# 1883 in Germany

Events in the year 1883 in Germany.

## Incumbents
### National level

* Kaiser – William I
* Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

### State level
#### Kingdoms

* King of Bavaria – Ludwig II
* King of Prussia – William I
* King of Saxony – Albert
* King of Württemberg – Charles

#### Grand Duchies

* Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
* Grand Duke of Hesse – Louis IV
* Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – Frederick Francis II
* Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Frederick William
* Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Peter II
* Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – Charles Alexander

#### Principalities

* Schaumburg-Lippe – Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
* Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – George Albert, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
* Schwarzburg-Sondershausen – Charles Gonthier, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
* Principality of Lippe – Woldemar, Prince of Lippe
* Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz
* Reuss Younger Line – Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line
* Waldeck and Pyrmont – George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont

#### Duchies

* Duke of Anhalt – Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
* Duke of Brunswick – William, Duke of Brunswick
* Duke of Saxe-Altenburg – Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
* Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
* Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

## Events

* 12 May – A German merchant Adolf Lüderitz purchases and takes possession of land in South-West Africa, which subsequently forms the basis of the first German colony of German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika).

### Undated

* German company AEG is founded in Berlin.
* Germany gets the world's first national social health insurance system by legislation of Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883.
* The Schotten-Baumann reaction is first described in 1883 by German chemists Carl Schotten and Eugen Baumann.
* The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen is opened.

## Births

* 12 January – Gustav Otto, aircraft engineer (died 1926)
* 19 January – Hermann Abendroth, German conductor (died 1956)
* 31 January – Hermann Höpker-Aschoff, German judge and politician (died 1954)
* 16 February – Conrad Hommel, German painter (died 1971)
* 9 February – Fritz August Breuhaus, German architect, interior designer and designer (died 1960)
* 17 February – Selma Lohse, German politician (died 1937)
* 23 February – Otto Nuschke, German politician (died 1957)
* 23 February – Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (died 1969)
* 8 March – Adolf Köster, German diplomat and politician (died 1930)
* 13 March – Eugen Ritter von Schobert, German general (died 1941)
* 18 May – Walter Gropius, German architect (died 1969)
* 18 May – Theodor Loos, German actor (died 1954)
* 7 July – Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, German nobleman (died 1942)
* 10 July – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (died 1948)
* 10 July – Friedrich Flick, German entrepreneur and industrialist (died 1972)
* 7 August – Joachim Ringelnatz, German writer (died 1934)
* 20 August – Robert Lehr, German politician (died 1956)
* 11 September – Emil Rausch, German swimmer (died 1954)
* 17 September – Käthe Kruse, notable pioneer of German doll-making (died 1968)
* 14 September – Martin Dibelius, German academic theologian and New Testament professor at the University of Heidelberg (died 1947)
* 24 September – Wilhelm Stählin, German Lutheran theologian, bishop, preacher (died 1975)
* 30 September – Bernhard Rust, Education Minister of Nazi Germany (died 1945)
* 8 October – Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate (died 1970)
* 25 October – Walter Alfred Rosam, German painter (died 1916)
* 15 November – Günther Rüdel, German general (died 1950)

## Deaths

* 19 January – Georg Ferdinand Howaldt, German sculptor (born 1802)
* 21 January – Prince Charles of Prussia, German nobleman and Prussian general (born 1801)
* 24 January – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (born 1812)
* 13 February – Richard Wagner, German composer (born 1813)
* 27 February – Julius Stern, German composer and pedagogue (born 1820)
* 14 March – Karl Marx, German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist (born 1818)
* 15 April – Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (born 1823)
* 29 April – Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, German economist and politician (born 1808)
* 4 August – August Howaldt, German engineer and ship builder (born 1809)
* 19 November – Arnold Schaefer, German historian (born 1819)