August 28, 1749 Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Frankfurt, Germany. Goethe was the greatest of all German writers. Among his works are The Sorrows of Young Werther, Faust, Götz von Berlichingen, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Egmont, and Torquato Tasso. There are frequent references to Goethe's various sayings and maxims throughout the … [Read more...]

August 27, 1730 Birth of Johann Georg Hamann in Königsberg, Prussia (now in Russia). Hamann was a contemporary of Immanuel Kant. Both Kant and Hamann resided in Königsberg. After a series of disastrous moral experiences in London, he concluded, from his attempts to reconcile philosophy and Christianity, that a childlike faith in God and direct … [Read more...]

August 26, 1882 Birth of James Franck in Hamburg, Germany. Frank became a professor of physics at the University of Göttingen in 1920. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1925 for his work on the excitation and ionization of atoms by electron bombardment. He fled Germany in 1933. In 1935 he accepted a position at Johns Hopkins University … [Read more...]

August 25, 1744 Birth of philosopher and critic, Johann Gottfried von Herder in Modrungen, Germany (now in Poland). His writings prepare for the Sturm und Drang movement as well as the Romantic movement in literature. He is perhaps, though, most remembered for his profound intellectual influence on the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. August … [Read more...]

August 24-27, 410 Alaric, the leader of the Visigoths takes and plunders Rome. This was one of the final blows which would bring about the end of the Roman Empire. The Visigoths were one of the east Germanic tribes. There were three Germanic groupings: north Germanic, west Germanic and east Germanic (Goths). Modern Germans descend from the … [Read more...]

August 23, 1773 Birth of Jakob Friedrich Fries in Barby, Germany. Fries was a professor of philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg and Jena. In Neue oder anthropologische Kritik der Vernunft he attempted to provide a foundation of psychological analysis to the critical theory of Kant. August 23, 1829 Birth of Moritz Benedikt Cantor in … [Read more...]

August 22, 1818 Birth of Rudolf von Jehring in Aurich, Germany. Jehring was a legal scholar specializing in Roman law. He developed the notion that the purpose of law is the protection of the individual in a balance with social interests. In the case of conflict though he gave priority to the interests of society. August 22, … [Read more...]

August 21, 1849 On August 21, 1849, Pauline Mallinckrodt founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity. Pauline Mallinckrodt was born in Minden, Germany on June 3, 1817. She directed the institution for the blind in Paderborn, Germany. She founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Christian Charity on August 21, 1849. That order … [Read more...]

August 20, 1639 Death of Martin Opitz in Danzig, Germany (now Poland). The poet and theoretician, Opitz, was a member of an important literary society of his times, the "Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft". In his most important theoretical work Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624) he established standards for German poetry. For his contributions to … [Read more...]

August 19, 1753 Death of the architect Balthasar Neumann in Würzburg. Neumann was clearly the master of Baroque architecture. He was born in Eger, Bohemia (then Austria, now in the Czech Republic) in 1687. He moved to Würzburg in 1711 and gained the patronage of the prince-bishop (Holy Roman Empire) of Würzburg. He eventually rose to be the … [Read more...]