p.163)
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.
(NH, 9/96, p.20)
1521 May 26, Martin Luther was
banned by the Edict of Worms of because of his religious beliefs and
writings.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1522 Mar 9-16, Marten Luther
preached his Invocavit.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1522 Albrecht Durer, German artist
and engraver, designed a flying machine for use in war.
(TL-MB, p.12)
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."
(TL-MB, p.12)
1524 Martin Luther and Johann
Walther produced jointly a German hymnal: "Geistliche Lieder."
(TL-MB, p.12)
1525 May 7, The German peasants'
revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1525 May 14, A German army under
Philip of Hesse surrounded and slaughtered 5,000 ending a peasant
revolt led by Thomas Muntzer.
(MC, 5/15/02)(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 (66),
German banker and merchant, died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
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.
(MC, 2/27/02)
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.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, DB p.6)(MC, 4/6/02)
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.
(MC, 10/1/01)
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.
(MC, 11/19/01)
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.
(TL-MB, p.14)
1531 Feb 27, German Protestants
formed the League of Schmalkalden to defend themselves against Charles
V and the Roman Catholic states.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)(HN, 2/27/99)
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.
(HN, 10/24/98)
1531 German sculptor Tilman
Riemenschneider (c71) died. Most of his work was unpainted in wood and
stone.
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
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.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1534 Jul 18, Zacharias Ursinus,
German theologian (Heidelberger Catechism), was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1534 Regensburg Cathedral,
Germany, was completed after 259 years of work.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.14)
1539 Apr 19, Emperor Charles V
reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1540 Mar 4, Protestant count
Philip of Hessen married his 2nd wife.
(SC, 3/4/02)
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.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.F3)
1544 The University of Konigsberg
was founded.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.16)
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.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1552 Jul 18, Rudolf II of
Habsburg, emperor of Germany (1576-1612), was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
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.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1553 Jul 9, Maurice of Saxony was
mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany, while defeating Albert of
Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
(HN, 7/9/98)
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.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1554 Mar 3, Johan Frederik de
Greatmoedige (50), ruler of Saxon (1532-47), died.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1554 Jorg Wickram, German writer,
wrote the first German romance novel: "Der Goldfaden."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
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.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)
1560 Aug 10, Hieronymus
Praetorius, German composer, was born.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1561 Aug 29, Bartholomeus
Pitiscus, German mathematician (Trigonometry), was born.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1562 Jul 23, Gottfried, Gotz von
Berlichingen, German Knight of kingdom, died.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1564 Mar 9, David Fabricius,
astronomer (discovered variable star), was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1566 May 10, Leonhard Fuchs (65),
German botanist, died.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1568 May 11, Christian I, ruler of
Anhalt-Bernburg (Battle of White Mountain), was born.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1570 The Berlin Staatskapelle
formed. In 2004 it performed Schumann in San Francisco.
(SFC, 1/14/04, p.D3)
1571 Feb 15, Michael Praetorius,
composer (Syntagma music), was born in Kreuzberg, Germany.
(MC, 2/15/02)
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.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1574 The Univ. of Berlin was
founded.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1575 Jul 25, Christoph Scheiner,
astronomer, was born in Germany.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1576 Jan 19, Hans Sachs (81),
cobbler, poet, composer, inspiration for Wagner's "Die
Meistersinger", died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1583 Sep 24, Albrecht Eusebius
Wenzel von Wallenstein, German general, was born.
(MC, 9/24/01)
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]
(MC, 10/8/01)
1585 Oct 14, Heinrich Schutz,
German royal chaplain master and composer (Daphne), was born. [see Oct
8]
(MC, 10/14/01)
1586 Jan 20, Johann Hermann
Schein, German composer (Fontana d'Israel), was born.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1586 Jan 25, Lucas Cranach "the
Younger" (70), German painter, died.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1587 Nov 4, Samuel Scheidt, German
organist and composer, was baptized.
(MC, 11/4/01)
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.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1597 Aug 11, Germany threw out
English salesmen in "a noble experiment."
(MC, 8/11/02)
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."
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1601 May 2, Athanasius Kircher,
German Jesuit, inventor (magic lantern), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1601 Adriaen de Vries, Dutch
sculptor, supplied Augsburg, Germany, the cast the "Man Pouring Water
From a Conch Shell."
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1609 Jul 10, The Catholic states
in Germany set up a league under the leadership of Maximillian of
Bavaria.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1609 The 1st newspaper was
published in Germany.
(SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)
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.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1614 Aug 22, Trades people under
Vincent Fettmilch chased and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1614 Sep 1, Vincent Fettmich
expelled Jews from Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1616 Jul 25, Andreas Libavius,
German alchemist, died.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1617 May 7, David Fabricius (53),
German astronomer, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
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.
(HN, 2/16/98)
1620 Mar 9, Aegidius Albertinus
(59), German writer (Lucifer's Kingdom), died.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1620 Aug 7, Kepler's mother was
arrested for witchcraft.
(MC, 8/7/02)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1625 Apr 7, Albrecht von
Wallenstein was appointed German supreme commander.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1626 Aug 27, The Danes were
crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish
intervention in European wars.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1630 Apr 17, Christian I, ruler of
Anhalt-Bernburg (battle of White Mt), died.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1630 Nov 15, Johann Kepler
(b.1571), German astronomer, died at 58.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1630 Nov 19, Johann Hermann Schein
(44), German composer (Opella Nova), died.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1631 May 17, Earl Johann Tilly
attacked Magdeburg.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1631 May 20, A German army under
earl Johann Tilly conquered Magdeburg.
(MC, 5/20/02)
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.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1632 Sep 3, Battle at Nuremberg:
Duke Wallenstein beat Sweden.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1634 Sep 5, Battle at Nordlingen:
King Ferdinand III & Catholic Spain beat Sweden & German
protestants.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1634 In Oberammergau 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.
(WSJ, 5/18/00, p.A1)
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.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.59)
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."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
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.
(HN, 8/8/98)
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.
(SC, 3/3/02)
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.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A13)
1644 Aug 12, Heinrich Ignaz Franz
von Biber, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1644 Aug 12, Georg Christoph
Leuttner, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
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.
(AP, 11/26/02)
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.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.8)
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.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1664 Aug 1, The Turkish army was
defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1664 Aug 6, Johann Christoph
Schmidt, composer, was born.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1665 Feb 12, Rudolph J.
Camerarius, German botanist, physician (sexuality plant), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
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.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
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.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.E2)
1674 Mar 6, Johann Paul Schor
(58), German baroque painter, died.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1675 Jun 28, Frederick William of
Brandenburg crushed the Swedes.
(HN, 6/28/98)
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.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1678 Louis XIV claimed the region
of Alsace from Germany.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
1680 Nov 27, Athanasius Kircher,
German Jesuit and inventor of a lantern, died.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1680 In Hamburg, Germany, a cymbal
was used for the 1st time in an orchestra.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.B3)
1681 Mar 14, Georg Philipp
Telemann, late baroque composer, was born in Magdeburg, Germany.
(MC, 3/14/02)
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.
(MC, 6/30/02)
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.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1692 Nov 7, Johannes G. Schnabel,
German author and surgeon (Insel Felsenburg), was born.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1693 Heidelberg was torched by the
troops of Louis XIV in a dispute over a royal title.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T8)
1696 Oct 6, Savoy Germany withdrew
from the Grand Alliance.
(HN, 10/6/98)
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.
(SC, 3/4/02)
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 later presented it as a
gift to Peter the Great.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)
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.
(Econ, 9/25/04, p.94)
1703 May 18, Dutch and English
troops occupied Cologne.
(SC, 5/18/02)
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.
(MC, 1/8/02)
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.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1707 Oct 17, German composer
Johann S. Bach married his niece Maria Bach.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1708 Apr 23, Friedrich von
Hagedorn, German poet (Versuch einiger Poem), was born.
(MC, 4/23/02)
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)
1709 Augustus the Strong, King of
Poland and Elector of Saxony, had ordered alchemist Johann Friedrich
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 but Bottger discovered the
formula in this year. within 2 years a factory was established in
Meissen’s Albrechtsburg and Meissenware became Europe’s first
hard-paste porcelain.
(Hem, 6/96, p.111)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
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. [see 1709] 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.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1712 King Frederick I of Prussia
presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to
Peter the Great. It was lost during WW II.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)
1713 Bach composed his Brandenburg
Concerto No. 3.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
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.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1715 Mar 7, Ewald Christian von
Kleist, German lyric poet (Der Freuhling), was born.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1716 Nov 3, Pacification Treaty of
Warsaw: Czar Peter the Great guaranteed Saxon monarch August I's Polish
kingdom.
(MC, 11/3/01)
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)
1717 Dec 9, Johann J. Winckelmann,
German archaeologist (History of Ancient Art), was born.
(MC, 12/9/01)
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.
(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A12)
1719 Sep 23, Liechtenstein
declared independence from the German empire.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1719 Nov 14, Johann Georg Leopold
Mozart, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/14/01)
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.
(HN, 3/24/99)
1722 Nov 24, Johann Adam Reincken
(99), German organist and composer, died.
(MC, 11/24/01)
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.
(SFC, 9/4/04, p.A2)
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.
(MC, 4/7/02)
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]
(MC, 2/21/02)
1729 Apr 15, Johann S. Bach's
"Matthew Passion" premiered in Leipzig.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1729 Sep 6, Mozes Mendelssohn,
German enlightened philosopher (Haksalah), was born.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1729 Sep 26, Moses Mendelssohn,
German philosopher, critic, Bible translator, was born. [see Sep 6]
(MC, 9/26/01)
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.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1731 Dec 28, Christian Cannabich,
German composer and royal chaplain master, was born.
(MC, 12/28/01)
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 May 18, Georg Bohm (71),
German organist, composer, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1733 August II (b.1670), the
Strong, King of Poland (355 children) and elector of Saxony, died.
(MC, 5/12/02)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
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.
(LGC-HCS, p.31)(MC, 9/5/01)
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.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1742 May 17, Frederick great
(Emperor of Prussia) beat Austrians.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1742 Oct 12, Johan Peter Melchior,
German sculptor, was born.
(MC, 10/12/01)
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.
(MC, 8/25/02)
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.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1745 Apr 22, Peace of Fussen was
signed, restoring the status quo of Germany.
(HN, 4/22/98)
1745 May 11, French forces
defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1747 Mar 31, Johann Abraham Peter
Schulz, German composer (Moon has Risen), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
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.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A12)
1748 Feb 5, Christian Gottlob
Neefe, German composer, conductor, tutor of Beethoven, was born.
(MC, 2/5/02)
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.
(MC, 3/16/02)
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.
(AP, 7/28/00)(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A12)(SC, 7/28/02)(WSJ,
3/1/08, p.W8)
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.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1753 Apr 28, Franz K. Achard,
German physicist, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1753 Aug 19, [Johann] Balthasar
Neumann (66), German architect, died.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1755 Apr 10, Samuel Hahnemann,
German physician, was born.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1755 The annual 12-day
Bergkirchweih beer festival began in Erlangen, Germany.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.G7)
1756 Apr 13, Johann T. Gottlieb
Goldberg (29), German klavecinist, composer, died.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1758 Jun 23, British and
Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1758 Aug 25, The Prussian army
defeated the invading Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf.
(HN, 8/25/98)
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.
(AP, 7/23/97)
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.
(MC, 8/24/02)
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.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1760 Jul 31, Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick, foiled last French threat at Warburg and drove the French
army back to Rhine River.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1760 Oct 9, Austrian and Russian
troops entered Berlin and began burning structures and looting.
(HN, 10/9/98)
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.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1763 Frederick the Great took over
Die Konigliche Porzelan-Manufaktur. The royal porcelain factory was
privatized by the state of Berlin in 2006.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.65)
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)
1767 Jun 25, Georg Philipp
Telemann (86), German composer, died.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1769 Sep 14, Baron Freidrich von
Humboldt (d.1859), German naturalist and explorer who made the first
isothermic and isobaric maps, was born.
(HN, 9/14/98)
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.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.80)
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."
(AP, 5/25/97)(HN, 3/10/99)
1772 In Germany the silver and
most of the silver-gilt in the Green Vault of Dresden was melted down
and made into coin.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.95)
1774 Dec 2, Johann Friedrich
Agricola (54), German court composer and organist, died.
(MC, 12/2/01)
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 Goethe published his novel
"Werther." It was later turned into an opera by Massenet.
(WSJ, 1/21/98, p.A16)
1775 Sep 13, Gotthold Lessing's
"Die Juden," premiered in Frankfurt-am-Main.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1775 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
moved to Weimar after Carl August asked him to be his secretary of
state.
(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1776 Feb 8, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's "Stella," premiered in Hamburg.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1776 Apr 1, Friedrich von
Klinger's "Sturm und Drang," premiered in Leipzig.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1776 Apr 22, Johann Adolph Scheibe
(67), German music theorist, composer, died.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1776 Dec 26, Johann Gottlieb Rall,
Hessian colonel and mercenary, died in battle of Trenton.
(MC, 12/26/01)
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.
(HNQ, 3/31/99)
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.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1777-1811 Heinrich von Kleist, writer. His work
included "St. Cecilia or The Power of Music."
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.E1)
1778 Feb 23, Baron von Steuben
joined the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1778 Nov 14, Johann Nepomuk
Hummel, composer, was born.
(MC, 11/14/01)
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 Mar 27, August L. Crelle,
German inventor, mathematician (1st Prussian Railway), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1780 Goethe published a fragment
of Faust.
(V.D.-H.K.p.239)
1780 Salomon Gessner, printer,
poet and friend of Goethe, founded the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ). In
2005 the newspaper celebrated its 225th birthday.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.45)
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.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1782 Apr 21, Friedrich Froebel,
German educator and founder of kindergarten, was born.
(HN, 4/21/98)(MC, 4/21/02)
1784 Apr 5, Louis [Ludwig] Spohr,
German violin virtuoso, composer (Faust), was born.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1784 Jul 1, Wilhelm Friedmann Bach
(73), composer (Sinfonias 64), died.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1785 Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Grimm,
German philosopher who wrote Grimm’s Fairy Tales, was born.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1785 Jan 20, Theodor Grotthus, the
1st Lithuanian physical chemist, was born in Leipzig. He committed
suicide Mar 26, 1822.
(LHC, 1/20/03)
1785 Jul 23, Prussia's Frederick
the Great formed Die Furstenbund (League of German Princes).
(AP, 7/23/97)
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn
(56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
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.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1786 Nov 18, Karl Maria Friedrich
Ernst von Weber, German composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1786 Dec 18, Carl Maria von Weber,
German romantic composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
(MC, 12/18/01)
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."
(MC, 8/10/02)
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.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1788 An arched bridge over the
River Necker was completed in Heidelberg. It was damaged during WW II
and restored.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T8)
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]
(HN, 3/16/02)(WUD, 1994 p.1001)
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.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
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.
(MC, 9/5/01)
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.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1793 Jul 23, The French garrison
at Mainz, Germany, fell to the Prussians.
(HN, 7/23/98)
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.
(ON, 7/02, p.5)
1794 The Royal Bayreuth porcelain
factory was founded in Bavaria. The factory stamped this date on dishes
made after 1900.
(SFC,11/5/97, Z1 p.3)
1794-1872 Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German
artist.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1795 Mar 29, Beethoven (24)
debuted as pianist in Vienna.
(MC, 3/29/02)
c1795 Wilhelm von Kobell made his
watercolor "Staff Officers Listening to the Reading of the Day’s
Orders."
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1795-1818 Carl Phillip Fohr, German artist.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1796 Mar 31, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's "Egmont," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 3/31/02)
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.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1797 May 18, Frederik Augustus II,
King of Saxon (1836-54), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
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.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)
1798 Sep 11, Franz E Neumann,
German mineralogist, mathematician and physicist, was born.
(MC, 9/11/01)
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.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A13)
1799 Apr 20, Friedrich von
Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 4/20/02)
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.
(CW, Spring ‘99,
p.49)(http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa020298.htm)
1800 Apr 2, 1st performance of
Ludwig van Beethoven's 1st Symphony in C.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1800 May 14, Friedrich von
Schiller's "Macbeth," premiered in Weimar
(MC, 5/14/02)
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.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1800 Dec 3, Austrians were
defeated by the French at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
(HN, 12/3/98)
c1800 Johann Christian Reinhart,
artist, created his "The History Painter, Caricature."
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
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.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1801 Oct 23, Johann Gottlieb
Naumann (60), German composer, died.
(MC, 10/23/01)
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.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1803 Feb 25, The 1,800 sovereign
German states united into 60 states.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1803 Mar 14, Friedrich Gottlieb
Klopstock (78), German poet, died.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1803 Mar 19, Johann von Schiller's
"Die Braut von Messina," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1803 Apr 5, 1st performance of
Beethoven's 2nd Symphony in D.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1803 Beethoven composed his
"Kreutzer Sonata" dedicated to the French violinist Rudolphe Kreutzer.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)(SFC, 4/2/98, p.E4)
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.
(MC, 4/7/02)
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.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1806 Jan 1, Bavaria was proclaimed
as a kingdom. A crowning celebration for the crown prince Max Joseph,
however, never took place.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1806 Jul 12, The Confederation of
the Rhine was established in Germany.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1806 Aug 10, Johann Michael Haydn
(68), composer, died.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1806 Oct 27, Emperor Napoleon
entered Berlin.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1807 Mar 5, 1st performance of
Ludwig von Beethoven's 4th Symphony in B.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1807 Weimar Duchess Anna Amalia
(b.1739) died.
(www.woodwind.org/Databases/Composers/Names)
1808 May 18, Jacob Albright
[Albrecht] (49), German-US preacher, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
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.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1809 Apr 20, Napoleon defeated
Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.
(HN, 4/20/97)
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 Dec 7, Theodor Schwann,
German physiologist, was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
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.
(SFC, 8/31/04, p.E7)
1810 Friedrich Wilhelm III began
the construction of Museum Island in Berlin.
(WSJ, 2/1/96, p.A-16)
1810 In honor of the wedding of
the Bavarian crown prince Ludwig, a horse race took place at the
Theresienwiese (the Theresien meadow): the first Oktoberfest.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1810 Wilhelm von Humboldt founded
Humboldt University in Berlin to give students a broad humanist
education.
(WSJ, 2/26/00, p.A8)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1811
Feb 26, Gabriel Sedlmayr the Younger was born.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1811 Mar 31, Robert Wilhelm
Eberhard von Bunsen, German inventor of the Bunsen burner, was born.
(HN, 3/31/99)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1811 Nov 21, Heinrich W. von
Kleist (34), German playwright, died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1812 Apr 26, Alfred Krupp, German
arms merchant, was born.
(HN, 4/26/98)
1813 May 22, Richard Wagner,
German composer, conductor and writer, was born in Leipzig, Germany. He
composed "The Flying Dutchman."
(AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/99)
1813 Aug 27, The Allies defeated
Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1813 Oct 16, In the Battle at
Leipzig Napoleon faced Prussia, Austria & Russia.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1813 Oct 17, Georg Buchner, German
playwright (Danton's Death, Woyzeck), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1813 Oct 18, The Allies defeated
Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
(HN, 10/18/98)
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.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1813 Dec 31, Some 83,000 Prussian
and Russian soldiers pursued Napoleon across the Rhine at
Pfalzgrafenstein Castle.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T5)
1813 Prussia took over Danzig.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.A4)
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.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1814 Feb 27, Ludwig von
Beethoven's 8th Symphony in F, premiered.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1915 Feb 18, Germany began a
blockade of England.
(MC, 2/18/02)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
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.
(MC, 3/6/02)
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.
(MC, 12/13/01)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
1816 In Germany Johann Maelzel
patented the metronome a couple of years after it was drawn up by Dutch
inventor Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel.
(SFC, 1/29/00, p.E3)
1818 Oct 24, Felix Mendelssohn (9)
performed his 1st public concert in Berlin.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1818 Baron Karl de Drais de
Sauerbrun of Germany invented the draisienne, the first 2-wheeled,
rider-propelled machine and exhibited it in Paris. The vehicle came to
be known as the “velocipede,” a 2-wheeled running machine without
pedals.
(Wired, 2/98, p.172)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.77)
1819 Mar 26, Louise Otto, German
feminist author, was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)
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.
(MC, 9/13/01)
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.
(http://spatenusa.com/timeline.html)
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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1821