istoryworld
Events relating to germany
The tone poem Don Juan, by the 25-year-old Richard Strauss, has a passionately mixed response at its premiere in Weimar
The new young German emperor, Wilhelm II, dismisses the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck
Henrik Ibsen publishes his play Hedda Gabler, with its powerfully manipulative central character, a year before it is first produced (in Germany)
Germany takes direct control of German East Africa as a protectorate
Britain cedes the tiny island of Heligoland to Germany in return for vast areas of Africa
German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal achieves the first of many guided flights in a glider, from a hill near Potsdam
Hansel and Gretl, an opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, has its premiere in Weimar
France and Russia, alarmed by Germany's ambitions, sign a defensive Franco-Russian alliance
General Alfred von Schlieffen devises plans for a potential two-pronged attack against France and Russia in a swift war
German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovers rays that can penetrate light-proof barriers, and names them x-rays because their nature is as yet unknown
Otto Lilienthal dies when a wing fractures on his glider and he crashes from a height of 17 metres
Germany claims Ruanda and Urundi as a joint colony adjacent to German East Africa
Germany passes the first of four Fleet Acts, reflecting the determination of Alfred von Tirpitz to build a navy equal to that of Britain
The Bayer company in Germany sells aspirin in the form of water-soluble tablets, the first medication of its kind
Ferdinand Zeppelin's first dirigible makes its test flight from a floating hangar on the Lake of Constance
The British government assumes direct responsibility for the entire region of Nigeria, previously entrusted to a commercial company
German physicist Max Planck proposes the revolutionary concept of the quantum theory
Daimler cars launch a new brand, the Mercedes 35 hp, named after the ten-year-old daughter of the investor and distributor Emil Jellinek
Thomas Mann's first novel, Buddenbrooks, brings him immediate success
German surgeon Georg Clemens Perthes discovers, in Leipzig, that X-rays can inhibit cancer
Albert Einstein explains the photoelectric effect as a flow of discreet particles (quanta) of electromagnetic radiation
German biologists Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann discover the micro-organism Treponema pallidum which causes syphilis
In his special theory of relativity Albert Einstein reconciles the apparent clash between relativity and electromagnetic theory
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and other Dresden students form the Expressionist group Die Brücke
The first German submarine, or U-boat, is constructed in a programme to catch up with Britain and France in this area
