Events from the year 1869 in Germany.

Incumbents

• King of Bavaria – Ludwig II
• King of Prussia – William I
• King of Saxony – John
• King of Württemberg – Charles of Württemberg
• Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I

Events

• 9 May – The German Alpine Club is founded
• 15 June – The Second German North Polar Expedition departs from Bremerhaven
• 20 August – Kunsthalle Hamburg opened.
• 5 September – The foundation stone is laid for Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria

Undated

• First Deutsches Derby horse race takes place

Births

• 25 January – Max Hoffmann, German general (died 1927)
• 3 February – Johann Becker, German politician (died 1951)
• 8 March – Rudolf Wissell, politician (died 1962)
• 15 February – Hans Schrader, German archaeologist (died 1948)
• 11 May – Erhard Riecke, German dermatologist and venereologist (died 1939)
• 12 May – Carl Schuhmann, German gymnast (died 1946)
• 18 May – Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, German nobleman (died 1955)
• 29 May – Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, German diplomat (died 1928)
• 6 June – Siegfried Wagner, German composer and conductor (died 1930)
• 27 June – Hans Spemann, German embryologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1941)
• 13 August – Paul Behncke, German admiral (died 1937)
• 31 August – Carl von Opel, German automotive pioneer (died 1927)
• 22 October – Oskar Hergt, German politician (died 1967)
• 4 November – Fritz Schumacher, German architect (died 1947)
• 4 December – Otto Landsberg, German politician (died 1957)

Deaths

• 19 January – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist, industrialist and philosopher (born 1788)
• 8 February – Karl Gildemeister, German architect (born 1820)
• 10 March – Carl Theodor Welcker, German journalist and politician (born 1790)
• 11 March – Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, German nobleman (born 1798)
• 2 April – Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer, German palaeontologist (born 1801)
• 15 July – Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker, German publisher (born 1781)
• 22 July – Julius Braun, German historian (born 1825)
• 12 November – Johann Friedrich Overbeck, German painter (born 1789), died in Italy
• 22 November – Carl Ferdinand Langhans, German architect (born 1782)
• 24 November – Anton Westermann, German philologist (born 1806)