January 6

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

January 6

Three Kings Day (Dreikönigentag)

January 6, 1486

Birth of Martin Agricola (pseudonym of Martin Sore) in Schwiebus (now in Poland). He was a music scholar and composer in Magdeburg. He was the first to give attention to the musical needs of the Reformation.

January 6, 1821

Birth of Jokob Frohschammer in Illkofen, Germany. Frohschammer was a Catholic priest, writer and philosopher. He was excommunicated in 1871 for his insistence that philosophy is independent of Church authority. He taught at the University of Munich. In 1889 he wrote a book, Philosophie des Thomas von Aquino kritisch gewürdigt, in which he disputed Thomas' view that philosophy is subordinate to theology.

January 6, 1822

Heinrich Schliemann born in Neubukow, Germany.

January 6, 1827

Death of Charlotte von Stein in Weimar. Von Stein was a very close friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She inspired the characters Iphigenie in Iphigenie auf Tauris and Natalie in Wilhelm Meister. After 1788 when Goethe met and later married Christiane Vulpius, the "Seelenbund" with Frau von Stein weakened and dissolved.

January 6, 1838

Birth of Max Bruch in Cologne, Germany. Bruch was a violin virtuoso and composer. Among his works are the opera, Scherz, List und Rache (1858) and a concert for choir and orchestra, Odysseus (1872).

January 6, 1870

Birth of Gustav Bauer in Darkehmen, Germany (now in Russia). Bauer became German chancellor when Scheidemann resigned in protest against the terms demanded by the Treaty of Versailles. It was thus his responsibility to accept and implement the treaty.

January 6, 1884

Death of Gregor Mendel, Augustinian monk and the pioneer of the science of genetics. He died in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic).

January 6, 1919

Communist uprising in Berlin (Spartacist Week).

January 6, 1926

The German airlines "Aero Lloyd and "Junkers Luftverkehr" unite to become "Deutssche Luft-Hansa AG". In 1933 the name "Lufthansa" was applied to the compnay. After World War two the company was refounded with the same name.

January 6, 1939

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin announce the discovery of uranium fission.