Ira (Irene) Rischowski (1 August 1899 – 1989) was one of Germany's first female engineers and active in the German anti-Nazi resistance group

Neu Beginnen Neu Beginnen (English: " obegin anew") was an anti-fascist opposition group formed in 1929 by left-wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party. After the Nazi Seizure of Power, Nazis seized power in 1933, the ...

before fleeing to Britain. In the UK she became a member of the

Women's Engineering Society The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists. It was the first professional body set up for women working in all areas of engineering, pred ...

, serving on the Council and supporting efforts to encourage British women to become engineers.

Early career

Rischowski was born in Germany in 1899 to Albert Rischowski (b. 10 January 1848 - ) and Ida née Salomonsohn (12 June 1867– 26 November 1943), the eldest of four children. The family were Jewish by heritage but the children were baptised. Albert Rischowski ran shipyards and took young Ira with him to watch the riveting of the ships which inspired her to become an engineer. In 1919, Rischowski enrolled as the first female engineering student at the

Technical University of Darmstadt Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

. Her successful application was supported by six months experience repairing agricultural equipment. From 1928, Rischowski was employed as an engineer, following training at the electrical company

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & Ha ...

. In 1930 Rischowski became a member of Germany's central engineering institution, the

Verein Deutscher Ingenieure Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) (English: Association of German Engineers) is an organization of over 150,000 engineers and natural scientists. More than 12,000 honorary experts process the latest technical findings each year to promote the techn ...

(VDI). In 1933, there was a women's section in the VDI, but Rischowski refused to join it since it was affiliated with the Nazi Party. In 2019, the Institute for Nuclear Physics at Technical University of Darmstadt created th
Rischowski scholarship programme
for female students in her honour.

Anti-Nazi Resistance

Rischowski joined the underground anti-fascist group

in 1932 and became a key clandestine operative with codename 'Gabriele'. She was responsible for encoding and decoding correspondence with comrades abroad. In 1933, the group's operational office moved to Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, masquerading as an engineering consultancy. Rischowski worked at disguising Marxist literature, and transferring documents to the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

in exile in Prague.

Seeking Refuge

In September 1935, Rischowski was arrested while attempting to move banned literature to a safe place. She managed to talk herself free, but fearing surveillance, quickly fled to Prague. In July 1936 she moved on to the UK through the domestic servant visa scheme. Rischowski was invited by

Caroline Haslett Dame Caroline Harriet Haslett DBE, JP (17 August 1895 – 4 January 1957) was an English electrical engineer, electricity industry administrator and champion of women's rights. She was the first secretary of the Women's Engineering Society an ...

to attend meetings of the

, and she became an associate member in 1939, giving her profession as "engineer, technical secretary graduated" in the 1939 Register for England and Wales. Interned for a year at the Rushen Camp on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...

as an enemy alien, she was released without restrictions in November 1941 on appeal

Career

She worked as a draughtsman and planning engineer, first at Tuvox Ltd and later at James Gordon Ltd, where she became Head of Projects. In 1950, she and fellow Women's Engineering Society members, Winifred Hackett and

Sheila Leather Sheila Leather (17 January 1898 - 27 January 1983) was an engineer, business owner and president of the Women's Engineering Society in 1950–51. Early life Sheila Leather was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire on 17 January 1898 to Annie (née Lyon) ...

published a report on equal pay for women in engineering, which concluded that there was "''no justification for lower salary scales for women''". Rischowski was the accommodation secretary for the second

International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists ICWES (International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists) is an international conference for engineers and scientists. Established in 1964, it takes place every 3–4 years in countries around the world. Since 1999, the conference has bee ...

held in Cambridge in 1967, whilst working as a consultant in power generation for Elliott Process Automation.

Family life

Rischowski met her future husband Fritz Bruno Karthäuser (1898–1973) while studying engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. They married in December 1922, and they had two daughters. Their first child Hellen Isot was born in 1924 and their second Herta Maria (Kindi) in 1930. Bruno and Ira divorced in 1933. When she was forced into exile in 1935, Rischowski left her children in the care of her elderly mother Ida in Berlin until 1938 when, with support from members of the Women's Engineering Society and their connections, she was able to bring them both to London. Ida was deported to the

Theresienstadt Ghetto Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ...

where she died in 1943. On her death in 1989, the then WES President

Dorothy Hatfield Dorothy Helen Hatfield OBE FRAeS née McRither (b.1940), aeronautical engineer, was the first female engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Brooklands. She became President of the Women's Engineering Society and was instrumenta ...

called Rischowski "an inspiration to us all".

Family memorial

Rischowski's sister

Edith Novak Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and vari ...

donated a seventeenth century silver cup, made by Hans Paulus, to the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, to remember "her mother Ira icRischowski, her aunt Rosa Friedlander and Hedwig Malachowski, and in gratitude for the safety found by younger members of her family in the British Commonwealth" (Ira is a mistake for Ida).

References

External links

Ira Rischowski: Oral Histories

Ira Rischwoski: Archive Papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rischowski, Ira 1899 births 1989 deaths German women engineers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Women's Engineering Society Jewish engineers 20th-century German women