# 1881 in Germany

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Events from the year 1881 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

* 31 March – last Anti-Socicalist Law is passed by the German Reichstag.
* 16 May – Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, world's first electric tramway, starts in Berlin.
* 25 September – in Meckesheim physician Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer performs the first modern Caesarean section, the transverse incision technique to minimise bleeding.
* 27 October – German federal election, 1881

## Births

* 1 January – Hermann Schmitz, German industrialist (died 1960)
* 4 January – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (died 1919)
* 17 January – Karl Scharnagl, German politician (died 1963)
* 16 February – Hans Vogel, German politician (died 1945)
* 16 February – Hans Meiser, German Protestant theologian, pastor and first 'Landesbischof' of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (died 1956)
* 23 March – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist (died 1965)
* 1 April – Wilhelm Sollmann, German journalist and politician (died 1951)
* 3 April – Hans Kniep, German botanist (died 1930)
* 19 April – Ernst Schneppenhorst, German politician (died 1945)
* 2 May – Ernst Legal, German actor (died 1955)
* 18 May – Erwin Madelung, German mathematician (died 1972)
* 30 May – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (died 1968)
* 31 May – Heinrich Burger, German figure skater (died 1942)
* 9 June – Felix von Luckner, German author, sailor and nobleman (died 1966)
* 24 June – Heinz Tietjen, German conductor (died 1967)
* 29 June – Gottlob Walz, German diver (died 1943)
* 27 July – Hans Fischer, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1945)
* 28 July – Günther Quandt, German industrialist (died 1954)
* 8 August – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (died 1954)
* 26 August – Franz Gürtner, German jurist and politician (died 1941)
* 4 October – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (died 1948)
* 9 October – Friedrich Syrup, German politician (died 1945)
* 12 November – Ulrich von Hassell, German diplomat (died 1944)
* 12 November – Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (died 1954)
* 2 December – Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist (died 1956)
* 4 December – Erwin von Witzleben, German officer (died 1944)
* 15 December – Eugen Bolz, German politician (died 1945)
* 25 December – Christian Hülsmeyer, German inventor, physicist and entrepreneur (died 1957)
* 31 December – Max Pechstein, German painter (died 1955)

## Deaths

* 7 April – Johann Hinrich Wichern, German religious leader (born 1808)
* 15 May – Franz von Dingelstedt, German poet and dramatist (born 1814)
* 2 June – Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg, German diplomat (born 1815)
* 23 June – Matthias Jakob Schleiden, German botanist (born 1804)
* 10 July – Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (born 1812)
* 11 October – Friedrich Hitzig, German architect (born 1811)