1881 in Germany

Incumbents

National level

• Kaiser – William I
• Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

  State level

Kingdoms

• King of Bavaria – Ludwig II of Bavaria
• King of Prussia – Kaiser William I
• King of Saxony – Albert of Saxony
• King of Württemberg – Charles I of Württemberg

  Grand Duchies

• Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
• Grand Duke of Hesse – Louis IV
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – Frederick Francis II
• 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 – Charles Gonthier, 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 – William, Duke of Brunswick
• 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

  Events

• 31 March – last Anti-Socicalist Law is passed by the German Reichstag.
• 16 May – Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, world's first electric tramway, starts in Berlin.
• 25 September – in Meckesheim physician Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer performs the first modern Caesarean section, the transverse incision technique to minimise bleeding.
• 27 October – German federal election, 1881

  Births

• 1 January – Hermann Schmitz, German industrialist
• 4 January – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor
• 17 January – Karl Scharnagl, German politician
• 16 February – Hans Vogel, German politician
• 16 February – Hans Meiser, German Protestant theologian, pastor and first 'Landesbischof' of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
• 23 March – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist
• 1 April – Wilhelm Sollmann. German journalist and politician
• 3 April – Hans Kniep, German botanist
• 19 April – Ernst Schneppenhorst, German politician
• 2 May – Ernst Legal, German actor
• 18 May – Erwin Madelung, German mathematician
• 30 May – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal
• 31 May – Heinrich Burger, German figure skater
• 9 June – Felix von Luckner, German author, sailor and nobleman
• 24 June – Heinz Tietjen, German conductor
• 29 June – Gottlob Walz, German diver
• 27 July – Hans Fischer, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
• 28 July – Günther Quandt, German industrialist
• 8 August – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal
• 26 August – Franz Gürtner, German jurist and politician
• 4 October – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshall
• 9 October – Friedrich Syrup, German politician
• 12 November – Ulrich von Hassell, German diplomat
• 12 November – Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal
• 2 December – Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist
• 4 December – Erwin von Witzleben, German officer
• 15 December – Eugen Bolz, German politician
• 25 December – Christian Hülsmeyer, German inventor, physicist and entrepreneur
• 31 December – Max Pechstein, German painter

  Deaths

• 7 April – Johann Hinrich Wichern, German religious leader
• 15 May – Franz von Dingelstedt, German poet and dramatist
• 2 June – Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg, German diplomat
• 23 June – Matthias Jakob Schleiden, German botanist
• 10 July – Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect
• 11 October – Friedrich Hitzig, German architect