1796 in Germany
Events from the year 1796 in Germany.
Incumbents
Holy Roman Empire
- Francis II
Important Electors
- Bavaria- Charles I
- Saxony- Frederick Augustus I
Kingdoms
- Kingdom of Prussia
- * Monarch – Frederick William II
Grand Duchies
- Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- * Frederick Francis I–
- Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- * Charles II
- Grand Duke of Oldenburg
- * Wilhelm Due to mental illness, Wilhelm was duke in name only, with his cousin Peter, Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, acting as regent throughout his entire reign.
- * Peter I
- Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar
- * Karl August Raised to grand duchy in 1809
Principalities
- Schaumburg-Lippe
- * George William
- Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
- * Frederick II, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt|Louis Frederick II]
- Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
- * Günther Friedrich Karl I
- Principality of Reuss-Greiz
- * Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss of Greiz
- Waldeck and Pyrmont
- * Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont|Friedrich Karl August]
Duchies
- Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
- * Leopold III
- Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
- * Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen – Frederick
- Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
- * Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
- Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
- * Georg I
- Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
- * Frederick Charles Louis
- Duke of Württemberg
- * Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg
Other
- Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
- * Louis I
Events
7 August: Württemberg cedes its property on the left bank of the Rhine, Mömpelgard, to France in the Peace of Paris in exchange for the promise of later compensation.
25 August: In a separate peace between Sigismund von Reitzenstein on behalf of the Margraviate of Baden and France, Baden has to cede its possessions on the left bank of the Rhine to France and make high reparation payments. In addition, the escaped Margrave Karl Friedrich is supposed to renounce his status as imperial prince.
2 September: Under pressure from its citizens, after experiencing French occupation in the War of the First Coalition, the imperial city of Nuremberg concludes a treaty that will place the city under Prussian sovereignty. Confirmation by the Prussian government did not materialize later due to foreign policy considerations and the necessary assumption of the Nuremberg debt burden.
3 September: In the First Coalition War, Archduke Charles of Austria and his army defeat France's troops under the command of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in the Battle of Würzburg. The second defeat after the previous Battle of Amberg on 24 August caused Jourdan to resign his command.
Ludwig van Beethoven dedicates his three piano sonatas Piano Sonata No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 2 and Piano Sonata No. 3 to his teacher Joseph Haydn.
Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths publishes the work Gymnastik für die Jugend , in which, among other things, rules for the game of baseball can be found for the first time.
Births
January
1 January- Moritz Hermann Eduard Meier, German philologist
- Peter Nead, German Baptist Brethren theologian
- Carl Friedrich Alexander Hartmann, German metallurgist
- Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel, German princess and painter
- Karl Ernst Claus, Baltic-German chemist, naturalist
- Peter Joseph Elvenich, German theologian and philosopher
- Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann, German astronomer
February
- Prince George Bernhard of Anhalt-Dessau, German prince
- Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, German musicologist
March
8 March- Nicolaus von Weis, German bishop
- Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx, German physician
13 March
- Peter van Bohlen, German orientalist and indologist
23 March
- Julius Friedrich Heinrich Abegg, German criminologist
- Theodor Brüggemann, German politician, jurist and educationist
- Hermann Hupfeld, German theologian
April
- Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann, German academic
- Johann Baptist Friedreich, German forensic pathologist and psychiatrist
- Karl Immermann, German writer
- Johann F. C. Hessel, German scientist
- Princess Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony, German princess
May
- Karl Heinrich Frotscher, German classical philologist
- Johann Adam Möhler, German theologian
- Karl Heinrich Mertens, German botanist and naturalist
- Joseph Meyer, German publisher
- August Pauly, German classical scholar
- Franz Mone, German historian
- Johann Heinrich Richartz, German merchant
- Vince Stingl, Hungarian-German porcelain manufacturer
- Friedrich Diercks, first German emigrant in Texas
- Wilhelm Hemprich, German naturalist and explorer
- Ernst Mayer, German sculptor
- Paul Camille von Denis, German businessman
- Michael Thonet, German-Austrian cabinet maker
12 July
- Johann Joseph Schmeller, German painter
- Gustav Seyffarth, German-American Egyptologist
- Karl Friedrich Vollrath Hoffmann, German author
- Karl Follen, German poet, writer and revolutionary
- Peter Joseph Lenné, German landscape architect
- Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist and meteorologist
- Friedrich Julius Richelot, German mathematician
- Peter von Hess, German painter
- Karl Friedrich Neumann, German orientalist
6 August
- Christian Friedrich Schönbein, German-Swiss chemist
- Johann Friedrich Naue, German musician
- Ferdinand Kürnberger, German writer
13 August
- Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, German historian
- Jacob Acontius, German philosopher and theologian
- Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine, German prince
- Wilhelm von Humboldt, German statesman, philosopher, linguist, and educational reformer
- Karl Ludwig Hencke, German astronomer
- Wilhelm Pape, German lexicographer
- Karl von Vogelsang, Austrian-German journalist and politician
13 September – Johann Georg Wagler, German naturalist
14 September – Theodor Kliefoth, German Lutheran theologian
15 September
- Johann Philipp Reis, German inventor and scientist
22 September
- Wilhelm Henzen, German archaeologist
- Friedrich Wilhelm Otto, German philologist
- Karl Wilhelm Walch, German theologian
- Johann Christian Reinhart, German painter
- Karl Friedrich Wunder, German photographer
- Johann Georg Eccarius, German tailor and trade unionist
- Johann Adam Hesse, German painter
9 October – Emil Otto Grundmann, German-American painter
13 October
- Karl Gutzkow, German writer
17 October – Wilhelm von Kaulbach, German painter
18 October
- Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, German physicist
October
4 October- August Wilhelm Bach, German composer
- Franz Gerhard Eschweiler, German botanist
- August Ahlborn, German painter
- Karl Spindler, German writer
- Carl Wagner, German painter known for romantic landscape painting
- August von Platen-Hallermünde, German poet
- Gottfried Osann, German chemist and physicist
- Charles Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg, German politician
- Ottilie von Goethe, German writer, editor
November
- Friedrich Lennig, German writer
- Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach, German jurist
- Friederike Funk, German soprano
- Christian Lorenz Sommer, German classical philologist
- Andreas von Ettingshausen, German mathematician, physicist
- Carl Loewe, German composer
December
29 December
- Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist
- Ferdinand von Wrangel, Baltic German explorer and Russian admiral
Deaths
January–March
- 28 February - Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, German violinist
- 30 March - Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt
April–June
- 9 April - Frederick Albert, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, German prince of the House of Ascania
- 6 May - Adolph Freiherr Knigge, German writer, Freemason
- 12 May - Johann Uz, German poet
- 17 May - Gotthard Friedrich Stender, Baltic-German Lutheran priest who played an outstanding role in Latvia's history of culture
- 16 June
- * Saxony, Duke of Courland">Kingdom of Saxony">Saxony, Duke of Courland, German prince from the House of Wettin and Duke of Courland
- 25 June - Johann Philipp Siebenkees, German philosopher
July–September
- 11 September - Anna Barbara Gignoux, German industrialist
October–December
- 16 December - Johann Daniel Titius, German astronomer, professor at Wittenberg