Events relating to germany

The principle of the Leyden jar is discovered by an amateur German physicist, Ewald Georg von Kleist, dean of the cathedral in Kamin

Frederick the Great's Prussian soldiers, advancing in shallow disciplined formation, outclass other armies of the time

Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo begins a series of frescoes to decorate the prince bishop's residence in Würzburg

Johann Joachim Winckelmann publishes a book on Greek painting and sculpture which introduces a new strand of neoclassicism

Frederick the Great again precipitates a European conflict, marching without warning into Saxony and launching the Seven Years' War

German painter Johann Zoffany moves to England to find work as a painter of conversation pieces and portraits

The Treaty of Hubertusburg, between Prussia and Austria, increases the power of Prussia among the many separate states of Germany

Russia, Prussia and Austria agree a treaty enabling them to divide the spoils in the first partition of Poland

Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin

In developing the Haskalah, the German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn reconciles Judaism and the Enlightenment

German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three 'critiques', The Critique of Pure Reason

Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim

20-year-old John Jacob Astor emigrates from Germany to America and sets up in the fur trade

In his Science of Knowledge Johann Gottlieb Fichte contrasts the I, or Ego, and its opposing non-I, or non-Ego

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