May 31

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

May 31, 1740

Death of Frederich Wilhelm I in Potsdam, Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm was the second king of Prussia. His policies developed Prussia into an efficient and powerful state. He married the daughter of Georg of Hannover (later to become George I, king of England).

May 31, 1773

Birth of the romantic writer, Ludwig Tieck in Berlin.

May 31, 1809

Death of Franz Joseph Haydn in Vienna. Haydn was the first of the great Viennese Classicists. He was one of the musicians who established the forms of the string quartet and the symphony. His first appointment was as musical director for the Bohemian count Ferdinand Maximilian von Morzin. In that position he wrote his first symphony. In 1761 he was appointed at the castle of Prince Pal Antal Esterhazy in Eisenstadt, Austria. In 1766 he became the musical director at the Esterhazy court. It was in that capacity that he befriended Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1791 Haydn accepted a commission and moved to London. In 1792 he moved on to Germany. In Bonn he met a young Ludwig van Beethoven and arranged for Beethoven to move to Vienna to study with Haydn. Later in 1792 he returned to Vienna.

May 31, 1817

Birth of the poet, Georg Herwegh in Stuttgart, Germany.

May 31, 1892

Birth of Gregor Strasser, an early Nazi who worked closely with Hitler. After an ideological break with Hitler, Strasser was murdered by Hitler's orders in 1934.

May 31, 1916

The battle of Jutland is fought between the German and British navies.

May 31, 1942

Declaring retaliation for the British bombing of Cologne, German bombers attack Canterbury, England inflicting heavy damage on Canterbury Cathedral.

May 31, 1946

Birth of Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Bad Wörishofen, Germany.

May 31, 1962

Hanging of Adolf Eichmann in Tel Aviv. Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He became a member of the SS (Schutzstaffel) in 1932. During the Nazi years he was in charge of eliminating Jews in Vienna, Prague and Berlin. He was present at the Wannsee Conference in Berlin in 1942 when the "final solution" was concretized. He was to coordinate arrangements. At the end of the war Eichmann escaped Germany and lived in Argentina. He was discovered by Israeli secrete service in 1960. He was then secreted out of Argentina and taken to Israel, tried for crimes against humanity, found guilty and hanged on May 31, 1962 in Tel Aviv.