# 1884 in Germany

Events in the year 1884 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 to 18 October, then Duchy claimed by Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who was excluded and a temporary council of regency was established.
* 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

#### Colonial Governors

* Cameroon (Kamerun) from 14 July – Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner) to 19 July, then Maximilian Buchner (acting commissioner)
* German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) from 24 April – Adolf Lüderitz (magistrate) to 7 October, then Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner)
* Togoland from 5 July – Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner) to 6 July October, then Heinrich Randad (provisional consul)

## Events

* 24 April – Territory in South West Africa is placed under German protection, becoming the first German colonial possession.
* 9 June – The construction of the Reichstag building in Berlin started.
* 5 July – German protectorate is first declared over part of Togoland.
* 14 July – Commencement of German administration in Cameroon (Kamerun).
* 28 October – German federal election, 1884
* 15 November – The Berlin Conference which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends 26 February 1885).

### Date unknown

* German company Glastechnisches Laboratorium Schott & Genossen was founded, later becoming Schott AG

#### Science

* Germany got the second part of world's oldest national social health insurance system by legislation of Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Accicential Insurance Bill of 1884.
* Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884.
* Paal-Knorr Synthesis was initially reported independently by German chemists Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr as a method for the preparation of furans
* Robert Koch resided and researched at Grant Medical College in Bombay, India, where he was able to determine the causative agent of cholera, isolating Vibrio cholerae.

## Births

* 31 January – Theodor Heuss, German politician, publicist and former Chancellor of Germany (died 1963)
* 12 February – Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (died 1950)
* 26 March – Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (died 1969)
* 12 April – Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (died 1951)
* 14 May – Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (died 1969)
* 5 June – Doris 'Dodo' Große, German artists' model, lover of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (year of death unknown)
* 10 June – Walther Schreiber, German politician (died 1958)
* 14 June – Georg Zacharias, German swimmer (died 1953)
* 14 June – Hans Müller-Schlösser, German playwright (died 1956)
* 23 June – Werner Krauss, German actor (died 1959
* 24 June – Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a highly decorated Army officer in the First World War (died 1916)
* 2 July – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neuropathologist (died 1931)
* 7 July – Lion Feuchtwanger, German novelist and playwright (died 1958)
* 14 July – Prince Adalbert of Prussia, German nobleman (died 1948)
* 17 July – Walter von Keudell, German politician (died 1973)
* 23 July – Emil Jannings, German actor (died 1950)
* 31 July – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician (died 1944)
* 20 August – Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg (died 1976)
* 28 August – Christian Stock, German politician (died 1967)
* 24 September – Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (died 1953)
* 29 September – Wilhelm Bendow, German actor (died 1950)
* 8 October – Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (died 1942)
* 10 October – Friedrich von Rabenau, German general and theologian (died 1945)
* 11 October – Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)
* 21 October – Claire Waldoff, German singer (died 1957)
* 24 October – Arno Bieberstein, German swimmer (died 1918)
* 1 December – Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (died 1976)
* 2 December – Johannes Popitz, German politician (died 1945)
* 14 December – Erich Ponto, German actor (died 1957)

## Deaths

* 17 January – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist and herpetologist (born 1804)
* 20 January - Julius Pintsch, German tinsmith, inventor and entrepreneur (born 1815
* 25 January – Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (born 1815)
* 28 January – Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues, German astronomer (born 1827)
* 13 March - Siegfried Heinrich Aronhold, German mathematician (born 1819)
* 6 April – Emanuel Geibel, German poet and playwright (born 1815)
* 19 June – Adrian Ludwig Richter, German painter (born 1803)
* 10 July – Karl Richard Lepsius, German archaeologist and linguist (born 1810)
* 1 August – Heinrich Laube, German poet (born 1806)
* 21 August - Ottilie Assing, German feminist, freethinker, and abolitionist (born 1819)
* 2 September – Karl Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld, German field marshal (born 1796)
* 18 October – William, Duke of Brunswick, German nobleman (born 1806)
* 29 October - Albert Dulk, German writer (born 1819)
* 25 November – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (born 1818)
* 10 December – Eduard Rüppell, German explorer (born 1794)