1803 in Germany

Incumbents

Holy Roman Empire

• Francis II

Important Electors

Kingdoms

• * Monarch – Frederick William III

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

• * George William Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• * Louis Frederick II Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• * Günther Friedrich Karl I Principality of Lippe
• * Leopold II Principality of Reuss-Greiz
• * Heinrich XIII
• Waldeck and Pyrmont
• * Friedrich Karl August

Duchies

• Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
• * Leopold III Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
• * Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen - FrederickDuke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
• * Francis Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
• * Bernhard II Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
• * Frederick Charles Louis

Other

• * Louis I

Events

• 25 February – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.
• 30 May – Following Britain's declaration of war on France, Édouard Mortier leads 12,000 troops in an Invasion of Hanover
• 5 July – The convention of Artlenburg confirms the French occupation of Hanover.

Births

January–June

• 15 February
• * John Sutter, pioneer
• * Karl Friedrich Schimper, botanist, naturalist and poet
• 26 February – Arnold Adolph Berthold, physiologist and zoologist
• 17 March Carl Jacob Löwig, chemist
• 12 May – Justus von Liebig, chemist

July–December

• 8 July – Julius Mosen, poet
• 17 July – Johann Samuel Eduard d'Alton, anatomist
• 19 July – Wolfgang Franz von Kobell, mineralogist and writer
• 5 October – Friedrich Bernhard Westphal, painter
• 29 November – Gottfried Semper, architect
• 26 September – Adrian Ludwig Richter, German painter
• 6 October – Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist and meteorologist
• 31 December – Johann Carl Fuhlrott, German paleoanthropologist

Deaths

January–June

• 18 February – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, poet
• 14 March – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, poet

July–December

• 18 December – Johann Gottfried Herder, philosopher and writer