Franziska Tiburtius (24 January 1843 – 5 May 1927) was a German physician and advocate for women's education.

Life and work

Tiburtius was one of the first two women to qualify as a doctor in imperial

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Born on Rügen Island in Pomerania, Tiburtius was the youngest of nine children and daughter to tenant farmers. Though she had intended to become a teacher, her brother Karl Tiburtius (an army physician) and sister-in-law,

Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius (14 February 1834 – 25 August 1911) was the first female dentist in Germany. She was born at Sylt, a small island on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in Engli ...

(the first woman dentist in Germany) encouraged Tiburtius to pursue medicine. Refused entry to German medical programs, Tiburtius studied medicine in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, passing her examinations with distinction in 1876. That year she also completed an internship as a doctor of internal medicine with the gynaecologist and obstetrician, Franz von Winckel in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. In 1877, Tiburtius established a women's clinic with her fellow student Emilie Lehmus (1841-1932) in

Berlin-Mitte Mitte (; German for "middle" or "center") is a central section () of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous Boroughs of Berlin, borough () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Old ...

at Schönhauser Straße 23/24. Despite sustained opposition, including several court injunctions and slander, their clinic attracted a large clientele. In 1908, Tiburtius opened a Surgery Clinic for Women Doctors with her colleague Agnes Hacker, which deliberately accepted women patients lacking health insurance. The needy were provided medicine free of cost.

Legacy

Tiburtius was a member of the women's movement in Germany. Throughout her career she advocated for women's education and the repeal of extant bans barring women from continued study. In collaboration with

Helene Lange Helene Lange was born in 1848 in Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg. Through her determination, she rose above the trials of her early life, including the loss of her parents, to become a leading voice for women's access to higher education and professio ...

and

Minna Cauer Wilhelmine Theodore Marie Cauer, née Schelle, usually known as Minna Cauer (1 November 1841 in Freyenstein – 3 August 1922 in Berlin), was a German pedagogue, activist in the so-called "radical" wing of the German bourgeois feminist moveme ...

, Tiburtius helped establish a two-year continuing education program, or

Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

, in Berlin. Her Berlin-based clinic also dedicated energy to women's medical education. Upon her retirement, Tiburtius traveled to America and North Africa and throughout Europe. She published an autobiography, ''Memories of an Octogenarian'', about her childhood in Rügen. She died in 1927 in Berlin.

References

External links

''Franziska Tiburtius''
a

(database of female physician of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

(1871-1918) compiled and maintained by the institute for medical history of the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine; ) is Europe's List of hospitals by capacity, largest university hospital, affiliated with Humboldt University of Berlin, Humboldt University and the Free ...

) 1843 births 1927 deaths German gynaecologists 19th-century German physicians 20th-century German physicians 20th-century women physicians 19th-century German women physicians 20th-century German women {{Germany-med-bio-stub