January 11

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

January 11, 1753

Charlotte Buff born in Wetzlar, Germany. She was a close friend of the poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in their youth.

January 11, 1841

Birth of Otto von Gierke in Settin, Germany. He was professor of legal philosophy at the universities of Breslau, Heidelberg and Berlin. Quite conservative, he strove for more Germanic than Roman traditions in law. He was a firm supporter of the German Reich in its structure and administration under Otto von Bismarck.

January 11, 1852

Birth of Konstantin Fehrenbach in Wellendingen, Germany. Fehrenbach was a member of the Catholic Center Party. In 1918, after the end of the war, he became the president of the Reichstag. In 1920 he became the chancellor of the Weimar Republic. After his failure to gain relief from the Western Allies in the matter of the massive war reparations, however, he resigned his position.

January 11, 1853

Birth of Gustav Falk in Luebeck, Germany. Falk was a poet and novelist. Among his noted poems are Hohe Sommertage and Frohe Fracht.

January 11, 1923

French troops occupy the Ruhr area, justifying the action on the assersion that full reparations for World War I were not being delivered. In protest, Berlin ceased the payment of all reparations.

January 11, 1954

Death of Oscar Straus in Vienna, Austria. The composer, Straus, lived in Austria and Germany except for the period 1940 to 1948 which he spent in the United States. Operettas by Straus include Der tapfere Soldat, (1908), Ein Walzertraum (1907) and Rund um die Liebe (1914).