1917 in Germany

Events in the year 1917 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

Emperor – Wilhelm II
Chancellor – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to 13 July, then Georg Michaelis to 31 October, then from 1 November Georg von Hertling

State level

Kingdoms

Grand Duchies

Principalities

Duchies

Colonial Governor

German East Africa – Albert Heinrich Schnee, although much of territory under Allied occupation.

Events

January/February – Turnip Winter
19 January – Zimmermann Telegram
2 February - Atlantic [U-boat campaign of World War I|Atlantic U-boat Campaign]: Germany announces its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare, rescinding the 'Sussex Pledge'.
3 February - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
13 February – Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in Munich is officially founded.
24 February - Walter Hines Page, United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, is shown the intercepted Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico, if Mexico will take sides with Germany when the United States declares war on Germany.
13 March – The German Leather Museum in Offenbach am Main is opened by Hugo Eberhardt.
2 April – United States declaration of war on Germany (1917)
1 October – The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik is officially founded in Berlin.
25 October – Hertling cabinet
18 December – German filmcompany UFA GmbH is founded in Berlin.
22 December – Deutsches Institut für Normung is founded.

Undated

German company Viessmann is founded.
German company Leoni AG is founded.

Births

5 January – Wieland Wagner, German opera director
22 January – Casimir Johannes Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, German politician.
18 February – Gertraud Winkelvoss, German neo-Nazi politician
24 March – Krafft Arnold Ehricke, German rocket-propulsion engineer and advocate for space colonization
9 April – Johannes Bobrowski, German poet and writer
16 May – Ulrich Matschoss, German actor
2 June – Heinz Sielmann, German zoologist, biologist and filmmaker
29 July – Rochus Misch, German bodyguard of Adolf Hitler
6 September – Philipp von Boeselager, German resistance fighter
12 September – Jürgen Seydel, German karateka
15 December
* Karl-Günther von Hase, German diplomat and journalist
* Hilde Zadek, German operatic soprano
21 December – Heinrich Böll, German writer
23 December – Armin Zimmermann, German admiral

Deaths

23 January – Jesko von Puttkamer, German nobleman and colonial military chief
16 February – August Rauber, German anatomist
8 March – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and aircraft manufacturer
14 March – Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, Prussian princess
17 March – Franz Brentano, German philosopher, psychologist, and priest
21 March – Alfred Einhorn, German chemist
31 March – Emil von Behring, German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
6 April:
*Hans Berr, soldier turned World War I flying ace
*Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia (1893–1917), German Prussian King
14 April – Hartmuth Baldamus, German World War I flying ace
21 April – Bernd von Arnim, German naval officer
24 April – Oscar Blumenthal, German playwright
17 June – Karl Zilgas, German football player
27 June – Karl Allmenröder, German World War I flying ace
27 June - Gustav von Schmoller, German economist
3 August - Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician
13 August – Eduard Buchner, German chemist and zymologist
15 August – Gustav Körte, German archaeologist
16 August – Wilhelm Morgner, German painter
20 August – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist
5 September – Walther Schwieger, German U-boat commander of U-20, which sank the Lusitania
15 September – Kurt Wolff, German aviator
28 September – Kurt Wissemann, German World War I flying ace
25 October:
* Maximilian Bayer, German founder of Scouting in Germany
* Hans Olde, German painter
15 November – Hans Ritter von Adam, German flying ace in World War I
20 November – Ludwig Sütterlin, German graphic artist