1873 in Germany

January

• 6 January – Karl Straube, German organist (died 1950)
• 13 January – Walther Bensemann, Jewish-German association football pioneer (died 1934)
• 24 January – Hermann Haupt, German entomologist (died 1959)
• 31 January – Melitta Bentz, German entrepreneur (died 1950)

February

• 2 February – Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat and Nazi party chancellor (died 1956)
• 26 February – Rudolf Kanzler, German politician and paramilitary leader (died 1956)

March

• 10 March
  • Walter Friedländer, German art historian (died 1966)
  • Jakob Wassermann, Jewish-German novelist (died 1934)
• 17 March – Wilhelm Kreis, German architect (died 1955)
• 19 March – Max Reger, German composer, pianist, conductor, writer and professor at the Leipzig Conservatory (died 1916)
• 23 March – Richard Kolkwitz, German botanist (died 1956)

April

• 7 April – Friedrich von Oppeln-Bronikowski, German writer (died 1936)
• 27 April – Robert Wiene, German filmmaker (died 1938)

May

• 3 May – Richard von Kühlmann, German diplomat (died 1948)
• 14 May – Theodor von der Pfordten, Nazi paramilitary (died 1923)
• 21 May – Hans Berger, German neurologist (died 1941)
• 23 May – Leo Baeck, German rabbi (died 1956)
• 26 May – Hans Ludendorff, German astronomer (died 1941)

June

• 3 June – Otto Loewi, German pharmacologist and psychobiologist (died 1961)
• 7 June – Franz Weidenreich, Jewish-German anatomist (died 1948)
• 8 June – Franz Justus Rarkowski, German bishop of Roman-Catholic Church (died 1950)
• 16 June – Karl von Müller, German Imperial Navy captain (died 1923)
• 27 June – Jacob Moritz Blumberg, Jewish-German, surgeon (died 1955)
• 29 June – Leo Frobenius, German ethnologist (died 1938)
• 30 June – Friedrich Karl Georg Fedde, German botanist (died 1942)
• 30 June – Johannes Meisenheimer, German zoologist (died 1933)

July

• 2 July – Heinrich Hetsch, German physician (died 1947)

August

• 6 August – Otto von Feldmann, German Imperial Army officer and politician (died 1945)
• 20 August – Eugen Schmalenbach, German economist (died 1955)

September

• 15 September – Otto Wels, German politician (died 1939)
• 29 September – Carl Wilhelm Erich Zimmer, German zoologist (died 1950)

October

• 5 October – Otto Falckenberg, German theatre director and writer (died 1947)
• 9 October – Karl Schwarzschild, German physicist (died 1916)
• 10 October – Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, German nobleman, explorer and politician (died 1969)

November

• 9 November – Fritz Thyssen, German industrialist (died 1951)
• 23 November – Otto Berg, German scientist (died 1939)
• 27 December – Rudolf Höber, German-American physician (died 1953)
• 28 December – Gotthard Fliegel, German geographer (died 1947)

February

• 2 February – Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, German noblewoman (born 1807)
• 9 February – Julius Fürst, Jewish-German orientalist (born 1805)
• 23 February – Jakob Freiherr von Hartmann, Bavarian general (born 1795)

March

• 10 March – Pauline Therese of Württemberg, Queen consort of Württemberg (born 1800)
• 26 March – Albrecht von Bernstorff, Prussian politician (born 1809)

April

• 18 April – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (born 1803)
• 24 April – Prince Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian nobleman (born 1797)

May

• 12 May – Karl von Bodelschwingh-Velmede, German politician (born 1800)

June

• 6 June – Adalbert of Prussia, German prince (born 1811)
• 14 June – Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian (born 1871)
• 21 June – Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, German Protestant theologian (born 1800)
• 29 June – Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter, German novelist (born 1816)

July

• 8 July – Franz Xaver Winterhalter, German painter (born 1805)

August

• 13 August – Fritz Bamberger (painter), Germany painter (born 1814)
• 18 August – Charles II, Duke of Brunswick, German nobleman (born 1804)

September

• 22 September – August Breithaupt, German mineralogist (born 1791)

October

• 10 October – Hermann Kurz, German writer and poet (born 1813)
• 13 October – Emil von Sydow, German geographer (born 1812)
• 29 October – John of Saxony, King of Saxony (born 1801)

November

• 26 November – Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann, German mineralogist (born 1797)
• 14 December – Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, Queen consort of Prussia (born 1801)