October 28

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

October 28, 1017

Birth of the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich III.

October 28, 1200

Birth of St. Ludwig IV von Thüringen (1200-1227Ludwig IV has never been formally canonized but has been regarded locally as a saint since shortly after his death. He led a pious life and was a good duke in Thuringia. He is remembered primarily due to the holiness of his wife, the very popular St. Elisabeth von Thüringen. (She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235.) Ludwig died during his participation in the 5^th Crusade as a member of the Teutonic Knights (Deutscher Orden)

October 28, 1754

Death of Friedrich von Hagedorn in Hamburg, Germany. Hagedorn was an Anacreontic poet. His collections of poems include Versuch in poetischen Fabeln und Erzählungen (1738) and Oden und Lieder (3 vols. 1742-1752).

October 28, 1787

Death of Johann Karl August Musäus in Weimar, Germany. Musäus was a writer known for his satire and his fairy tales. His Volksmärchen der Deutschen (5 vols. 1782-86) was a vehicle for his satirical bent.

October 28, 1860

Birth of Hugo Preuss in Berlin, Germany. Preuss, a political theorist, was the primary author of the constitution of the Weimar Republic (Germany between WWI and WWII).

October 28, 1865

Death of Karl Ferdinand Buol-Schauenstein in Vienna, Austria (born in Regensburg, Germany). Buol Schauenstein became the foreign minister of the Austrian Empire from 1852-1859. He succeeded Felix Schwarzenber in that position. Buol-Schauenstein regarded the "Holy Alliance" with Prussia and Russia as unnatural. His policies broke down that alliance as he sought to replace it with understandings with France and England.

October 28, 1867

Birth of Hans Adolf Driesch in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. A philosopher and embryologist, Driesch was a leading voice against the view that life can be explained through purely physical or chemical processes. He was a professor at the universities of Heidelberg, Cologne and Leipzig. He was strongly influenced philosophically by Immanuel Kant.

October 28, 1899

Death of Ottmar Mergenthaler in Baltimore, OH (born in Hachtel, Germany). Mergenthaler immigrated to the United States in 1872. In 1886 he invented the linotype machine.

October 28, 1929

Death of Bernhard Fürst von Bülow in Rome, Italy (born in Altona, Germany). Von Bülow was the chancellor of the German Empire from October 17, 1900 through July 14, 1909. (Kaiser Wilhelm II)

October 28, 2000

Volker Braun receives the Büchner Prize for literature.