1905 in Germany

Events

• 31 March – during the First Moroccan Crisis, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany met with representatives of Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco in Tangier

  Date unknown

• Germany insists on an international conference on the Moroccan question.
• German company Knorr-Bremse is founded.
• Albert Einstein publishes his four Annus Mirabilis papers. In particular, he formulates the theory of special relativity and states the law of mass-energy conservation: E = mc². He also explains the photoelectric effect by quantization and mathematically analyzes Brownian motion. Because of this, 1905 is said to be the miraculous year for physics, and its 100th anniversary was declared the World Year of Physics.
• Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann discovers the bacterium that is responsible for syphilis—a spiral-shaped spirochete called Treponema pallidum.
• The German Equestrian Federation is founded.

  Incumbents

National level

• Kaiser – Wilhelm II
• Chancellor – Bernhard von Bülow

  State level

Kingdoms

• King of Bavaria – Otto of Bavaria
• King of Prussia – Kaiser Wilhelm II
• King of Saxony – Frederick Augustus III 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 IV
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg–Strelitz – Adolphus Frederick V
• Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Frederick Augustus II
• Grand Duke of Saxe–Weimar–Eisenach – William Ernest

  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 with Leopold, Count of Lippe–Biesterfeld as regent, to 25 October, then Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe
• Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXIV, 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 II, 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 – Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe–Coburg and Gotha
• Duke of Saxe–Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe–Meiningen

  Colonial Governors

• Cameroon – Otto Gleim ' ' to 31 January, then Jesko von Puttkamer '
• Kiaochow – Oskar von Truppel
• German East Africa – Gustav Adolf von Götzen
• German New Guinea – Albert Hahl '
• German Samoa – Wilhelm Solf
• German South–West Africa – Theodor Leutwein to 19 August, then Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha to November, then Friedrich von Lindequist
• Togoland – Waldemar Horn to 27 July, then Johann Nepomuk Graf Zech auf Neuhofen

  Births

• 20 January – Kurt Waitzmann, German actor
• 3 February – Hermann Henselmann, German architect
• 16 February – Karl Frankenstein, German–born Israeli professor
• 15 March – Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, aristocrat, lawyer and member of July 20 plot
• 15 March – Nikolaus von Halem, German lawyer and businessman
• 16 March – Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress
• 23 March – Lale Andersen, German singer
• 24 March – Karl John, German actor
• 25 March – Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, German Army colonel and a resistance fighter
• 27 March – Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, officer in the German Army. He attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing on 21 March 1943;
• 8 April – Arnulf Klett, German lawyer and politician
• 3 May – Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, German nobleman
• 6 May – Kurt Schumacher, German sculptor
• 13 May:
• * Theodor Koch, German engineer and weapons manufacturer
• * Walter Richter, German actor
• 3 July – Max Herz, German businessman
• 2 August:
• * Alexander Golling, German actor
• * Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer
• 15 August – Manfred von Brauchitsch, German racing driver
• 19 September – Theodor Blank, German politician
• 27 September – Ernst Baier, German figure skater
• 1 October – Alfons Goppel, German politician
• 6 October – Wolfgang Liebeneiner, German actor and film director
• 9 November – Erika Mann, German actress and writer
• 10 December – Heinrich Amersdorffer, German painter and printmaker
• 18 December – Hans Bernd von Haeften, German jurist

  Deaths

• 14 January – Ernst Abbe, German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer
• 1 February – Oswald Achenbach, German painter
• 2 February – Robert Eitner, German musicologist, researcher and bibliographer
• 9 February – Adolph Menzel, German painter
• 30 March – Georg Meissner, German anatomist and physiologist
• 14 April – Otto Wilhelm von Struve, German-Estonian astronom
• 17 April – Karl Gutbrod, German judge
• 30 May – Albert Ellmenreich, German actor
• 15 June – Carl Wernicke, German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist
• 18 June – Hermann Lingg, German poet
• 4 August – Walther Flemming, German biologist
• 6 October – Ferdinand von Richthofen German geographer and scientist
• 15 November – Max Spohr, German publisher
• 17 November – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, German nobleman
• 15 December – Friedrich von Spiegel, German orientalist