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← 1887 1886 1885 1888 in Germany → 1889 1890 1891
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	Other events of 1888 History of Germany  • Timeline  • Years

Events in the year 1888 in Germany, the 'Year of the Three Emperors'.

Incumbents

National level

• Kaiser – William I to 9 March, then Frederick III to 15 June, then Wilhelm II
• Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

State level

Kingdoms

• King of Bavaria – Otto
• King of Prussia – William I to 9 March, then Frederick III to 15 June, then Wilhelm II
• King of Saxony – Albert
• King of Württemberg – Charles

Grand Duchies

• Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
• Grand Duke of Hesse – Louis IV
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – Frederick Francis III
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Frederick William
• Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Peter II
• Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – Charles Alexander

Principalities

• Schaumburg-Lippe – Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
• Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – George Albert, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• Schwarzburg-Sondershausen – Karl Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Principality of Lippe – Woldemar, Prince of Lippe
• Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz
• Reuss Younger Line – Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line
• Waldeck and Pyrmont – George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Duchies

• Duke of Anhalt – Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
• Duke of Brunswick – Prince Albert of Prussia (regent)
• Duke of Saxe-Altenburg – Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
• Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Colonial Governors

• Cameroon (Kamerun) – Eugen von Zimmerer (1st term) to 17 January, then Julius Freiherr von Soden (2nd term)
• German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika) – Karl Peters (administrator) to 8 February, then Hermann Wissmann (commissioner) (1st term)
• German New Guinea (Deutsch-Neuguinea) – Georg Freiherr von Schleinitz to 1 March, then Reinhold Kraetke (both Landeshauptleute of the German New Guinea Company)
• German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) – Heinrich Ernst Göring (acting commissioner)
• Togoland – Jesko von Puttkamer (acting commissioner) (1st term) to 17 October, then Eugen von Zimmerer (commissioner)
• Wituland (Deutsch-Witu) – Gustav Denhardt (resident)

Events

• 9 March – Emperor Wilhelm I dies at the age of 90 in Berlin. He is succeeded by his oldest son Friedrich Wilhelm, who becomes Friedrich III.
• 16 April – The German Empire annexes the island of Nauru
• 15 June – Wilhelm II becomes German Emperor after the death of his father, Friedrich III.
• 13 December – Heinrich Hertz presents his report on the discovery of electromagnetic radiation to the Berlin Academy of Sciences

Literature

• 'Theses on Feuerbach' by Karl Marx is published posthumously

Music

• Johannes Brahms – Violin Sonata in D Minor (opus 108)
• Max Reger – String Quartet in D minor (with double bass obbligato; without op.) (1888–89)
• Joseph Rheinberger — Organ Sonata No. 12 in D-flat, Op. 154
• Richard Strauss
  • Don Juan, Macbeth (first version)
• Carl Maria von Weber's opera Die drei Pintos completed posthumously by Theodor Hell

Sport

• Establishment of association football clubs BFC Germania, TGM SV Jügesheim and KBC Duisburg

Miscellaneous

• First buildings of the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil opened

Births

• 14 January – Karl Badberger, architect (date of death unknown)
• 17 February – Otto Stern, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)
• 27 February – Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (died 1976)
• 4 March – Emma Richter, German paleontologist (died 1956)
• 14 March:
  • Peretz Naftali, German-born Israeli politician (died 1961)
  • Hermann Reinecke, Wehrmacht general and convicted war criminal (died 1973)
• 19 March – Josef Albers, German-American artist (died 1976)
• 17 April – Herms Niel, German composer (died 1954)
• 24 July – Hermann von Bönninghausen, German athlete and soldier in World War I (died 1919)
• 25 July – Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig, German Waffen SS general (died 1939)
• 4 September – Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor and choreographer (died 1943)
• 20 December – Yitzhak Baer, Israeli historian (died 1980)

Deaths

• 9 March – William I, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (born 1797)
• 5 April – Eduard Karl August Riehm, German Protestant theologian (born 1830)
• 16 April – Friedrich Grillo, German industrialist (born 1825)
• 15 June – Frederick III, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (born 1831)
• 20 June – Karl Friedrich August Kahnis, German Protestant theologian (born 1814)
• 20 July – Paul Langerhans German pathologist, physiologist and biologist (born 1847)
• 23 July – Johannes Heinrich August Ebrard, German Protestant theologian (born 1818)
• 24 August – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist and mathematician (born 1822)
• 28 August – Georg Beseler, German politician and jurist (born 1809)
• 12 September – August von Werder, German general (born 1808)
• 3 December – Carl Zeiss, German entrepreneur and scientist (born 1816)

References

1. "Richter, Emma". www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German). Retrieved 11 June 2019.

v t e Years in Germany (1871–present)
19th century	Pre-1871 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
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21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

• 1888 in Germany
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