1873 in Germany

Incumbents

National level

• Emperor – William I
• Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

State level

Kingdoms

• King of Bavaria – Ludwig II
• King of Prussia – William I
• King of Saxony – John to 29 October, then Albert
• King of Württemberg – Charles

Grand Duchies

• Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
• Grand Duke of Hesse – Louis III
• 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 – Günther Friedrich Karl II, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Principality of Lippe – Leopold III, 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 – Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Events

• 16 September – German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity for the Franco-Prussian War.
• 22 October – Bismarck negotiates the League of the Three Emperors, ensuring an alliance between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire.
• Kattowitz is created as a district of Prussia.

Undated

• German company Hochtief is founded.

Architecture

• 2 September – Berlin Victory Column inaugurated to celebrate the Second Schleswig War.

Arts

Music

• Johannes Brahms premieres his String Quartet No. 1, Variations on a Theme by Haydn.

Commerce

• The Baden gulden, the Bavarian gulden, the Bremen thaler, the Hamburg mark, the Hesse-Kassel vereinsthaler, the Mecklenburg vereinsthaler, the Prussian vereinsthaler, the Saxon vereinsthaler, the South German gulden and the Württemberg gulden are all abolished and replaced with the new single currency of the German Empire, the German gold mark.

Education

• Establishment of the University of the Arts Bremen.
• German language university, the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule, is established in Cairo, Egypt.
• Verein für Socialpolitik is established.

Science

• Hermann von Helmholtz is awarded the Copley Medal "for his researches in physics and physiology".
• 31 May – Priam's Treasure was discovered by classical archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.

Transport

• Frankfurt South station is opened.
• The armoured frigate SMS Preußen is launched.

Births

• 6 January – Karl Straube, German organist
• 13 January – Walther Bensemann, Jewish-German association football pioneer
• 24 January – Hermann Haupt, German entomologist
• 31 January – Melitta Bentz, German entrepreneur

• 2 February – Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat and Nazi party chancellor
• 26 February – Rudolf Kanzler, German politician and paramilitary leader

• 10 March
• * Walter Friedländer, German art historian
• * Jakob Wassermann, Jewish-German novelist
• 17 March – Wilhelm Kreis, German architect
• 19 March – Max Reger, German composer, pianist, conductor, writer and professor at the Leipzig Conservatory
• 23 March – Richard Kolkwitz, German botanist

• 7 April – Friedrich von Oppeln-Bronikowski, German writer
• 27 April – Robert Wiene, German filmmaker

• 3 May – Richard von Kühlmann, German diplomat
• 14 May – Theodor von der Pfordten, Nazi paramilitary
• 21 May – Hans Berger, German neurologist
• 23 May – Leo Baeck, German rabbi
• 26 May – Hans Ludendorff, German astronomer

• 3 June – Otto Loewi, German pharmacologist and psychobiologist
• 7 June – Franz Weidenreich, Jewish-German anatomist
• 8 June – Franz Justus Rarkowski, German bishop of Roman-Catholic Church
• 16 June – Karl von Müller, German Imperial Navy captain
• 27 June – Jacob Moritz Blumberg, Jewish-German, surgeon
• 29 June – Leo Frobenius, German ethnologist
• 30 June – Friedrich Karl Georg Fedde, German botanist
• 30 June – Johannes Meisenheimer, German zoologist

• 2 July – Heinrich Hetsch, German physician

• 6 August – Otto von Feldmann, German Imperial Army officer and politician
• 20 August – Eugen Schmalenbach, German economist

• 2 September – Walter Lenck, German sculptor, painter, architect, cellist and composer
• 15 September – Otto Wels, German politician
• 29 September – Carl Wilhelm Erich Zimmer, German zoologist

• 5 October – Otto Falckenberg, German theatre director and writer
• 9 October – Karl Schwarzschild, German physicist
• 10 October – Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, German nobleman, explorer and politician

• 9 November – Fritz Thyssen, German industrialist
• 23 November – Otto Berg, German scientist
• 27 December – Rudolf Höber, German-American physician
• 28 December – Gotthard Fliegel, German geographer

Deaths

• 2 February – Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, German noblewoman
• 9 February – Julius Fürst, Jewish-German orientalist
• 23 February – Jakob Freiherr von Hartmann, Bavarian general

• 10 March – Pauline Therese of Württemberg, Queen consort of Württemberg
• 26 March – Albrecht von Bernstorff, Prussian politician

• 18 April – Justus von Liebig, German chemist
• 24 April – Prince Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian nobleman

• 12 May – Karl von Bodelschwingh-Velmede, German politician

• 6 June – Adalbert of Prussia, German prince
• 14 June – Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian
• 21 June – Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, German Protestant theologian
• 29 June – Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter, German novelist

• 8 July – Franz Xaver Winterhalter, German painter

• 13 August – Fritz Bamberger (painter), Germany painter
• 18 August – Charles II, Duke of Brunswick, German nobleman

• 22 September – August Breithaupt, German mineralogist

• 10 October – Hermann Kurz, German writer and poet
• 13 October – Emil von Sydow, German geographer
• 29 October – John of Saxony, King of Saxony

• 26 November – Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann, German mineralogist
• 14 December – Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, Queen consort of Prussia