1902 in Germany

← 1901 1900 1899 1902 in Germany → 1903 1904 1905
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	Other events of 1902 History of Germany  • Timeline  • Years

Events in the year 1902 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

• Kaiser – Wilhelm II
• Chancellor – Bernhard von Bülow

State level

Kingdoms

• King of Bavaria – Otto of Bavaria
• King of Prussia – Kaiser Wilhelm II
• King of Saxony – Albert of Saxony to 19 June, then George of Saxony
• King of Württemberg – William II of Württemberg

Grand Duchies

• Grand Duke of Baden – Frederick I
• Grand Duke of Hesse – Ernest Louis
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – Frederick Francis IV
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Frederick William
• Grand Duke of Oldenburg – Frederick Augustus II
• Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – William Ernest

Principalities

• Schaumburg-Lippe – George, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
• Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – Günther Victor, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
• Schwarzburg-Sondershausen – Karl Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Principality of Lippe – Alexander, Prince of Lippe (with Ernest II, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld as regent)
• Reuss Elder Line – Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz to 19 April, then Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz (with Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line as regent)
• Reuss Younger Line – Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line
• Waldeck and Pyrmont – Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Duchies

• Duke of Anhalt – Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
• Duke of Brunswick – Prince Albert of Prussia (regent)
• Duke of Saxe-Altenburg – Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
• Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• Duke of Saxe-Meiningen – Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Colonial Governors

• Cameroon (Kamerun) – Jesko von Puttkamer (7th term) to 3 February, then … Plehn (acting governor) to 2 October, then again Jesko von Puttkamer (8th term)
• Kiaochow (Kiautschou) – Oskar von Truppel
• German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika) – Gustav Adolf von Götzen
• German New Guinea (Deutsch-Neuguinea) – Albert Hahl (acting governor to 10 November) (2nd term)
• German Samoa (Deutsch-Samoa) – Wilhelm Solf
• German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) – Theodor Leutwein
• Togoland – August Köhler to 20 January, then vacant to 1 December, then Waldemar Horn

Events

• December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis, in which Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

Date unknown

• The Ostwald process is developed and patented by German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald
• Hermann Emil Fischer and Joseph von Mering discover that barbitone (barbital or Veronal) is an effective hypnotic agent. It becomes the first commercially marketed barbiturate, being used as a treatment for insomnia from 1903.

Births

• 5 February:
  • Paul Nevermann, German politician (died 1979)
  • Hilde Benjamin, German judge and politician (died 1989)
• 7 March – Heinz Rühmann, German actor (died 1994)
• 21 March – Gustav Fröhlich, German actor (died 1987)
• 22 March – Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, German nobleman (died 1945)
• 3 April – Reinhard Gehlen, German general and intelligence officer (died 1979)
• 6 May - Max Ophüls, German film director (died 1957)
• 23 May – Mark Lothar, German composer (died 1985)
• 2 August – Moshe Rudolf Bloch German-born Israeli scientist (died 1985)
• 13 August – Felix Wankel, German engineer (died 1988)
• 10 July – Kurt Alder, German chemist (died 1958)
• 12 August – Franz Etzel, German politician (died 1970)
• 19 August – Burkhart Waldecker, German explorer (died 1964)
• 22 August – Leni Riefenstahl, German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress and dancer. (died 2003)
• 5 September – Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, German government official and a member of the German Resistance in the 20 July Plot (died 1944)
• 19 September – Max Nosseck, German film director (died 1972)
• 30 September – Siegmund George Warburg, German-British banker (died 1982)
• 21 October – Kurt Scharf, German clergyman and bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (died 1990)
• 1 November – Eugen Jochum, German conductor (died 1987)
• 4 November – Otto Bayer, German chemist (died 1982)
• 22 November – Moshe Unna, German-born Israeli politician (died 1989)
• 21 December – Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld, German landowner, officer, and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime (died 1944)

Deaths

• 7 January – Wilhelm Hertz, German writer (born 1835)
• 1 February – Emil Hünten, German painter (born 1827)
• 24 February - August Eisenlohr, German egyptologist (born 1832)
• 11 March – Friedrich Engelhorn, German industrialist and founder of BASF (born 1821)
• 19 April
  • Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss (Reuss Elder Line) of Greiz (born 1846)
  • Hans von Pechmann, German chemist (born 1850)
• 19 June – Albert, King of Saxony, (born 1828)
• 29 July - Joseph Kürschner, German editor and publisher (born 1853)
• 7 August – Rudolf von Bennigsen, German politician (born 1824)
• 27 August – Bruno Hassenstein, German cartographer (born 1839)
• 5 September – Rudolf Virchow, German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician (born 1821)
• 7 September – Franz Wüllner, German composer and conductor (born 1832)
• 22 October - Wilhelm Böckmann, German architect (born 1832)
• 17 November – Leonard Landois, German physiologist (born 1837)
• 22 November – Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German steel manufacturer (born 1854)