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The Fight for Female Physicians in Imperial Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

James C. Albisetti
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Extract

In the struggle for increased educational and employment opportunities for women that took place in Europe and America during the second half of the nineteenth century, no profession was the subject of more controversy than medicine.1 Although the issues involved in this controversy were similar in most countries, the paths by which women eventually succeeded in entering the medical profession displayed an intriguing variety. In Britain and the United States, resistance from much of the medical establishment forced women to found independent medical schools for the training of female physicians. Women in France and Switzerland, in contrast, gained access to existing medical faculties in the 1860s; yet for many years very few French or Swiss women took advantage of the opportunities available. In both countries, Russian women generally comprised the largest number of female medical students during the period, especially in the years before 1873 and again between 1882 and 1897, when no courses were available to them inside Russia.

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Articles
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Central European History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1982 , pp. 99 - 123
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1982

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References

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14. Boehm, Laetitia, “Von den Anfängen des akademischen Frauenstudiums in Deutschland; Zugleich ein Kapitel aus der Geschichte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,” Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 77 (1958): 306–8.Google Scholar

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16. Bischoff, Das Studium, pp. 14–16, 21, 22, 29, 43–44. Bischoff's pamphlet preceded the similar but better-known works by Edward N. Clark in the United States and Henry Maudsley in England; see Walsh, Doctors Wanted, pp. 124–27; and Burstyn, Joan, “Education and Sex: The Medical Case against Higher Education for Women in England, 1870–1900,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (04 1973), pp. 79–89.Google Scholar

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18. Tiburtius, Erinnerungen, pp. 179–80. German physicians generally opposed the application of “laissez faire” to their profession; see von Littrow, Carola, “Die Stellung des Deutschen Ärztetages zur Kurpfuscherfrage in Deutschland von 1869 bis 1908,” Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe 19, no. 4 (1970): 433–37Google Scholar; and Huerkamp, Claudia, “Ärzte und Professionalisierung in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 6 (1980): 349–82.Google Scholar

19. Twellmann, , Frauenbewegung, 1:118.Google Scholar Dahms practiced for two years in Hamburg before returning to Scotland: see Oelsner, Elise, Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzten vierhundert Jahren auf wissenschaftlichen Gebiete (Guhrau, 1894), p. 75.Google Scholar

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21. On the revival of German feminism around 1890, see Evans, Richard J., The Feminist Movement in Germany, 1894–1933 (London and Beverly Hills, 1976)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 2; and Greven-Aschoff, Barbara, Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland, 1894–1933 (Göttingen, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar A factor in this revival that has not been sufficiently appreciated was the realization that because of Crown Prince Frederick's cancer, his wife, Victoria, on whom many German women had placed great hopes for support, would not be empress for long, if at all. See my article, “Could Separate Be Equal? Helene Lange and Women's Education in Imperial Germany,” History of Education Quarterly 22 (1982).Google Scholar

22. Lange, Helene, Die höhere Mädchenschule und ihre Bestimmung (Berlin, 1887)Google Scholar, reprinted in her Kampfzeiten: Aufsätze und Reden aus vier Jahrzehnten, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1928), 1: 9–58.Google Scholar

23. Weber, Mathilde, Ärztinnen für Frauenkrankheiten: Eine ethische und eine sanitäre Notwendigkeit, 2nd ed. (Tübingen, 1888).Google Scholar

24. Twellmann, , Frauenbewegung, 1: 92–94Google Scholar; Evans, Feminist Movement, pp. 38–40.

25. Albert, Edward, Die Frauen und das Studium der Medicin (Vienna, 1895), p. 36Google Scholar; Penzoldt, Franz, Das Medizinstudium der Frauen (Jena, 1898), pp. 10–11, 19Google Scholar; Endemann in Reichstag, Verhandlungen, 8:2, p. 1216 (02 23, 1893).Google Scholar

26. The many petitions of these years are catalogued most clearly in Boedeker, Elizabeth, 25 Jahre Frauenstudium in Deutschland, 4 vols. (Hanover, 1935–1939), 1: xxvii–xxx.Google Scholar In Nov. 1888, the Women's Reform Association petitioned the ministries of education in Prussia, Bavaria, and Württemberg to allow women to take the Abitur and to matriculate in all university faculties; it extended this petition to all other education ministries in June 1889. In Feb.–Mar. 1889, the German Women's Association petitioned the legislatures in all states with universities to open secondary teaching and medicine to women and to allow the appropriate university studies. The Women's Welfare Association submitted a similar request, with 12,000 signatures, to just the Prussian legislature in June 1891. After the initial passing of the buck by the state governments, both the Women's Association and the Reform Association petitioned the Reichstag in 1890 to open medical certification to women; the Women's Association repeated this demand in Nov. 1891 in a petition that eventually attracted almost 55,000 signatures. See also the statements by Rickert, Heinrich in Reichstag, , Verhandlungen, 8:2, pp. 1221–22 (02 23, 1893)Google Scholar; and by Dr. Langerhans, ibid., 9:2, p. 1048 (Feb. 6, 1894).

27. See Herrlitz, Hans-Georg and Titze, Hartmut, “Überfüllung als bildungspolitische Strategie: Zur administrativen Steuerung der Lehrerarbeitslosigkeit in Preussen, 1870–1914,” Die deutsche Schule 63 (1976): 348–70.Google Scholar On the hostility of men teachers to Lange's demands, see her Kampfzeiten, 1:86–87.

28. See especially DrHenius, L., “Über die Zulassung der Frauen zum Studium der Medizin,” Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 21 (1895): 613. This journal will be cited as DMW.Google Scholar

29. One woman who did see a maternal talent for healing as a reason women should become physicians was Binder, Sidonie, in her Weibliche Ärzte (Stuttgart, 1892), p. 32.Google Scholar Among men who considered women qualified to be nurses but not physicians were von Zehender, Wilhelm, Über den Beruf der Frauen zum Studium und zur praktischen Ausübung der Heilwissenschaft (Rostock, 1875), p. 20Google Scholar; Langer, B., Die Frauen in der Heilkunde (Wiesbaden, 1894), pp. 23–24Google Scholar; and Albert, Die Frauen, pp. 22, 34.

30. Weber, Ärztinnen, p. 12; Schwerin, Ludwig, Die Zulassung der Frauen zur Ausübung des ärztlichen Berufes (Berlin, 1880), p. 12Google Scholar; Morgenstern, Lina, Ein offenes Wort über das medizinische Studium der Frauen an Herrn Prof. Dr. W. Waldeyer (Berlin, 1888), p. 22Google Scholar; Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, pp. 49, 73. I found only one work that tried to sensationalize the immorality of gynecological treatment: DrRitter, , Frauen und Ärzte (Berlin, 1893).Google Scholar

31. Lange, Helene, Higher Education of Women in Europe, trans. Klemm, L. R. (New York, 1890), p. 132Google Scholar; Weber, Ärztinnen, pp. 15–16; Morgenstern, Ein offenes Wort, p. 7; Kronfeld, Die Frauen, p. 42.

32. DrSteiner, Andreas, “Das nervöse Zeitalter”: Der Begriff der Nervosität bei Laien und Ärzten in Deutschland und Österreich um 1900 (Zurich, 1964).Google Scholar

33. Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, p. 56; Lassar, Oscar, Das medicinische Studium der Frau (Berlin, 1897), p. 13Google Scholar; Hacker, Hans, Die Ärztin, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1899), p. 30Google Scholar; August Bebel in Reichstag, Verhandlungen, 9:2, p. 1219. The Berlin morals police hired its first female physician, Dr. Agnes Hacker, in 1900: see Hauff, Der Lette-Verein, p. 376.

34. See the views of professors Gierke, Otto, Baumann, Julius, Conrad, Johannes, Bezold, Wilhelm von, Meyer, Victor, and Thomas, Louis in Kirchhoff, , Die akademische Frau, pp. 24, 93, 147, 201, 259, 268.Google Scholar

35. Bebel, August, Woman under Socialism, trans. DeLeon, Daniel (1904; reprint, New York, 1971), p. 196.Google Scholar

36. Waldeyer, Wilhelm, “Das Studium der Medizin und die Frauen,” Tageblatt der deutschen Naturforscher und Ärzte 61, pt. 2 (1888): 40. Waldeyer's speech was a direct response to Mathilde Weber's pamphlet.Google Scholar

37. Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, p. 15; Penzoldt, Medizinstudium, p. 14; Henius, “Über die Zulassung,” p. 614; Dahn, Felix and von Bardeleben, Karl in Kirchhoff, , Die akademische Frau, pp. 20, 33.Google Scholar

38. Freund, W. A., Rede zur Eröffnungsfeier der neuen Universitäts-Frauenklinik zu Strassburg (Strasbourg, 1888), p. 5Google Scholar; Waldeyer, “Studium der Medizin,” pp. 37–40; Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, p. 17; Runge, Max, Männliche und weibliche Frauenheilkunde (Göttingen, 1899), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar The most extreme exponent of this view was Edward Albert, who argued in his Die Frauen und das Studium der Medizin that women had never discovered or invented anything in any field.

39. Lange, Higher Education, p. 134; Weber, Marianne, Frauenfragen und Frauengedanken: Gesammelte Aufsätze (Tübingen, 1919), pp. 1–9Google Scholar; Morgenstern, Ein offenes Wort, p. 10; Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, pp. 15–16; Bebel, Woman under Socialism, p. 188.

40. Oelsner, Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau; von den Velden, Friedrich, “Die Ausübung der Heilkunde durch die Frauen, geschichtlich betrachtet” (inaugural diss., Tübingen, 1892)Google Scholar; Schelenz, Hermann, Frauen im Reiche Aeskulaps (Leipzig, 1900), p. 58.Google Scholar

41. Zehender, Über den Beruf, p. 11; Penzoldt, Medizinstudium, p. 9; Henius, “Über die Zulassung,” p. 615.

42. Adolf Gusserow in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, p. 112; Albert, Die Frauen, p. 28, citing a Prof. Laskowski in the Revue Scientifique of Jan. 27, 1894. The official history of women's university studies in Switzerland says that thirteen medical degrees were awarded at Geneva between 1872 and 1892: Schweizerischer Verband, Das Frauenstudium, p. 145.

43. Emil Warburg in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, p. 257; Albert, Die Frauen, p. 28. See also the response to Albert, by Kerschbaumer, Rosa, “Professor Albert und die weiblichen Ärzte,” Neue Revue 6, no. 44 (10 30, 1895): 1383–87.Google Scholar

44. Penzoldt, Medizinstudium, p. 18; Henius, “Über die Zulassung,” p. 613; Müller, Peter, Über die Zulassung der Frauen zum Studium der Medizin (Hamburg, 1894), p. 20Google Scholar; Pelman, Carl, Nervosität and Erziehung (Bonn, 1888), pp. 25, 29Google Scholar; Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, pp. 4, 15.

45. Riegel in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, p. 77; Runge, Frauenheilkunde, p. 18; Waldeyer, “Studium der Medizin,” pp. 42–43; Penzoldt, Medizinstudium, pp. 18, 25.

46. Weber, Ärztinnen, p. 27; professors Orth, Gierke, Conrad, and Bezold in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, pp. 69, 24, 200–201, 257.

47. von Treitschke, Heinrich, Politics, trans, by de Bille, Torben, 2 vols. (New York, 1915), 1:257–58.Google Scholar

48. Ritter, Frauen und Ärzte, p. 131; Dr. Czerny in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, pp. 96–97.

49. Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, p. 70; Müller, Zulassung der Frauen, p. 38; Jacobi, A., “Das medicinische Frauenstudium in Amerika,” DMW 22 (1896): 403CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bebel, Woman under Socialism, pp. 209, 206; Lassar, Das medicinische Studium, p. 19.

50. Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, p. 6.

51. Hedwig Bleuler-Waser in Schweizerischer Verband, Das Frauenstudium, p. 66; Straus, Rahel Goitein, Wir lebten in Deutschland: Erinnerungen einer deutschen Judin, 1880–1933 (Stuttgart, 1961), pp. 87–88.Google Scholar

52. Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, pp. 76–77; Lassar, Das medicinische Studium, p. 12.

53. Bebel, in Reichstag, , Verhandlungen, 8:1, p. 2003Google Scholar; Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, pp. 22, 27; Morgenstern, Ein offenes Wort, p. 18.

54. Binder, Weibliche Ärzte, p. 21; Schwering, Zulassung der Frauen, p. 13; Ichenhäuser, Elise, Zur Frauenfrage (Zittau, 1896), p. 19.Google Scholar

55. Bischoff, Das Studium, pp. 35–36; Albert, Die Frauen, p. 34; Henius, “Über die Zulassung,” p. 613; Schelenz, Frauen im Reiche Aeskulaps, p. 65.

56. Bischoff, Das Studium, p. 35; Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, pp. 12–13; Runge, Frauenheilkunde, pp. 14–15; Lehmann-Adams, Hope Bridges, “Frauenstudium und Frauentauglichkeit,” DMW 22 (1896): 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57. Penzoldt, Medizinstudium, p. 11; Langer, Frauen in der Heilkunde, pp. 9–12; Karl von Bardeleben in Kirchhoff, Die akademische Frau, p. 35; Henius, “Über die Zulassung,” p. 614; Endemann in Reichstag, Verhandlungen, 8:2, p. 1216.

58. Bebel in Reichstag, Verhandlungen, 8:2, p. 1218.

59. DMW 24 (1898): 435–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In a similar fashion, the medical faculty of the University of London had resisted having medicine treated as a special case in 1878: see Bell, Storming the Citadel, p. 103.

60. A convenient summary of the responses in the various states can be found in Cohn, Gustav, “Die deutsche Frauenbewegung,” Deutsche Rundschau 86 (1896): 411–17.Google Scholar See also Blumenthal, Annemarie, “Diskussionen um das medizinische Frauenstudium in Berlin” (diss., Free Univ. of Berlin, 1965), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

61. Prussia, Haus der Abgeordneten, Drucksachen, 17:4, no. 108; Lipinska, Les femmes, p. 195; Cohn, “Frauenbewegung,” p. 406.

62. Zedlitz's circular of Feb. 28, 1892, in Zentrales Staatsarchiv, Historische Abteilung II, Merseburg, Kultusministerium, Rep. 76 Va, Sekt. 1, Tit. VIII, No. 8, Vol. I; the responses are ibid., Vol. II. This will be cited as ZStA-II, KM.

63. The suggestion that Bosse's views were influenced by his family situation is made in a letter by Hellmut von Gerlach published in the Frankfurter Zeitung of Nov. 30,1900, a copy of which is ibid., Vol. VIII. For Bosse's views of the girls' schools, see the speech cited in von Zahn-Harnack, Agnes, Die Frauenbewegung (Berlin, 1928), p. 179.Google Scholar

64. DMW 19 (1893): 72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bosse to the emperor, Oct. 28, 1893, in ZStA-II, Zivilkabinett, 2.2.1, No. 22315; memoranda of professors Daude (Feb. 17, 1894) and Kohler (June 19, 1894), in ZStA-II, KM, Rep. 76 Va, Sekt. 1, Tit. VIII, No. 8, Vol. IV; Bosse to Caprivi, Jan. 24, 1894, ibid., Vol. II.

65. Bosse to Hildegard Ziegler, May 15, 1895, and to Margarete Heine, May 17, 1895, in ZStA-II, KM, Rep. 76 VI, Sekt. 1, Gen. z, No. 134, Vol. I. Both women had prepared privately for the Abitur and passed it before the first graduates of Lange's course; see Wegscheider-Ziegler, Hildegard, Weite Welt im engen Spiegel: Erinnerungen (Berlin, 1953), pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

66. The most authoritative account of this incident is in Schmidt-Ott, Friedrich, Erlebtes und Erstrebtes, 1860–1950 (Wiesbaden, 1952), p. 52Google Scholar; the most detailed account is in the letter by Hellmut von Gerlach cited in n. 63. Bergmann's biographer does not confirm the story, but mentions his total opposition to female physicians and his disappointment with Bosse's performance as Minister of Education: Buchholtz, Arend, Ernst von Bergmann (Leipzig, 1911), pp. 441, 605.Google Scholar Bergmann supplied the briefest answer to Kirchhoff's survey of views on women's fitness for university studies: “I consider women physically and mentally completely unsuited for academic study and for the practice of the professions that depend on such study”: Die akademische Frau, p. 95.

67. Centralblatt für die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen, Jahrgang 1896, p. 567. Baden, Saxony, and Bavaria also opened their universities to female auditors in 1896, although only in Baden was ministerial approval not necessary, see Nauck, Frauenstudium, p. 19; Drucker, “Vorgeschichte des Frauenstudiums,” p. 283; Boehm, “Von den Anfängen,” pp. 312–13, 316–19.

68. Report by Prince Heinrich von Schönaich-Carolath, the honorary chairman of Lange's course, in Reichstag, , Verhandlungen, 9:5, p. 558 (01 21, 1898)Google Scholar. One of these young women, Else von der Leyen, was the daughter of a Wirklicher-Geheim-Oberregierungsrat in the Ministry of Public Works.

69. Draft report to the emperor of August 1896, various letters from professors who had taught in Switzerland, and report from the ambassador to Switzerland, Dec. 16, 1896, in ZStA-II, KM, Rep. 76 Va, Sekt. 1, Tit. VIII, No. 8, Vol. v.

70. Bosse to Hohenlohe (Boetticher), Apr. 17, 1897, and Boetticher to Bosse, May 24, 1897, ibid., Vol. v; Bosse to Hohenlohe (Posadowsky), Aug. 26, 1897, Posadowsky to Bosse, Nov. 23, 1897, Bosse to Hohenlohe (Posadowsky), Jan. 8, 1898, and Posadowsky to Bosse, Feb. 1, 1898, all ibid., Vol. VI. This correspondence leads me to disagree with Jarausch's suggestion that the Bundesrat acted “on the basis of progressive Southwest German opinion”: Students, Society, and Politics, p. 112.

71. Nauck, Frauenstudium, p. 18; Halle medical faculty to Bosse, Nov. 15, 1897, and June 18, 1898, in ZStA-II, KM, Rep. 76 Va, Sekt. 1, Tit. VIII, No. 8, Vols. VI and VII respectively.

72. Evans, Feminist Movement, p. 18; Boehm, “Von den Anfängen,” p. 310; Rupp, Beginn des Frauenstudiums, pp. 45–46.

73. Posadowsky to the Bundesrat, Jan. 31, 1899, and report of the Trade and Commerce Committee, Apr. 20, 1899, in Verhandlungen der Bundesrat: Drucksachen, 2 vols. (1899), 1: nos. 20 and 66Google Scholar; Protokolle über die Verhandlungen des Bundesrats des Deutschen Reiches, Jahrgang 1899, p. 126.

74. Reichstag, , Verhandlungen, 9:5, pp. 561–62 (01 21, 1898)Google Scholar; Lipinska, Les femmes, pp. 150–51, 202; Lovejoy, Women Doctors, pp. 194–95. The archives reveal that these developments in Austria and Russia were closely watched by the Prussian Ministry of Education.

75. Nauck, Frauenstudium, pp. 20–23; Krabusch, “Vorgeschichte des Frauenstudiums,” p. 138; Boehm, “Von den Anfängen,” pp. 313–14; Schwalbe, Julius, “Das medizinische Frauenstudium in Deutschland,” DMW 33 (1907): 267–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Among those who asked to keep his courses closed to women was Wilhelm Waldeyer: see his letter of Aug. 23, 1908, in ZStA-II, KM, Rep. 76 Va, Sekt. 1, Tit. VIII, No. 8, Adhib. IV.

76. Krabusch, “Vorgeschichte des Frauenstudiums,” p. 139; Straus, Wir lebten in Deutschland, pp. 90–91. The first German woman to be certified was Ida Democh-Maurmeer, who had been studying in Switzerland: see Romann, Ursula, “Vor 40 Jahren: Erinnerungen an den Berufsweg der ersten in Deutschland approbierter Ärztin, Frau Dr. med. Ida Democh-Maurmeer,” Die Ärztin 16 (1940): 154–55.Google Scholar

77. Nauck, Frauenstudium, pp. 22–23; Eulenburg, Albert, “Das Medizinstudium der Frauen an der deutschen Universitäten im Sommersemester 1901,” DMW 27 (1901): 472CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Eulenburg indicates that 14 German women were studying medicine at Freiburg, 6 at Heidelberg, 5 at Bonn, 4 at Berlin, 3 at Halle, and 2 each at Breslau, Leipzig, and Strasbourg.

78. A survey of 175 female physicians in 1911–12 received 105 responses that indicated the year of certification; of these, the numbers for 1901 to 1909 were 7, 5, 9, 9, 6, 6, 7, 24, and 26: DrStelzner, Helenefrederike, “Der weibliche Arzt: Nach gemeinsam mit Dr. Margarete Breymann gepflogenen statistischen Erhebungen,” DMW 38 (1912): 1244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79. Bäumer, Geschichte der Gymnasialkurse, unpaginated appendix; Nauck, Frauenstudium, p. 28; Herrmann, Judith, Die deutsche Frau in akademischen Berufen (Leipzig, 1915), p. 71Google Scholar; Hauff, Lette-Verein, p. 277.

80. Herrmann, Die deutsche Frau, p. 5. This percentage refers only to those who completed their studies; the number of women who dropped out of medical school may have been higher, as is suggested by the fact that there were 321 female medical students in 1908–9, but only 233 physicians in 1915: see Caspary, Gerda, Die Entwicklungsgrundlagen für die soziale und psychische Verselbständigung der bürgerlichen deutschen Frau um die Jahrhundertwende (Heidelberg, 1933), p. 74.Google Scholar

81. Stelzner, “Der weibliche Arzt,” p. 1243.