Events from the year 1864 in Germany.
- 8 January – Julie Wolfthorn, German painter (died 1944)
- 13 January – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928)
- 5 February – Carl Teike, German composer (died 1922)
- 16 February – Hermann Stehr, German novelist and writer (died 1940)
- 24 February – Alfred Jeremias, German pastor, assyriologist and an expert on the religions of the Ancient Near East (died 1935)
- 4 March – Johanna Ey, German art dealer (died 1944)
- 30 March – Franz Oppenheimer, German sociologist (died 1943)
- 11 April – Johanna Elberskirchen, German writer and women rights activist (died 1943)
- 21 April – Max Weber, German sociologist (died 1920)
- 5 May – Hans Gerhard Gräf, German Goethe specialist (died 1942)
- 12 May – Cäsar Flaischlen, German poet (died 1920)
- 15 May – Robert Schmidt, German politician (died 1943)
- 21 May – Otfried Nippold, German jurist (died 1938)
- 22 May – Willy Stöwer, German artist and painter (died 1931)
- 2 June – Wilhelm Souchon, German admiral (died 1946)
- 3 June – Albert Fraenkel, German physician (died 1938)
- 11 June – Richard Strauss, German composer (died 1949)
- 14 June – Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist, neuropathologist (died 1915)
- 16 June – Willy Wolterstorff, German paleontologist and herpetologist (died 1943)
- 22 June – Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician (died 1909), born in Russia
- 25 June – Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1941)
- 18 July – Ricarda Huch, German historian and writer (died 1947)
- 24 July – Frank Wedekind, German playwright (died 1918)
- 12 August – Kuno von Westarp, German politician (died 1945)
- 17 August – Paul Wendland, German philologist (died 1915)
- 20 August – Karl Fritz, German Roman Catholic archbishop (died 1931)
- 27 August – Hermann Weingärtner, German gymnast (died 1919)
- 19 September – Carl Correns, German biologist (died 1933)
- 26 September – Arthur Kampf, German painter (died 1950)
- 5 October – Arthur Zimmermann, German diplomat (died 1945)
- 30 October – Theodor Wiegand, German archaeologist (died 1936)
- 27 November – Alfred Meyer-Waldeck, German admiral (died 1928), born in Russia
- 31 December – Hans am Ende, German painter (died 1918)