The following events occurred in Germany in the year 1855.

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

• The cocaine alkaloid is first isolated by German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke

• February 17 – Otto Liman von Sanders, German general (d. 1929)
• February 24 – Johannes von Eben, German general (d. 1924 )
• May 9 – Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch classical composer (d. 1932)
• June 28 – Theodor Reuss, German occultist (d. 1923)
• July 26 – Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
• August 25 – Hugo von Pohl, German admiral (d. 1916)
• August 27 – Hugo von Kathen, German general (d. 1932)
• September 9 – Houston Stewart Chamberlain, British-born German writer (d. 1927)
• October 10 – Eduard von Capelle, German admiral (d. 1931)

• February 23 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)