October 1

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

October 1, 1756

The Battle of Lobositz takes place in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) (Siebenjähriger Krieg) between Prussia and Austria and their allies.

October 1, 1904

Birth of Otto Robert Frisch in Vienna, Austria. Frisch was a physicist who did his doctoral work at the University of Vienna. Working with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen he observed the conversion of bombarded uranium into less complex elements. He named the process fission. He communicated this information to Albert Einstein. Later he came to the United States and was active in atomic research at Los Alamos.

October 1, 1911

Death of Wilhelm Dilthey in South Tyrol. A philosopher, Dilthey taught at the Universities of Basel, Kiel, Breslau and Berlin. Dilthey was distressed at the deep-seated influence of the natural sciences in contemporary thought. He developed a notion of Geisteswissenschaften. He sought to depart from the methodological ideal of the natural sciences and establish a separate, legitimate methodology for the humanities. Significant works by Dilthey include, Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften, and Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Geistes.

October 1, 1939

President Roosevelt receives a letter from Albert Einstein raising the possibility of atomic bombs and warning of signs that Germany might be pursuing them.

October 1, 1942

Birth of Günter Wallraf in Burscheid, Germany. Wallraf was one of the leading Catholic scholars on the subject of codetermination.

October 1, 1945

Walther Funk, the president of the Reichsbank during WWII is sentenced to life in prison by the Nürnberg trials. He was released in 1957.

October 1, 1946

After 216 sessions the Nürnburg War Crimes Court issues verdicts.

October 1, 1951

West Germany (BRD) enters GATT.

October 1, 1959

A new East German (DDR) flag is introduced. It features the hammer and sickle with a wreath.

October 1, 1982

Due to divisions between the parties, the FDP leaves the coalition with the CDU/CSU and a vote of no confidence results in the end of the leadership of the SPD and the end of the service of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

October 1, 1982

Helmut Kohl becomes the German Bundeskanzler. His political party is the CDU. He is the longest serving chancellor in the Federal Republic of Germany.

October 1, 1990

The agreement is signed whereby the Allies of World War II return full sovereignty to Germany as of the agreed to unification date of October 3.

October 1, 2000 Billy Wilder is made an honorary citizen of Vienna.

Billy Wilder (94), Hollywood-Altmeister (“Manche mögen’s heiss”), ist jetzt Ehrenbürger der Stadt Wien. Mit dem Beschluss wolle das Stadtparlament an die Wiener Wurzeln des berühmten Filmregisseurs erinnern, teilte die Gemeinde Wien am Samstag
mit.
Wilder, am 22. Juni 1906 nahe Krakau geboren, besuchte in Wien die Volks- und Mittelschule. Zu Ruhm kam er allerdings erst in den 20er und 30er Jahren in Berlin, wo er seine ersten Drehbücher schrieb, darunter “Emil und die Detektive” (1931). Nach der Machtergreifung Hitlers floh Wilder 1933 zuerst nach Paris, dann in die USA. In Hollywood machte er sich schnell als Drehbuchautor und später als Regisseur einen Namen. Komödien wie “Manche mögen´s heiss” (1959) mit Marilyn Monroe und Jack Lemmon, “Das Appartement” (1960) oder “Eins, Zwei, Drei” (1961) gelten längst als Filmklassiker.
-----DPA am 1.10.00

October 1, 2006

Austrian national elections. SPÖ 35.7 %, ÖVP 34.2%, FPÖ 11.2%, Greens 10.5%