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May 9 in German History
--------------------------------- May 9
European Union Day (Common day of
celebration by the members chosen as the first day of peace
at the end of WWII).
May 9, 1688
Death of Friederich Wilhelm in Potsdam,
Germany. Friederich Wilhelm was the elector of Brandenburg in
the Holy Roman Empire. A member of the Hohenzollern family,
he rebuilt the family holdings after the devastation of the
Thirty Years' War and established control over Prussia. He
built a strong and efficient army and established a strong
economic infrastructure in his territories. His son,
Friedrich I, thus had a strong basis from which to start his
rule.
May 9, 1805
Death of Friedrich Schiller in Weimar,
Germany. Schiller was one of the greatest German writers of
all times. His writing started in the "Sturm und
Drang" style and developed into the Classical style.
Works by Schiller include, Die Räuber, Wallenstein (a
series of three plays), Maria Stuart, Don Carlos, and Wilhelm
Tell. A poem which he wrote, An die Freude ,
became an immortal classic through is use as the text to the
final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Schiller was a
close friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and worked with
him in Weimar.
May 9, 1879
Blessed Maria Theresia Gerhardinger died on
this date. She was born in Regensburg, Germany in 1797. She
became a teacher and taught in Regensburg until 1833. With
the encouragement of the bishop she founded the order of the
School Sisters of Notre Dame (Arme Schulschwester Unserer
Lieben Frau). The order was dedicated to the education of
girls. Gerhardinger was the director of the order until her
death in 1879. In 1843 the mother house was moved to Munich
with a donation of property by King Ludwig I. The order
spread quickly through Europe and in 1847 was brought also to
the U.S.A. The order then spread also to South America and
Asia. Today there are over 5,000 members in the order. The
headquarters is now in Rome. Maria Theresia Gerhardinger was
beatified in 1985 by Pope John Paul II. The order's North
American Web page is at http://www.ssnd.org/. The German Web
page is at http://www.schulschwestern.de/index.html.
May 9, 1921
Birth of Sophie Scholl in Forchtenberg,
Germany.
May 9, 1945
Karl Frank, the Nazi administrator in
Czechoslovakia surrendered to the U. S. army near Pilsen,
Czechoslovakia. He was tried and executed in Prague in 1946.
May 9, 1950
French minister Schuman offers economic
cooperation with Germany in the area of coal and steel
May 9, 1955
West Germany is taken into NATO.
May 9, 2002
The city of Aachen presents its Charlemagne
(Karl) prize to the Euro. The prize is accepted by the
president of the European Bank, Wim Duisenberg.
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