May 15

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

May 15

Austrian Independence Day.

May 15, 719

St. Boniface receives the pope's permission to undertake a mission to christianize the area now known as Germany.

Winfried (church name, Bonifatius or Boniface) was probably born in England in about 672 (though some think Ireland). He became a Benedictine monk and at age 30 was ordained a priest. He felt a calling to convert the heathens on the European continent. His first mission was to the Friesians in 716. That first effort lasted only a few months and he returned to England. In 718 he traveled to Rome to seek the pope's approval as a missionary to Germany. On May 15, 719 he received Pope Gregory II's approval to undertake the mission. For a time he worked, once again, among the Friesians with St. Willibrord. He then traveled to Trier, where a monastery had been established. From that base he continued eastwards to Thuringia and Hessia where he converted many. On November 30, 722 the pope made him a bishop. In his missionary work in Hessia he is said to have cut down an oak tree thought to be sacred to the pagan god Thor and to have built a church using the wood, thus demonstrating the superiority of the Christian God over Thor. Boniface founded the bishoprics of Passau, Regensburg, Freising, Würzburg and Erfurt. On May 1, 748 Pope Zachary appointed Bonifatius Archbishop of Mainz and primate of Germany. Boniface was murdered by pagans in 754 while on a missionary trip, thus becoming a martyr of the Church. His remains were taken to the Monastery at Fulda which had been founded in 744 under his authority. Bonifatius had been revered as a saint for centuries before the formal canonization by Pope Pius IX on June 11, 1874. During his lifetime Boniface had had close ties to Charles Martell, Carloman and Pippin the Short. His work among the eastern tribes established a structure for the Christian empire which Karl der Große (Charlemagne) would develop in the area now known as Germany.

May 15, 1248

Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays the cornerstone for the Cologne cathedral.

May 15, 1618

Johannes Kepler announces his harmonics law.

May 15, 1773

Birth of Klemens Fürst von Metternich in Koblenz, Germany. Metternich fled Germany to Austria in the face of French invasions. Through marriage and connections he rose rapidly in government circles in Vienna. In 1801 he was the Austrian minister in Dresden, and in 1806 the minister to France. In 1808 he was appointed Austrian minister of foreign affairs. In that position he took virtual control of Austrian international relations. In 1812 he formed an alliance with napoleon against Russia. By 1813 he switched sides and fought against Napoleon. He hosted the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 attempting to sort out the organization of Europe which had been put in chaos by Napoleon. He resigned his office in 1848 at the demand of the revolutionaries.

May 15, 1848

Birth of Carl Wernicke in Tarnowitz, Germany (now in Poland). Wernicke was the neurologist who discovered that nerve diseases relate to specific areas of the brain. He was a pioneer in the understanding of aphasia (brain problems which inhibit the ability to speak and write), Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten (1881).

May 15, 1862

Birth of Arthur Schnitzler in Vienna, Austria. Schnitzler was a physician in Vienna, who had a strong interest in psychiatry. He is, however, remembered for his plays and novels. Among his noted works are Anatol (1893), Liebelei (1896), Leutnant Gustl (1901) andDer Weg ins Freie (1908).

May 15, 1911

Birth of Max Frisch in Zürich, Switzerland. Frish was one of the outstanding Swiss writers of the 20th Century. He studied at the University of Zürich. Among his works are Santa Cruz (1947), Die chinesische Mauer (1947), Als der Krieg zu Ende war (1949), Don Juan oder die Liebe zur Geometrie (1953), Stiller (1954), Biedermann und die Brandstifter (1958), Andorra (1961) and Blaubart (1982).

May 15, 1955

A treaty was signed in Vienna by the representatives of the four powers and Austria. It formally reestablished the Austrian republic in its pre-1938 frontiers as a "sovereign, independent and democratic state." Austria must agree to the status of a neutral nation as a part of the agreement.

May 15, 1974

Walter Scheel is elected German President.