December 10

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

December 10, 1520

Martin Luther takes a papal bull which threatens to excommunicate him and publicly burns it in front of the Elster Gate in Wittenberg.

December 10, 1870

Birth of Adolf Loos in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic). Loos was a Viennese architect of whom Frank Lloyd Wright stated that he was achieving for European architecture what he, himself, was achieving for American architecture. He designed the Villa Karma, Clarens in Switzerland, the Steiner House , the Scheu House and the Goldman and Salatsch Building in Vienna.

December 10, 1872

Birth of Ludwig Klages in Hannover, Germany. Klages was a professor at the University of Munich in natural sciences. He was the inventor of handwriting analysis. He was also a leader in the German vitalist movement arguing for a "Geist" which distinguishes humans from animals.

December 10, 1884

Birth of Albert Steffen in Murgenthal, Switzerland. As a young writer Steffen was distressed about the negative effects of technology. He joined the Anthroposophical movement in 1907 and later became the president. Works by Steffen include Das Todeserlebnis des Manes, Barrabas and Der Künstler zwischen Westen und Osten.

December 10, 1889

Death of Ludwig Anzengruber in Vienna, Austria. Anzengruber was a writer of the Realist period. Works by Anzengruber include, Der Meineidbauer (1872), Die Kreuzelschreiber (1872), Doppelselbstmord (1876) and Der Sternsteinhof (1884).

December 10, 1891

Birth of Nelly (Leonie) Sachs in Berlin, Germany. Sach's poetry and drama convey the suffering and pain of German Jews. She lived in Berlin until 1940, when she learned that she was soon to be taken to a concentration camp and was able to escape to Sweden. It was at that time that she began to write poetry in serious fashion. She was awarded the German Publishers' Peace Prize in 1965 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966. On the occasion of the receipt of the Nobel Prize she commented "I represent the tragedy of the Jewish People." Her most noted play is, Eli: Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels (1951).

December 10, 1929

Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) leaves Berlin after having been Papal Nuncio in Germany since 1917. (On February 7, 1930 he will made the Vatican's secretary of state.)

December 10, 1966

Nelly Sachs wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, which was presented on her 75th birthday.

 

December 10, 1999

Günter Grass wins the nobel Prize for Literature.

December 10, 1999

The European Union, at its meeting in Helsinki, determines to take up negotiations with Rumania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic and Malta for admission to the Union. Negotiations begin in the spring of 2000. At the time of the decision negotiations were already underway with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.

December 10, 2000

Herbert Kroemer wins the Nobel Prize in Physics. Born in Germany, Kroemer gained his doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1952. He then carried on his work in fast transistors, laser diods and integrated chips while working for RCA laboratories and Varian Associates. From 1968 to 1976 he was a professor of physics at the University of Colorado and thereafter at the University of California in Santa Barbara.