The Age of Goethe

1711 Birth of David Hume in Edinburgh.

1707 Friedrich I becomes the first king of Prussia.

1714 Georg Friedrich Handel leaves Hannover and spends the remainder of his career in London.

1721 Johann Sebastian Bach writes the "Brandenburg Concertos".

1724 Birth of Immanuel Kant in Königsberg (April 22). Birth of Friedrich Klopstock in Quedlinburg, Germany.

1740 Immanuel Kant enters the University of Köngisberg as a student. He studies mathematics and physics.

1744 Birth of philosopher and critic, Johann Gottfried von Herder. (August 25).

1746 Kant's father dies.

1747 Kant begins his duties as a private tutor (until 1754).

1749 Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Frankfurt am Main

1755 Immanuel Kant completes his universitiy studies and becomes a lecturer at the University of Königsberg. Birth of Marie-Antoinette in Vienna, Austria.

1755 Immanuel Kant, Principiorum Primorum Cognitionis Metaphysicae Nova Dilucidato

1756 Birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Beginning of the Seven Years war between Prussia and Austria.

1759 Birth of Friedrich Schiller

1760 Georg III becomes the King of England.

1761 Kant: De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis: Dissertatio

1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes Emile.

1763 Kant: Der einzige mögliche Beweisgrund zur einer Demonstration des Saseyns Gottes (Enquiry into the Proofs for the Existence of God)

1764 Immanuel Kant, Untersuchung über die Deutlichkeit der Grundsätze der natürlichen Theologie und der Moral ( "An Inquiry into the Distinctness of the Fundamental Principles of Natural Theology and Morals") Immanuel Kant, Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime).

1765 Goethe enrolls at the University of Leipzig. (Auerbachs Keller)

1766 Kant: Träume eines Geistersehers erläutert durch Träume der Metaphysik ( Dreams of a Spirit-Seer) . Gotthold Ephraim Lessing publishes "Laocoon"

1768 James Watt invents the steam engine. Goethe graduates from the University of Leipzig (law).

1769 Johann Herder publishes Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769.

1770 Goethe lives in Strassburg. Kant is promoted to the rank of professor at the University of Königsberg after 15 years as a lecturer. Thomas Jefferson builds Monticello. Birth of Friedrich Hegel in Stuttgart. Birth of Ludwig von Beethoven in Bonn, Germany

1771 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Urfaust.

1773 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Götz von Berlichingen.

1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.

1775 The midnight ride of Paul Revere. Goethe goes to Weimar.

1776 Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Thomas Paine Common Sense. Death of David Hume.

1778 Johann Herder Volkslieder.

1779 Gotthold E. Lessing Nathan der Weise. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Iphigenie.

1781 Kant: Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason). Death of Gottfried Lessing.

1782 Goethe is given the title "von"

1784 Johann Herder Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit.

1785 Kant Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.)

1786 Kant is elected to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Birth of Wilhelm Grimm in Hanau, Germany. Mozart's opera, "The Marriage of Figaro" has its first performance in Vienna. Death of the philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, in Berlin, Germany.

1787 Mozart Don Giovanni.

1788 Kant: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (Critique of Practical Reason). Birth of Arthur Schopenhauer in Danzig, Germany (now in Poland). Death of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg. He was the son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Bach.

1789 Goethe's son, August is born (he will die in 1830)Beginning of the French Revolution. Friedrich Schiller becomes a professor of history at the University of Jena. George Washington becomes the first U.S. President. Mutiny on the British ship "Bounty"

1790 Kant: Kritik der Urteilskraft.

1792 Beethoven has his first piano lesson from Haydn in Vienna.

1793 Kant: Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft. (Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone) Execution of Louis XVI in France.

1794 Kant censured by the Imperial Censor.

1795 Kant: Zum ewigen Frieden (Project for a Perpetual Peace). Poland is divided among Russia, Prussia and Austria.

1796 Goethe Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Hermann und Dorothea. John Adams becomes the second American president. Friedrich Schiller Über naïve und sentimentale Dichtung.

1797 Kant: Die Metaphysik der Sitten (The Metaphysics of Morals). Kant retires from the University of Königsberg.

1800 Friedrich Schiller Maria Stuart. Beethoven The Moonlight Sonata.

1801 Friedrich Schiller Die Jungfrau von Orleans. Thomas Jefferson becomes the U.S. president.

1803 Kant becomes ill. France sells the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

1804 Death of Immanuel Kant in Königsberg.( February 12) Friedrich Schiller Wilhelm Tell. Birth of Johann Strauß, the elder in Vienna. Birth of Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach in Landshut, Germany.

1805 Death of Friedrich Schiller

1806 Goethe marries Christiane Vulpius. End of the Holy Roman Empire after 1006 years. Prussia is defeated by Napoleon.

1808 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust I.

1809 Goethe, Die Wahlverwandschaften. Death of Franz Josef Haydn.

1812 Napoleon is defeated in Russia. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the Fairy Tales (Kinder- und Hausmuarchen).

1813 Battle of Leipzig. Birth of Richard Wagner.

1815 Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon exiled to St. Helena.

1816 Goethe's wife Christiane dies.

1818 Birth of Karl Marx in Trier (May 5). First steamship crosses the Atlantic.

1819 Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung

1824 Karl Marx baptized as a Protestant in Trier, Germany. Ludwig von Beethoven Symphony No. 9.

1827 Heinrich Heine Buch der Lieder. Death of Beethoven. Davy Crockett goes to the U.S. Congress.

1828 Death of Franz Schubert.

1831 Death of Friedrich Hegel in Berlin (November 14).

1832 Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Weimar. Goethe's Faust II is published.

1835 Karl Marx enrolls at the University of Bonn. The first German railroad is built between Nürmberg and Fürth.

1841 Karl Marx receives his doctorate from the University of Jena.

1844 Birth of Friedrich Nietzsche (Röcken). Jenny Marx is born (first child of Karl Marx).

1845 Texas becomes a state.

1847 The AMA is founded in America.

1848 The Neue Rheinische Zeitung begins publication under the direction of Karl Marx. Friedrich Engels is the publisher. Marx/Engels: Das Manifest der kommunistischen Partei. The first German parliament meets in the Church of St. Paul in Frankfurt.

1858 Minnesota becomes a state.

1859 Charles Darwin Origin of the Species. Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde.