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January
9 in German History
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January 9, 1674
Birth of Reinhard Keiser in Weissenfels, Germany. An early composer of
operas, his style starts with Baroque and ends with Rococo. He studied
music in Leipzig but then went to Hamburg where he wrote 120 operas.
January 9, 1803
Birth of Christopher Memminger in Nayhingen, Germany. As a young man
he immigrated to the United States. After the election of Abraham Lincoln
he worked for secession. He became secretary of the treasury for the Confederate
government.
January 9, 1823
Birth of Friedrich von Esmarch in Tönning, Germany. Esmarch was
a military surgeon and a professor of surgery at the University of Kiel.
He wrote a handbook on first aid for civilians and military uses and introduced
the first-aid bandage on the battlefield.
January 9, 1848
Death of Caroline Lucretia Herschel in Hannover, Germany. Herschel was
the sister of the astronomer Sir William Herschel. Some years after William
had emigrated to England, he sent for her. Her early assignment was to
keep house and to grind and polish mirrors for her brother. She soon began,
however, to do much of the mathematical calculation of her brother's work.
After she had begun to do her own telescopic observations she discovered
three nebulae and eight comets. In 1798 he completed a catalog of 560
stars missing in the British Catalogue. By 1822 she had completed a catalog
of 2,500 nebulae and star clusters. She was given a gold medal by the
British Astronomical Society. After her brother's death she returned to
Germany and continued her work there.
January 9, 1869
Birth of Richard Abegg in Danzig, Prussia (now in Poland). Abegg was
a physical chemist at the University of Breslau whose work gave rise to
the concept of valence.
January 9, 1876
Birth of Robert Michels in Cologne, Germany. Michels, a political sociologist
and economist, developed the thesis that all organizations inevitably
develop into authoritarian oligarchies. His most noted book is Zur
Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie (1911). After
his studies in Germany he moved to Italy where he held academic posts
in Turin, and Perugia.
January 9, 1890
Birth of Kurt Tucholsky in Berlin. Tucholsky was a satirist and cabaretist.
Tucholsky's left leaning books were banned by the Nazi party in 1933 and
his German citizenship was taken from him. He committed suicide in 1935.
January 9, 1908
Death of Wilhelm Busch in Mechtshausen bei Seesen, Germany. Busch was
a humorous writer, painter and poet. His best known works are Max und
Moritz and Die fromme Helene (1872). His drawings with humorous
poems are the forerunner to the comic strip. His Max und Moritz
was imported to the United States in the form of The Katzenjammer Kids
or later The Captain and the Kids.
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