135. Postscript
On an essay "Does the nineteenth century begin with the coming New Year's Day?"
If the habits of thought in the coming century do not change considerably from those of the current one, then our descendants living after one century will probably again experience numerous articles of the kind of the previous one. It is undoubtedly one of the by no means few questions in which our feelings will not submit to the decisions of our power of judgment, which is not for a moment unclear about the matter. It is absolutely correct that in the mathematical sense and for all things that depend on the mathematical view the new century begins on January 1, 1901. For one hundred years after the beginning of the Christian calendar did not end on December 31, 99, but only on December 31, 100. And the new century began on January 1901. It is also absolutely correct that the first century comprises the years from January 1, 1901 to December 31, 99, the second from January 1, 101 to December 31, 200, etc. It is therefore mathematically absurd to begin the coming century on a day other than January 1, 1901, and not to call it the twentieth. These considerations are as pedantic as they are absolutely incontestable. They share this fate with the incontrovertible truth that twice two is four. Once such truths are also necessary for the domestic use of life. Our feelings in this matter are different from our powers of judgment. The change of the second digit in the century designation has a decisive effect on this feeling, which does not want to be deprived of the opportunity to begin a new column when x900 is written. Nor is it quite comfortable for this feeling to say: the twentieth century, when it should also say 1901, 1902 etc. It is the same feeling that is always reluctant to say the events of the fifth decade of this century when we are talking about those from the year 40 to the end of 49. It says "the revolution in the forties", as it does not say the Franco-German war in the eighth decade, but in the seventies. This feeling, which has a real basis, could be followed and, instead of calling our current century the nineteenth, and the coming one the twentieth, we could say the eighteen hundreds, the nineteen hundreds. Then, of course, the year 1900 would also be counted among the nineteen-hundreds, just as no one would say that the year 40, which still belongs to the fourth decade, is in the thirties. I believe that the question of the demarcation and designation of the centuries cannot be answered in any other way than in this sense, no matter how learned the discussions may be.
To my great pleasure, at the moment I am sending these lines to print, I receive a kind letter from Privy Councillor Prof. Foerster, which agrees in every line with what I wrote above and from which I would like to add a few decisive sentences here:
"In a nutshell, the situation is as follows: The twentieth century (in the chronological, property law and arithmetical sense) begins on January 1, 1901; the century 19 (in the sense of the designation technique and in the usual sense of human judgment and intercourse) begins on January 1. January 1900, and this year 1900 can easily be called the first of the new century, as it opens a new designation in the dating of the century .
I have already suggested in a chronological lecture that, outside of chronological calculation, one should begin to number the centuries and not count them with ordinal numbers. If we were used to saying: the century ı8 instead of "the 19th century", no one would be offended if we said: the century 18 ends with the year 1899, and the century 19 begins with the year 1900.
On the other hand, difficulty and disagreement immediately arise if one says: the 19th century ends with the beginning of the year 1900 and the 20th century has its beginning in the year 1900.
We should seriously try to introduce the term "the 19th century" into general usage for the new century and leave the term "the 20th century" to the computer scientists. Of course, one would also have to say: The century ı8 instead of "the 19th century."