April 5
© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons
April 5, 1643
Birth of Karl IV Leopold in Vienna, Austria. Karl was the Austrian Field Marshal who commanded the Austrian, Polish and German troops who successfully defended Vienna against the attacking Turks in 1683. He died on April 18 1690.
April 5, 1744 Death of Blessed Maria Kreszentia Höß
Maria Kreszentia Höß was the daughter of a poor weaver who at age 14 reported a vision in which angles urged her to become a Franciscan nun. She was taken into the order in 1703. During her time as a Franciscan she reported numerous additional visions. She was beatified in 1900 and in 1956 the process of canonization was initiated.
April 5, 1797
Birth of Karl August Devrient in Berlin, Germany. Devrient was a heroic actor who achieved fame on the stage of Hannover. Some of his noted roles include Faust, King Lear and Wallenstein.
April 5, 1804
Birth of Matthias Jakob Schleiden in Hamburg, Germany. Schleiden was a botanist who with Theodor Schwann founded cell theory. He was a professor of biology at the University of Jena.
April 5, 1848
Birth of Ulrich Wille in Hamburg, Germany. Wille was a Swiss army officer. After study of Prussian army organization, he reformed the Swiss army along those lines. He published a new cavalry cone in 1892. During World War I he was commander in chief of the Swiss army.
April 5, 1852
Death of Felix Fürst zu Schwarzenberg in Vienna, Austria. In the revolutionary period of 1848 he became the chancellor and foreign minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and successfully resisted the liberal movement restoring the Austrio-Hungarian Empire to a strong and absolutist state.
April 5, 1874
Premier of Richard Strauss' Die Fledermaus in Vienna.
April 5, 1900
Birth of Herbert Bayer in Haag, Austria. Bayer was an advertising designer. He trained and worked at the Bauhaus. He was an art director with Vogue magazine. He immigrated to the United States in 1938. In 1946 he became the chair of the department of design of the Container Corporation of America. He also worked as design consultant for Aspen Development.
April 5, 1908
Birth of Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, Austria. Von Karajan as the director of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1955 to 1989 was one of the outstanding conductors of the 20th Century.
April 5, 1934
Birth of Roman Herzog in Landshut, Germany.
April 5, 1940
Death of Robert Maillart in Geneva, Switzerland. Maillart was a bridge engineer who introduced a number of innovations into Alpine bridge building. His new uses of reinforced concrete was his greatest contribution to the science.
April 5, 1943
Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested and imprisoned in Berlin. Bonhoeffer was a Protestant theologian strongly supportive of ecumenism. Bonhoeffer studied at the universities of Tübingen and Berlin. In his development he was strongly influenced by the writings of Karl Barth. In 1931 he was appointed lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Berlin. From the beginning Bonhoeffer was opposed to the Nazi party and actively resisted. Bonhoeffer was arrested on April 5, 1943 for his activities in resistance. In 1944 when the attempt was made to assassinate Hitler, the following investigation showed direct links between Bonhoeffer and the conspiracy. He was executed on April 9, 1945 in Flossenburg Prison. Noted works by Bonhoeffer were published posthumously, Ethik (1949), Widerstand und Ergebung (1951).