March 8

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

March 8, 1714

Birth of Carl Phillip Imanuel Bach in Weimar, Germany. He was the son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Bach. His first position was that of harpsichordist to Friedrich II of Prussia. In 1767 he became music director in Hamburg. In addition to the great music he composed, he is noted for his book, Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen.

March 8, 1827

Birth of Wilhelm Bleek in Berlin, Germany. The philologist, Bleek, moved to Africa after his studies and spent his life working on the study of South African languages. He has been referred to as "the father of Bantu philology".

March 8, 1879

Birth of Otto Hahn in Frankfurt, Germany. Hahn and his colleagues discovered and named the process of nuclear fission in 1938. Hahn continued his research in Germany during the war. Only after the end of the war did he learn that he had been given the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1944. After the war he became an active opponent of the further development of nuclear weapons.

March 8, 1890

Birth of Oswald von Nell in Trier, Germany.

March 8, 1917

Death of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in Berlin. Zeppelin was the world's first builder of lighter than air craft.

March 8, 1945

Birth of Anselm Kiefer in Donaueschingen, Germany. Kiefer is a Neo-Expressionist painter who has gained great esteem. His most influential art instructor was Joseph Beuys. Kiefer uses bold color and a variety of visual symbols to treat negative aspects of German history in an ironic fashion.

March 8, 1990

The German Parliament, Bundestag issues a resolution concerning the border with Poland which, "will at no time, either today or in the future, be questioned through territorial claims on the part of the Germans."