1897 in Germany
Events in the year 1897 in Germany.Incumbents
National level
Kingdoms
- King of Bavaria – Otto of Bavaria
- King of Prussia – Kaiser Wilhelm II
- King of Saxony – Albert of Saxony
- King of Württemberg – William II of Württemberg
Grand Duchies
- Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
- Grand Duke of Hesse – Ernest Louis
- Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – Frederick Francis III to 10 April, then Frederick Francis IV
- Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Frederick William
- Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Peter II
- Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – Charles Alexander
Principalities
- Schaumburg-Lippe – George, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
- Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – Günther Victor, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
- Schwarzburg-Sondershausen – Karl Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
- Principality of Lippe – Alexander, Prince of Lippe
- Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz
- Reuss Younger Line – Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line
- Waldeck and Pyrmont – Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont
Duchies
- Duke of Anhalt – Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
- Duke of Brunswick – Prince Albert of Prussia
- Duke of Saxe-Altenburg – Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
- Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Colonial Governors
- Cameroon – Theodor Seitz ' to 10 September, then Jesko von Puttkamer ' from 11 September
- German East Africa – Eduard von Liebert
- German New Guinea – Curt von Hagen to 13 August, then Albert Hahl ' to 11 September, then Hugo Skopnik
- German South-West Africa – Theodor Leutwein '
- Togoland – August Köhler
Events
- 10 May – The Handelsgesetzbuch is passed by the Reichtstag. The HGB will come into force together with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch on 1 January 1900.
- 10 August – Rudolf Diesel builds his first working prototype Diesel engine in Augsburg.
- 10 October – Chemists working at Bayer AG create a synthetically altered version of salicin which the company names Aspirin.
Undated
- David Hilbert unifies the field of algebraic number theory with his treatise Zahlbericht.
- The Daimler Victoria—the world's first meter-equipped taxicab—was built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897.
Births
- 9 January – Karl Löwith, German philosopher
- 14 January – Hasso von Manteuffel, German general during World War II
- 19 February – Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, German opera singer
- 2 March – Gurit Kadman, German-born Israeli dance instructor and choreographer
- 8 April – Will Dohm, German actor
- 9 April – Ernst Melsheimer, German lawyer
- 19 April – Bruno Diekmann, German politician
- 11 May – Kurt Gerron, German actor
- 16 June – Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
- 5 July – Paul Ben-Haim, German-born Israeli composer
- 17 July – Max Knoll, German electrical engineer
- 4 August – Adolf Heusinger, German general
- 10 August – Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg
- 30 August – August Bach, German politician
- 28 October – Hans Speidel, German general
- 29 October – Joseph Goebbels, German politician
- 12 November – Karl Marx, German composer
- 23 November – Fritz Steinhoff, German politician
- 5 December – Gershom Scholem, German-born Israeli philosopher and historian
- 14 December – Thomas Dehler, German politician
- Full date unknown – Shimon Fritz Bodenheimer, German-born Israeli biologist and zoologist
Deaths
- 19 February – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician
- 11 March – Daniel Sanders, German lexicographer
- 3 April – Johannes Brahms, German German composer and pianist
- 10 April – Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- 11 April – Johann Nepomuk Brischar, German Roman Catholic church historian
- 17 June – Sebastian Kneipp, German priest
- 21 July – Amand Goegg, German journalist and politician
- 8 August – Viktor Meyer, German chemist
- 20 September – Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian
- 30 September – Leopold Auerbach, German anatomist and neuropathologist
- 3 December – Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke, German astronomer
