1881 in Germany

Events from the year 1881 in Germany.

National level

 * Kaiser – William I
 * Chancellor – Otto von Bismarck

Kingdoms

 * King of Bavaria – Ludwig II
 * King of Prussia – William I
 * King of Saxony – Albert
 * King of Württemberg – Charles

Grand Duchies

 * Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
 * Grand Duke of Hesse – Louis IV
 * 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 – Charles Gonthier, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
 * Principality of Lippe – Woldemar, 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 – Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
 * Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Events

 * 31 March – last Anti-Socicalist Law is passed by the German Reichstag.
 * 16 May – Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, world's first electric tramway, starts in Berlin.
 * 25 September – in Meckesheim physician Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer performs the first modern Caesarean section, the transverse incision technique to minimise bleeding.
 * 27 October – German federal election, 1881

Births

 * 1 January – Hermann Schmitz, German industrialist (died 1960)
 * 4 January – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (died 1919)
 * 17 January – Karl Scharnagl, German politician (died 1963)
 * 16 February – Hans Vogel, German politician (died 1945)
 * 16 February – Hans Meiser, German Protestant theologian, pastor and first 'Landesbischof' of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (died 1956)
 * 23 March – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist (died 1965)
 * 1 April – Wilhelm Sollmann, German journalist and politician (died 1951)
 * 3 April – Hans Kniep, German botanist (died 1930)
 * 19 April – Ernst Schneppenhorst, German politician (died 1945)
 * 2 May – Ernst Legal, German actor (died 1955)
 * 18 May – Erwin Madelung, German mathematician (died 1972)
 * 30 May – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (died 1968)
 * 31 May – Heinrich Burger, German figure skater (died 1942)
 * 9 June – Felix von Luckner, German author, sailor and nobleman (died 1966)
 * 24 June – Heinz Tietjen, German conductor (died 1967)
 * 29 June – Gottlob Walz, German diver (died 1943)
 * 27 July – Hans Fischer, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1945)
 * 28 July – Günther Quandt, German industrialist (died 1954)
 * 8 August – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (died 1954)
 * 26 August – Franz Gürtner, German jurist and politician (died 1941)
 * 4 October – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (died 1948)
 * 9 October – Friedrich Syrup, German politician (died 1945)
 * 12 November – Ulrich von Hassell, German diplomat (died 1944)
 * 12 November – Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (died 1954)
 * 2 December – Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist (died 1956)
 * 4 December – Erwin von Witzleben, German officer (died 1944)
 * 15 December – Eugen Bolz, German politician (died 1945)
 * 25 December – Christian Hülsmeyer, German inventor, physicist and entrepreneur (died 1957)
 * 31 December – Max Pechstein, German painter (died 1955)

Deaths

 * 7 April – Johann Hinrich Wichern, German religious leader (born 1808)
 * 15 May – Franz von Dingelstedt, German poet and dramatist (born 1814)
 * 2 June – Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg, German diplomat (born 1815)
 * 23 June – Matthias Jakob Schleiden, German botanist (born 1804)
 * 10 July – Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (born 1812)
 * 11 October – Friedrich Hitzig, German architect (born 1811)