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 – Prince Albert of Prussia (regent, appointed in 1885)
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) – Maximilian Buchner (acting commissioner) to 1 April, then Eduard von Knorr (acting commissioner) to 4 July, then Julius Freiherr von Soden (governor) (1st term)
German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika) from 27 May – Karl Peters (administrator)
German New Guinea (Deutsch-Neuguinea) – Gustav von Oertzen (commissioner, appointed in 1885)
German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) – Gustav Nachtigal (commissioner) to May 1885, then Heinrich Ernst Göring (acting commissioner)
Togoland – Heinrich Randad (provisional consul) to 26 June, then Ernst Falkenthal (commissioner)
Wituland (Deutsch-Witu) from 8 April – Gustav Denhardt (resident)

Events

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

17 February – German government grants an imperial charter to Carl Peters for establishment of a protectorate in East Africa.
26 February – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade in Africa.
26 March – Prussian deportations: the Prussian government orders the expulsion of all ethnic Poles and Jews holding Russian citizenship, later extended to include Polish Austrian citizens. More than 30,000 people are forced across the border.
3 April – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his 1-cylinder water-cooled engine design.
8 April – The sultan of Witu cedes 25 square miles of territory to German brothers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt, which becomes the first German territory in Wituland.^[1]
27 May – The remainder of the Wituland becomes the German Protectorate of Wituland (Deutsch-Witu).^[1]

Undated

The Benz Patent Motorwagen was built in 1885

Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).^[2]
Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach produce the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Births

2 January – Anna Hübler, German pair skater (died 1976)
17 January – Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, German general (died 1968)
27 January – Eduard Künneke, German composer (died 1953)
1 February – Friedrich Kellner, German diarist (died 1970)
7 February – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal of Luftwaffe (died 1953)
11 March – Hans Leibelt, German film actor (died 1974)
7 April – Walther Schwieger, German U-boat commander of U-20, which sank the Lusitania (died 1917)
12 April – Hermann Hoth, German general (died 1971)
18 April – Claus Bergen, German painter (died 1964)
14 May – Otto Klemperer, German conductor (died 1973)
21 May – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, German-born Albanian noblewoman (died 1936)
2 June – Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt, German neuropathologist (died 1964)
9 June – Carl Hoffmann, German film director (died 1947)
30 June – Heinrich Schomburgk, German tennis player (died 1965)
6 July – Ernst Busch, German field marshal (died 1945)
8 July – Ernst Bloch, German philosopher (died 1977)
8 July
- Hugo Boss, German fashion designer (died 1948)
- Paul Leni, German film director (died 1929)
24 July – Paul von Hase, German soldier (died 1944)
9 August – Hans Lachmann-Mosse, German publisher (died 1944)
7 September
- Eleonore Baur, German Nazi, only woman to participate in Munich Beer Hall Putsch (died 1981)
- Franz Eichhorst, German painter (died 1948)
9 September – Paul Henckels, German actor (died 1967)
14 September – Carl de Vogt, German actor (died 1970)
1 November – Anton Flettner, German aviation engineer and inventor (died 1961)
8 November – Emil Fahrenkamp, German architect (died 1966)
9 November – Julius Ebbinghaus, German philosopher (died 1981)
24 November – Rudolf Klein-Rogge, German actor (died 1955)
26 November – Heinrich Brüning, German politician and former Chancellor of Germany (died 1970)
30 November – Albert Kesselring, German Generalfeldmarshal of Luftwaffe (died 1960)
17 December – Theodor Steltzer, German politician (died 1967)
25 December
- Albert Betz, German physicist and a pioneer of wind turbine technology (died 1968)
- Angela Zigahl, German teacher and politician (died 1955)

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Deaths

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

12 January – Prince August of Württemberg, German nobleman and general in Army of Kingdom Württemberg (born 1813)
22 February – Carl Scheppig, German architect (born 1803)
21 March – Franz Abt, German composer and choral conductor (born 1819)
6 April – Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein, Prussian general (born 1797)
7 April – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (born 1804)
2 June – Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern, head of the Princely House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern from 1869 and Prime Minister of Prussia (born 1811)
15 June – Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, Prussian nobleman (born 1828)
16 June – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter (born 1818)
17 June – Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, German field marshal (born 1809)

24 August – Eduard Riedel, German architect (born 1813)
17 September – Gustav Becker, German clockmaker (born 1819)
23 September – Carl Spitzweg, German painter (born 1808)
17 November – Gustav Seyffarth, German egyptologist (born 1796)
6 December – Robert Gerwig, German civil engineer and politician (born 1820)
9 December – Hermann Heinrich Becker, German politician (born 1820)

References

^ ^a ^b German Wituland, a colonial rarity Archived 2004-04-07 at the Wayback Machine Afrol News, retrieved 28 October 2011
^ Benz, Carl Friedrich (1925). Lebensfahrt eines deutschen erfinders; erinnerungen eines achtzigjahrigen. Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang.
^ Gardiner, Mark (1997). Classic motorcycles. MetroBooks. p. 16. ISBN 1-56799-460-1.
^ Brown, Roland (2005). The Ultimate History of Fast Motorcycles. Bath: Parragon. p. 6. ISBN 1-4054-5466-0.
^ Wilson, Hugo (1993). The Ultimate Motorcycle Book. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 8–9. ISBN 1-56458-303-1.

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
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
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

v t e 1885 in Europe
Sovereign states	Andorra Austria-Hungary Baden Belgium Bulgaria Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Liechtenstein Luxembourg Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Ottoman Empire Portugal Prussia Romania Russia San Marino Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom
Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Cyprus Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Malta