February 18

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

February 18, 1803

Death of Johann Ludwig Gleim in Halberstadt, Germany. Gleim was an Anacreontic poet. "Rosen pflücke, Rosen blühn, morgen ist nicht heut! . . . Trinke, kusse! Es ist heut Gelegenheit!"

February 18, 1807

Death of Sophie von La Roche (born Gutermann) in Offenbach, Germany. La Roche's novel Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771) was the first German novel written by a woman. La Roche was the cousin of Christoph Martin Wieland and the grandmother of Bettina von Arnim and Clemens Brentano.

February 18, 1827

Birth of Heinrich Karl Brugsch in Berlin, Germany. Brugsch was a noted Egyptologist who was one of the pioneers in demotic, an Egyptian script. He was director of the School of Egyptology in Cairo and a professor at the University of Göttingen.

February 18, 1838

Birth of Ernst Mach in Chirlitz-Turas, Austrian Empire. Mach earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Vienna. He later taught at the universities of Vienna and Graz as well as in Prague. He is the developer of the "Mach number" the ratio of the speed of an object as related to the speed of sound, and "Mach's principle" redefining the concept of inertia. His work led to and was cited by Einstein as leading to his theory of relativity. Mach died on the day after his birthday in 1916 in Haar, Germany.

February 18, 1850

Birth of George Henschel in Breslau, Germany (now in Poland). The musician, George Henschel, studied in Leipzig and Berlin. He immigrated to England in 1877 where he became a leading orchestra conductor. He was the first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1881-1884).

February 18, 1855

Birth of Adolf Frey in Külligen, Switzerland. Frey was a poet who wrote Swiss-German poetry. He is also remembered for his biographies of Swiss authors. Some of his noted biographies are Erinnerungen an G. Keller, (1892), C. F. Meyer (1899), and A. Böcklin (1903). Frey was a professor of German literature at the University of Zürich. He died on February 12, 1920.

February 18, 1857

Birth of Max Klinger in Leipzig, Germany. Klinger was a painter, sculptor and engraver. He is noted for his often morbid and grotesque images and his rejection of convention.

February 18, 1943

Josef Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda calls for "total war". (German General von Paulus had surrendered at Stalingrad on January 31 of that year.)

February 18, 1943

Hans and Sophie Scholl are arrested and brought to the Nazi prison in the Wittelsbach Palace.

February 18, 1946

Clemens August Graf von Galen is elevated to cardinal. Galen was the Bishop of Münster during the period of Nazi domination. From the beginning he publicly criticized the party and on occasion complained directly to Hitler. In the early years he had some successes with his protests. On one occasion he even ignited a public demonstration. Documents found after the war indicate that the party was about to have him done away with, but wanted to wait until their victory in the war. Of course, the Nazi victory was never achieved and at the end of the war, in 1946, Galen was made a cardinal. Cardinal Galen died on March 22, 1946.

February 18, 1957

Birth of Marita Koch in Wismar, Germany. Competing for East German teams, Koch set 16 individual and team world records in outdoor sprints and 14 world records in indoor competition. She retired in 1987.