May 19

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

May 19, 804

Death of Alcuin, intellectual in the court of Karl der Große (Charlemagne) in Aachen. Alcuin was born in about 730 in York in England. He was educated at and became the master of the cathedral school of York. In 781 he made the acquaintance of Karl der Große (Charlemagne) and joined him at Charlemagne's capital of Aachen as the master of the cathedral school . (Aachen was the capital of Charlemagne's Empire [later to be called the Holy Roman Empire or the German Empire] Aachen is in the far western part of Germany today.) He was a very religious man and may have been a priest, but his status is not clear. The liberal arts school he established for Karl became the intellectual center of Europe. In common effort with Karl, Alcuin established lower schools throughout Karl's empire and established curricula for those schools. He was equally active in religious affairs and with Karl's authority organized the church in Karl's growing Franconian empire. In 796 Alcuin withdrew from public life and was made the abbot of the monastery in Tours (in modern day France). Alcuin died on May 19, 804. His day of remembrance in both the Catholic and Lutheran churches in Germany is May 19. (Karl established his empire and was crowned emperor by the Pope, Leo III in 800. Thus, Alcuin was retired from Karl's service before the formal establishment of the empire. Alcuin was succeeded by Einhard, who continued his work in the early 9th century.)

May 19, 1762

Birth of the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte in Rammenau, Germany.

May 19, 1848

Heinrich Freiherr von Gagern is elected president of the national assembly in Frankfurt (the first German attempt at parliamentary democracy).

May 19, 1881

Death of Harry Graf von Arnim in Nice, France. As Prussian envoy to the Holy See in 1864 he actively supported the bishops opposed to the declaration of papal infallibility. Later a controversy arose in which he was accused of stealing official documents, was arrested and sent to prison. When he was released he fled to France. His case gave rise to the "Arnim Paragraph", a law making disclosure of official documents a criminal offense.

May 19, 1914

Birth of Max Ferdinand Perutz in Vienna, Austria. Perutz was the biochemist who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962 for his X-ray diffraction analysis of the structure of hemoglobin.

May 19, 1928

Death of the philosopher, Max Scheler in Frankfurt, Germany. Scheler was interested in social and ethical philosophy. He is noted for phenomenological philosophy. He served as professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Cologne.

May 19, 1962

Death of Gabriele Münter in Murnau, Germany. She was a painter connected with the artist group, "Der Blaue Reiter". She studied with and became a close friend of Wassily Kandinsky.