June 27
© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons
June 27: Siebenschläfertag:
According to age-old farmers’ wisdom the weather for the next seven weeks is determined by the weather on this day.
June 27 1519
Start of the debate (die Leipziger Disputation) between the Catholic theologian, Johannes Eck and Martin Luther in which the basic differences between the two teachings are defined.
June 27, 1786 Death of Joseph Green
The merchant Joseph Green was Immanuel Kant's closest friend over many years. The two of them dined together very frequently and had long conversations. Some of the vocabulary of mercantilism used by Kant in his books originates with Green. Kant was in the habit of discussing new ideas with Green before other academics and asking Green to read and comment on his works prior to publication. His death was a powerful blow for Kant.
June 27, 1791
Death of Johann Heinrich Merck in Darmstadt, Germany. Merck supported Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, Christoph Wieland, Johann von Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, young Sturm und Drang writers. He was one of the founders of the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeigen in which some of Goethe's early works were published and he contributed to the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek and Der teutsche Merkur.
June 27, 1794
Death of Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz in Vienna, Austria. Kaunitz was a minister of Austria and a powerful influence on the Empress, Maria Theresa. A long time foe of Prussia, he was able to shift European alliances and, for a time, virtually isolate Prussia.
June 27, 1873
The Beck & Co. Brewery is founded in Bremen.
June 27, 1859
The city council of Basel, Swizterland determines to take down the Basel city wall to allow for growth of the city.
June 27, 1876
Death of Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in Berlin, Germany. Ehrenberg was the biologist who founded the science of micropaleontology. He was the first to study coral scientifically.
June 27, 1869
Birth of Hans Spemann in Stuttgart, Germany. Spemann won the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1935 for the discovery of embryonic induction.
June 27, 1942
The American FBI captures 8 German saboteurs brought by submarine to New York's Long Island during World War II.
June 27, 1977
Joseph Ratzinger (now: Pope Benedict XVI) is named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
June 27, 1980
Death of Walter Dornberger in Germany. Dornberger was an engineer who worked with Werner von Braun on the rocket engine. He was involved in the construction of the V-2 rocket. In 1947 he immigrated to the U. S. and worked on American missiles for the Air Force.
June 27, 1998
June 27, 1998 The author Sibylle Lewitscharoff receives the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for literature for her Pong. The Bachmann prize was created in 1977 and first awarded to the poet, Ingeborg Bachmann. Lewitscharoff was born in Stuttgart and lived in Berlin at the time the prize was awarded.
June 27, 2005
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder calls for a vote of confidence in his leadership.