Events in the year 1918 in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Incumbents

National level

Head of State

Kaiser Kaiser ( ; ) is the title historically used by German and Austrian emperors. In German, the title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (). In English, the word ''kaiser'' is mainly applied to the emperors ...

–

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...

, abdicated 9 November * Republic (from 9 November) – vacant

Head of Government

* Chancellor (Imperial) - Georg von Hertling to 30 September, then from 3 October Prince Maximilian of Baden to 9 November * Republic – from 9 November

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until ...

, ''"Head of Government"''

State level

Kingdoms

* King of Bavaria – Ludwig III abdicated 7 November * King of Prussia – Wilhelm II, abdicated 9 November * King of Saxony – Frederick Augustus III, abdicated 13 November *

King of Württemberg King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

– William II, abdicated 30 November

Grand Duchies

* Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick II, abdicated 22 November * Grand Duke of Hesse – Ernest Louis, abdicated 9 November * Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin - Frederick Francis IV, abdicated 14 November * Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Adolphus Frederick VI, died 23 November, thereafter vacant * Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Frederick Augustus II, abdicated 11 November * Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – William Ernest, abdicated 9 November

Principalities

* Schaumburg-Lippe – Adolf II, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, abdicated 15 November *

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany, with its capital at Rudolstadt. History Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of House of Schwarzburg, Schwarzburg dy ...

– Günther Victor, Prince of Schwarzburg, abdicated 22 November *

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a small principality in Germany, in the present day state of Thuringia, with its capital at Sondershausen. History Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a county (earldom) until 1697. In that year, it became a principal ...

– Günther Victor, Prince of Schwarzburg, abdicated 22 November *

Principality of Lippe Lippe (later Lippe-Detmold and then again Lippe) was a state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest. It originated as a state during the Holy Roman Empire, an ...

–

Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe (''Leopold Julius Bernhard Adalbert Otto Karl Gustav''; 30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) was the final sovereign of the Principality of Lippe in northwestern Germany from 1905 until his abdication in 1918. Prior t ...

, abdicated 12 November * Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz (with Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line, as regent), abdicated November * Reuss Younger Line – Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line, abdicated November * Waldeck and Pyrmont – Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, abdicated 13 November

Duchies

* Duke of Anhalt – Frederick II, Duke of Anhalt to 21 April, then Eduard, Duke of Anhalt to 13 September, then Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt (with Prince Aribert of Anhalt regent), abdicated 12 November * Duke of Brunswick – Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, abdicated 8 November * Duke of Saxe-Altenburg – Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, abdicated 13 November * Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, abdicated 14 November *

Duke of Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen ( ; ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine duchies, Ernestine line of the House of Wettin, located in the southwest of the present-day Germany, German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ern ...

– Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, abdicated 10 November

Colonial Governor

* German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika) – Heinrich Schnee to 14 November, although most of territory under Allied occupation.

Events

February

* Date unknown - Arthur Scherbius applies to

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

the

Enigma machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...

October

* Kaiser

Wilhelm II of Germany Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...

appoints Max von Baden

Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal Cabinet of Germany, government of Germany. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Government of Germany, ...

. ** King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates in the wake of the Bulgarian military collapse in WWI. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III. * 4 October **

forms a new more liberal government to sue for peace.

November

* 3 November ** German Revolution: Sailors in the German fleet at

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

mutiny, and throughout northern

soldiers and workers begin to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian

soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

model. * 9 November ** Kaiser

abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands. ** Proclamation of German Republic by Philipp Scheidemann in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

on the Reichstag balcony. Armisticetrain

* 11 November ** End of WWI and Armistice with Germany (Compiègne): Germany signs an

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

agreement with the Allies between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM in Marshal Foch's railroad car in Compiègne Forest in France. It becomes official on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Born

* 10 January - Harry Merkel, German racing driver (died

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

) * 1 March - Franz Becker, German footballer (died

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

) * 3 March - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (died

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

) * 20 March -

Bernd Alois Zimmermann Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 – 10 August 1970) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera ''Die Soldaten'', which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. Hi ...

, German composer (died

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

) * 28 April - Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, German journalist (died

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

) * 24 May - Katharina Szelinski-Singer, German sculptor (died

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

) * 1 August -

Artur Brauner Artur "Atze" Brauner (born Abraham Brauner; 1 August 1918 – 7 July 2019) was a German film producer and entrepreneur of Polish origin. He produced more than 300 films from 1946. Life and career He was born the oldest son of a Jewish family ...

, German film producer (died

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

) * 4 August - Claus Holm, German actor (died 1996) *

22 September Events Pre-1600 * 904 – The warlord Zhu Quanzhong kills Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, Emperor Zhaozong, the penultimate emperor of the Tang dynasty, after seizing control of the imperial government. *1236 – The Samogitians defeat the L ...

– Hans Scholl, German White Rose resistance member (died 1943 in Germany, 1943) * 10 October - Werner Dollinger, German politician (died 2008 in Germany, 2008) * 20 October - Werner Maihofer, German jurist and politician (died 2009 in Germany, 2009) * 26 October - Dietrich von Bothmer, German art historian (died 2009 in Germany, 2009) * 5 November - Gisela Arendt, German swimmer (died 1969 in Germany, 1969) * 8 November - Hermann Zapf, German typeface designer and calligrapher (died 2015 in Germany, 2015) * 10 November – Ernst Otto Fischer, chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 2007 in Germany, 2007) * 23 December – Helmut Schmidt, German politician (died 2015 in Germany, 2015)

Deaths

January

* 6 January – Georg Cantor, German mathematician (born 1845 in Russia, 1845) * 7 January – Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (born 1844 in Germany, 1844) * 9 January – Max Ritter von Müller, German World War I fighter ace (killed in action) (born 1887 in Germany, 1887) * 10 January – August Oetker, German entrepreneur (born 1862 in Germany, 1862) * 21 January – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (born 1853 in Germany, 1853)

February

* 23 February – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, nobleman (born 1882 in Germany, 1882)

March

* 9 March – Frank Wedekind, German playwright (born 1864 in Germany, 1864) * 10 March ** Hans-Joachim Buddecke, German flying ace (killed in action) (born 1890 in Germany, 1890) ** Eugen von Zimmerer, German prosecutor, attorney and (born 1843 in Germany, 1843) * 15 March – Adolf Ritter von Tutschek, German fighter ace (killed in action) (born 1891 in Germany, 1891) * 17 March – Hans Bethge (aviator), Hans Bethge, German World War I flying ace (born 1890 in Germany, 1890) * 30 March – Richard Beitzen, German World War I naval officer (born 1882 in Germany, 1882)

April

* 4 April – Hermann Cohen, German philosopher (born 1842 in Germany, 1842) * 20 April – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics (born 1850 in Germany, 1850) * 21 April ** Friedrich II, Duke of Anhalt (born 1856 in Germany, 1856) ** Manfred von Richthofen, German fighter pilot (born 1892 in Germany, 1892) * 27 April – Oscar Troplowitz, German pharmacist and entrepreneur (born 1863 in Germany, 1863)

May

* 14 May - Max Wilms, German surgeon and physician (born 1867 in Germany, 1867) * 28 May - Richard Assmann, German meteorologist and physician (born 1845 in Germany, 1845)

June

* 24 June - Julius Kollmann, German anatomist and zoologist (born 1834 in Germany, 1834)

July

* 7 July - Arno Bieberstein, German swimmer (born 1884 in Germany, 1884) * 9 July – Hans am Ende, German Impressionist painter (born 1864 in Germany, 1864)

August

* 22 August – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist and psychiatrist (born 1868 in Germany, 1868) * 30 August – Wilhelm Kühne (aviator), Wilhelm Kühne, German World War I flying ace (born 1888 in Germany, 1888)

September

* 10 September - Carl Peters, German colonial ruler, explorer, politician and author (born 1856 in Germany, 1856) * 13 September – Eduard, Duke of Anhalt, nobleman (born 1861 in Germany, 1861). * 23 September - Georg Theodor August Gaffky, German bacteriologist (born 1850 in Germany, 1850) * 28 September - Georg Simmel, German philosopher and sociologist (born 1858 in Germany, 1858)

October

* 9 October - Hanns Braun, German athlete (born 1886 in Germany, 1886) * 18 October – Fritz Otto Brenert, German World War I flying ace (born 1893 in Germany, 1893) * 26 October – Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay, German World War I flying ace (born 1898 in Germany, 1898)

November

* 4 November - Hans Graf von Schwerin-Löwitz, German politician (born 1847 in Germany, 1847) * 5 November: ** Wolfgang Zenker, German World War I naval officer (born 1898 in Germany, 1898) ** Bruno Heinemann, German World War I naval officer (born 1880 in Germany, 1880) * 9 November - Albert Ballin, German shipping magnate (born 1857 in Germany, 1857) * 23 November - Fritz von Below, German general (born 1853 in Germany, 1853) * 22 December – Hermann Theodor Simon, German physicist (born 1870 in Germany, 1870)

References

1918 in Germany, Years of the 20th century in Germany 1918 by country, Germany 1918 in Europe, Germany {{Europe-year-stub