J.S. Bach publishes another set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as an addition to his previous Well-Tempered Clavier

The principle of the Leyden jar is discovered by an amateur German physicist, Ewald Georg von Kleist, dean of the cathedral in Kamin

Frederick the Great's Prussian soldiers, advancing in shallow disciplined formation, outclass other armies of the time

Frederick II's three victories in 1745 cause him to be known by his contemporaries as Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo begins a series of frescoes to decorate the prince bishop's residence in Würzburg

Johann Joachim Winckelmann publishes a book on Greek painting and sculpture which introduces a new strand of neoclassicism

Frederick the Great again precipitates a European conflict, marching without warning into Saxony and launching the Seven Years' War

Frederick the Great suffers his first major defeat, by a Russian and Austrian army at Kunersdorf

German painter Johann Zoffany moves to England to find work as a painter of conversation pieces and portraits

Johann Sebastian Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian, moves to London and becomes known as the English Bach

The Treaty of Hubertusburg, between Prussia and Austria, increases the power of Prussia among the many separate states of Germany

Russia, Prussia and Austria agree a treaty enabling them to divide the spoils in the first partition of Poland

Goethe's romantic novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, brings him an immediate European reputation

Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin

In developing the Haskalah, the German philosopher Moses Mendelssohn reconciles Judaism and the Enlightenment

German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes the first of his three 'critiques', The Critique of Pure Reason

Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim

12-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his first composition, Piano Variations on a March by Dressler

20-year-old John Jacob Astor emigrates from Germany to America and sets up in the fur trade

Mozart's opera Don Giovanni has its premiere in Prague

Beethoven leaves Bonn and goes to Vienna to study composition with Haydn

Russia and Prussia agree on a second partition of Poland

Goethe and Schiller become friends, and together create the movement known as Weimar classicism