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Extending admissions at the end of the 19th century

Since the end of the 19th century women have been gradually allowed to enrol at German universities. In 1880, Hope Bridges Adams Lehmann, who had attended classes as a guest auditor in medicine, was the first woman to graduate with a Staatsexamen from a German university. However, her degree from the University of Leipzig was not officially recognised. Subsequently, she obtained a doctorate in Bern. In 1881, she received the British licence to practise medicine in Dublin.

The central cause of the women's movement during the time of the German Empire was the improvement of women's education and their access to professions and careers reserved for men. In 1888, the General German Women's Association submitted a petition to the Prussian House of Representatives asking for the admission of women to the studies of medical and academic teaching degrees. In the same year, the German Reformed Women's Association petitioned for the admission of women to all subjects of study. However, these initiatives did not achieve any immediate success.

However, individual women achieved exceptions. These exceptions opened a back door to the admission of women at universities: What started as an exception became the rule.The first step had been the admission of women as guest auditors, which had been permitted in Prussia since 1896.^[9] This status allowed many women to study. Among them were important figures of the German Empire, such as Helene Stöcker or Gertrud Bäumer. Some women, for example Gertrud Bäumer in 1904, used the opportunity complete their studies with a doctorate.^[10]

Between 1852 and 1920, women were not admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich anymore. Therefore, in order to receive an education in the Fine Arts, future female artists had to enrol at expensive private schools or at newly founded institutions such as the ladies' academy of the Künstlerinnen Verein (1884-1920) or the Debschitz-Schule (1902-1914). However, the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule, founded in 1868, had allowed women to attend classes since 1872 in a faculty reserved for women. The increase in female students after World War I (as for instance at the University of Würzburg) was criticised and debated in the student body because women were deemed "useless" during times of war. In December 1919, this led to the foundation of the AStA subcommittee for female issues by the student of mathematics Alma Wolffhardt.^[11] She tried to dismiss the allegation that women tried to take intellectual advantage of the war.^[12] There began a tenacious fight for admissions to the academy, which finally had success in the winter semester 1920/1921. In total 17 women were allowed to enrol and to study under the same conditions as their male peers.

Role of jewish Women

Most of the female auditors attended the Friedrich Wilhelm Universityin Berlin. During the first years, there were particularly many Jewish women, especially from the Russian Empire. At the faculty of medicine they even represented the majority of the female students. Many of these women had previously studied in Switzerland and therefore could provide proof of examination at an academic level. One of the arguments to open German universities to women was that Swiss universities had had good experiences with female students. The most famous was Rosa Luxemburg, who had studied economics during the 1890s at the University of Zurich. Other prominent women who studied at Swiss universities included the sisters Hanna and Maria Weizmann, as well as Vera Chazmann, who later on became the wife of Chaim Weizmann.^[13]In addition, the philosopher Anna Tumarkinbecame the first female professor of the University of Bern.^[14]

Baden as the model state

On 28 February 1900, the Grand Duchy of Badenwas the first German state to issue a decree which allowed women the full access to universities. Since 1895 women had been granted revocable rights to pursue academic studies at the faculty of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. A decisive role had been played by Johanna Kappes, an auditor at the University of Freiburg, who had filed a petition with the state government.^[15]In Freiburg, the state's decree was implemented reactively for the winter term 1899/1900. In addition to Johanna Kappes, four women were admitted at the University of Freiburgas regular students.^[16]In Heidelberg, regular admissions for women were implemented in the summer semester 1900.^[17]Among these women was the Jewish student of medicine and subsequent physician Rahel Straus, who writes about her times as a student in her memoir.^[18]

Edith Stein, who obtained a doctorate summa cum laudeat the University of Freiburg in 1916, was the first German university assistant with Edmund Husserlin philosophy. Later on he admitted that she would be able to pursue a habilitation but obstructed her career ambitions because of "general concerns". In her habilitation thesis Finite and Infinite Being(Endliches und Ewiges Sein) she had engaged with the works of Husserland his successor Heidegger.

The situation in Württemberg

On 16 May 1904 the King of Württemberg issued a decree that "women in the German Empire should be able to apply to the University of Tübingenunder the same conditions as their male peers". Since 1 December 1905 this applied as well to the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart.

Prussia

In Prussia, women had been admitted as guest auditors since 1896. Yet women had been able to study in Prussia with a special permit issued by the minister of education before. Already in 1895 40 women studied in Berlin and 31 in Göttingen. Overall the admission of women as guest auditors had been a significant improvement of their legal status because they were allowed to obtain a doctorate.^[19]

In 1908, women were allowed to enrol as regular students at Prussian universities. In 1913 approximately 8 % of all students were women. Until 1930 their percentage increased to 16 %.