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. 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 (the first woman dentist in Germany) encouraged Tiburtius to pursue medicine. Refused entry to German medical programs, Tiburtius studied medicine in Zurich, 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 Franz Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Winckel (5 June 1837 – 31 December 1911) was a German gynecologist and obstetrician who was a native of Berleburg. In 1860 he received his medical doctorate from Berlin, later becoming a professor of gynecology in ...

in Dresden. In 1877, Tiburtius established a women's clinic with her fellow student

Emilie Lehmus Emilie Lehmus (30 August 1841 – 17 October 1932) was a German physician. She is known as the first female doctor in Berlin. She founded the first polyclinic for women and children in Berlin. Her great uncle was the German mathematician C. ...

(1841-1932) in Berlin-Mitte 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 and Minna Cauer, Tiburtius helped establish a two-year continuing education program, or Realschule, 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 (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

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

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

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