September 17

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

September 17, 530

The first pope of Germanic origin was elected. Bonfice II was Gothic. (The Goths Were an East Germanic people. The Germans of today descend from the West Germanic grouping.) Bonfice II was appointed by his predecessor, Felix IV, rather than being elected. In protest against the process by which Bonfice became pope and in fear of the influence of the Ostrogothic king Athalaric, the Roman churchmen elected an anti-pope, Dioscorus. The controversysoon ended, however, when Dioscorus died soon after his election and Boniface was able to gather enough support to continue as pope. Boniface II died in 532.

September 17, 1179

Death of Hildegard von Bingen near Bingen. Feast day of St. Hildegard. Hildegard was born in Bermersheim, Germany (at that time the Holy Roman Empire) near the Rhine. She was brought up in a convent (which was common among daughters of noble families). In 1147 or 1148 she founded her own Benedictine convent near Bingen. In 1165 she founded another Benedictine convent near Rüdesheim. Hildegard had had visions since childhood but kept them secret until adulthood. She is now considered to be one of the greatest mystics in the history of Germany. She was also a natural scientist, healer, artist, poet and musician. During her lifetime she was in frequent correspondence with the emperor, Friederich Barbarosa, and had influence on his decisions. Her books include Wisse die Wege des Herrn, Buch des verdienstlichen Lebens, Buch des göttlichen Werkes, Liber Simplicis Medicnae and Liber Compositae Medicinae. In the two medical books she cataloged 280 plants and their medicinal properties. Investigations of here life were undertaken by Popes Gregory IX, Innocent IV, Clement V and John XXII but Hildegard has not been formally canonized. She has been considered a Saint, however, since the 13th century. There is formal celebartion of her feast day (September 17) in the liturgy in Limburg, Mainz, Speyer and Trier.

September 17, 1730

Birth of Friedrich von Steuben in Magdeburg, Germany. Steuben, a Prussian officer was induced by Benjamin Franklin to come to America on the side of the rebelling colonies. Arriving in 1777 he was placed in charge of the troops at Valley Forge. He retrained the forces and wrote a manual, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. The city of Steubnville, Ohio is named for him.

September 17, 1826

Birth of Bernhard Riemann in Breselenz, Germany. Riemanns work in mathematics led to innovations in theoretical physics and relativity theory. The Riemann surface is named in his honor as is Riemannian geometry. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Göttingen.

September 17, 1921

Death of Philipp Eulenburg in Köngisberg, Germany (now in Russia). Eulenburg was the closest advisor to Wilhelm II, with greatest influence after the departure of Bismarck.

September 17, 1939

After 19 days of resistance, Warsaw, Poland surrenders to German forces in WWII.

September 17, 1948

Death of Emil Ludwig in Ascona, Switzerland. Ludwig was a popular biographer. Among the figures treated in his biographies are Goethe, Bismarck, Lincoln, Hindenburg, Roosevelt and Beethoven.

September 17, 1958

Death of the chemist, Friedrich Paneth in Vienna, Austria. Paneth introduced the use of radioactive tracer techniques. His work with the radioactive decomposition of meteorites and earth rocks led to a system of determining their age. Paneth went to England at the rise of the Nazi movement and returned to Germany as director of the Max Planck Institute in Mainz in 1953.

September 17, 1961

The fourth parliamentary elections take place in West Germany (BRD). The CDU/CSU gets 45.3% of the vote, the SPD 36.2%, the FDP 12.8%. The governing coalition is composed of the CDU/CSU with the FDP. Konrad Adenauer remains the chancellor.

September 17, 1978

Death of Willy Messerschmitt in Munich, Germany. Messerschmitt was an aircraft designer at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in Augsburg, which ultimately became the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm corporation.

September 17, 1994

Death of Karl Popper. Karl Raimund Popper was born on July 28, 1902 in Vienna, Austria. He completed his doctorate at the University of Vienna. Although his first book Logik der Forschung (1934) was published by the Vienna Circle (logical positivism) he did not remain with the limitations of the views of the Vienna Circle. He taught at Canterbury University College in New Zealand from 1937-1945. In 1945 he accepted a position at the London School of Economics as a professor logic and scientific method. He proposed the "falsifiability criterion" to replace the traditional idea of verification through replicability. Popper's books include The Open Society and its Enemies (1945), and Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery. (1981-82). Sir Karl Popper was knighted in 1965. He died on September 17, 1994 in London.