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December
3 in German History
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December 3, 1483
Birth of Nikolaus von Amsdorf in Torgau, Germany. Amsdorf was a professor
of theology at the University of Wittenberg. He was a close friend of
Martin Luther. After the trial at the Diet of Worms, he was one of those
responsible for hiding Luther at the Wartburg. In later years he struggled
against what he considered the too liberal directions of Philipp Melanchton.
December 3, 1721
Johann Sebastian Bach marries Anna Wilcken. (His first wife had died
in 1720.)
December 3, 1854
Death of Johann Peter Eckermann in Weimar, Germany. Eckermann was Goethe's
secretary in Weimar. He published Goethe's posthumous works and participated
in the publication of the first complete edition of his works. He wrote
Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren sieines Lebens, which
provides detailed insight into the mind of the genius.
December 3, 1883
Birth of Anton Friedrich von Webern in Vienna, Austria. Von Webern studied
music at the University of Vienna where he earned the doctorate in 1906.
As early as 1904 he had been a private student of Arnold Schönberg.
He was an early user of Schönberg's 12 tone scales. Von Webern stayed
in Austria after the German annexation but was not able to produce since
contemporary music of the sort he wrote was termed "degenerate"
and forbidden. In 1945 he and his wife, fearing the approaching Russian
army, fled Vienna to a small town near Salzburg. There he was accidentally
shot to death by a U.S. soldier. Von Webern was a prolific composer of
instrumental works, vocal works and "Lieder".
December 3, 1888
Death of Carl Zeiss in Jena, Germany. Zeiss opened an optical shop in
Jena in 1846 which was to grow into the global Carl Zeiss optical corporation.
December 3, 1895
Birth of Anna Freud in Vienna. She was the youngest daughter of Sigmund
Freud. She started her adult life as an elementary school teacher and
observed the children with an interest in psychology she had learned from
her father. She became the founder of child psychoanalysis. In 1938 she
fled Austria with her father and settled in London.
December 3, 1900
Birth of Richard Kuhn in Vienna, Austria. Kuhn was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Chemistry in 1938 for his research on carotenoids and vitamins.
(The Nazi party did not allow him to accept the award, but he did so after
the war.) He was a professor at the University of Heidelberg.
December 3, 1967
Death of Annette Kolb in Munich, Germany. The writer, Annette Kolb (pseudonym
of Anne Mathilde Kolb), emigrated to France in 1933 and later to the United
States. Among her works are Die Schaukel , Das Exemplar, and Briefe einer
Deutsch-Französin. She was awarded the Literature Prize of the City
of Munich on her 75th birthday.
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