Events from the year 1859 in Germany.

• King of Bavaria – Maximilian II
• King of Hanover – George V
• King of Prussia – Frederick William IV
• King of Saxony – John of Saxony

• 4 February – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt.

• 27 January – Wilhelm II of Germany, last Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (d. 1941 )^[1]
• 3 February – Hugo Junkers, German industrialist, aircraft designer (d. 1935)
• 7 April – Jacques Loeb, German–American physiologist, biologist (d. 1924)
• 25 December – Ludwig von Estorff, German general (d. 1943 )

• 20 January – Bettina von Arnim, composer and author (born 1785)^[2]
• 6 May – Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and geographer (b. 1769)^[3]

• 8 July – Charlotte von Siebold, German gynecologist (b. 1788 )
• 28 September – Carl Ritter, German geographer (b. 1779)
• 4 October – Karl Baedeker, German author, publisher (b. 1801)^[4]
• 22 October – Louis Spohr, German violinist, composer (b. 1784)
• 16 December – Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist, folklorist (b. 1786)^[5]