Incumbents

National level

Kaiser – William I
Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

State level

Kingdoms

Grand Duchies

Principalities

Duchies

Duke of Anhalt – Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
Duke of Brunswick – William, Duke of Brunswick to 18 October, then Duchy claimed by Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who was excluded and a temporary council of regency was established.
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) from 14 July – Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner) to 19 July, then Maximilian Buchner (acting commissioner)
German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) from 24 April – Adolf Lüderitz (magistrate) to 7 October, then Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner)
Togoland from 5 July – Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner) to 6 July October, then Heinrich Randad (provisional consul)

Events

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2011)

24 April – Territory in South West Africa is placed under German protection, becoming the first German colonial possession.
9 June – The construction of the Reichstag building in Berlin started.
5 July – German protectorate is first declared over part of Togoland.
14 July – Commencement of German administration in Cameroon (Kamerun).
28 October – German federal election, 1884
15 November – The Berlin Conference which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends 26 February 1885).

Date unknown

German company Glastechnisches Laboratorium Schott & Genossen was founded, later becoming Schott AG

Science

Germany got the second part of world's oldest national social health insurance system by legislation of Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Accicential Insurance Bill of 1884.
Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884.
Paal-Knorr Synthesis was initially reported independently by German chemists Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr as a method for the preparation of furans
Robert Koch resided and researched at Grant Medical College in Bombay, India, where he was able to determine the causative agent of cholera, isolating Vibrio cholerae.

Births

31 January – Theodor Heuss, German politician, publicist and former Chancellor of Germany (died 1963)^[1]
12 February – Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (died 1950)
26 March – Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (died 1969)
12 April – Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (died 1951)
14 May – Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (died 1969)
5 June – Doris 'Dodo' Große, German artists' model, lover of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (year of death unknown)
10 June – Walther Schreiber, German politician (died 1958)
14 June – Georg Zacharias, German swimmer (died 1953)
14 June – Hans Müller-Schlösser, German playwright (died 1956)
23 June – Werner Krauss, German actor (died 1959
24 June – Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a highly decorated Army officer in the First World War (died 1916)
2 July – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neuropathologist (died 1931)
7 July – Lion Feuchtwanger, German novelist and playwright (died 1958)
14 July – Prince Adalbert of Prussia, German nobleman (died 1948)
17 July – Walter von Keudell, German politician (died 1973)
23 July – Emil Jannings, German actor (died 1950)
31 July – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician (died 1944)
20 August – Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg (died 1976)
28 August – Christian Stock, German politician (died 1967)
24 September – Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (died 1953)
29 September – Wilhelm Bendow, German actor (died 1950)
8 October – Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (died 1942)
10 October – Friedrich von Rabenau, German general and theologian (died 1945)
11 October – Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)
21 October – Claire Waldoff, German singer (died 1957)
24 October – Arno Bieberstein , German swimmer (died 1918)
1 December – Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German painter (died 1976)
2 December – Johannes Popitz, German politician (died 1945)
14 December – Erich Ponto, German actor (died 1957)

Deaths

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2011)

17 January – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist and herpetologist (born 1804)
20 January - Julius Pintsch, German tinsmith, inventor and entrepreneur (born 1815
25 January – Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (born 1815)
28 January – Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues, German astronomer (born 1827)
13 March - Siegfried Heinrich Aronhold, German mathematician (born 1819)
6 April – Emanuel Geibel, German poet and playwright (born 1815)
19 June – Adrian Ludwig Richter, German painter (born 1803)
10 July – Karl Richard Lepsius, German archaeologist and linguist (born 1810)
1 August – Heinrich Laube, German poet (born 1806)
21 August - Ottilie Assing, German feminist, freethinker, and abolitionist (born 1819)
2 September – Karl Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld, German field marshal (born 1796)
18 October – William, Duke of Brunswick, German nobleman (born 1806)
29 October - Albert Dulk, German writer (born 1819)
25 November – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (born 1818)
10 December – Eduard Rüppell, German explorer (born 1794)

References

^ "Theodor Heuss | German statesman". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 June 2019.

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