Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius

Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius (born Pagelsen ) ( born February 14, 1834 in Westerland on Sylt, † August 25, 1911 in Berlin) was the first independent academically trained dentist in Germany and an advocate for women's studies.

Life

Youth

Henriette Friederike Therese came on 14 February 1834 in Westerland, the third child of the pastor's family Pagelsen on the world. Soon the family moved to Schleswig -Holstein, and at age 19 the young Friesin was married - with a landowner, the 30 -year-old Christian Hirschfeld. The couple Cultivate the great Erbpachthof hammer near Kiel. The marriage was unhappy. The increasing drunkenness of the husband and the lack of economic talent led to indebtedness of the court. After some painful experiences Henriette Hirschfeld left her husband in 1860. The marriage was divorced in 1863. Christian Hirschfeld died on 26 July 1867.

Study

Asked Penniless and alone drew Henriette Hirschfeld with a married friend to Berlin. Coincidentally she read in a newspaper article from the English sisters Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell, who practiced according to a study in the USA as the first private practice in New York. As Henriette Hirschfeld often suffered since childhood from a toothache, whose treatment she felt as rough and awkward, her desire to become a dentist formed.

The training to become a dentist was not clearly regulated in Germany in the middle of the 19th century - a regular national study of dentistry did not exist. In addition, women in the access to the university was already denied by the beginning of the 20th century. Henriette Hirschfeld therefore traveled in October 1867 as a single woman in Philadelphia, USA. With great perseverance they reached that she was accepted to study at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. She was ever only the second woman in the United States, succeeded in doing so. So far, only one American, Lucy Hobbs, a Dental College had graduated in Cincinnati - but only for one year and not in the regular study period of two years. After Henriette Hirschfeld had overcome the initial resistance, she was " kind and considerate " treated by their male counterparts. Your anatomical studies, however, she had made ​​Schicklichkeitsgründen some time at the Women's Medical College make. The German said he was " with skillful hands and eagerness to learn " from now on any challenge. She learned English as well as anatomy and physiology, surgical techniques and produced at laboratory work. After two years of study time they closed on February 27, 1869 (a few days after her 35th birthday ) the study with the title " Doctor of Dental Surgery " successfully. She was thus also in the U.S., the first woman ever, who was succeeded in the course of the regular program at a Dental College.

Establishing a practice

After graduating, she returned to Germany and opened in Behrenstraße # 9 in Berlin, a parallel street of Unter den Linden, their first practice. She treated primarily women and children, which corresponded to the former ideas of the bourgeoisie and also what they had done to their principles. However, they also made exceptions. The practice ran from the start than expected well and brought in the coming decades, " shiny material success ." Your excellent reputation as a dentist was the designation for Hofärztin the Crown Princess Victoria, her children, and sometimes their spouses later Emperor Frederick III. confirmed.

"I had to ( ... ) to our first and only dentist think of the small, extremely delicate and feeble woman Dr.Tiburtius, who recently moved out to me with such great skill a colossal cheek teeth by gas anesthesia "

Private life

In the winter of 1872 she married her long-time friend, retired military doctor Karl Tiburtius. They had two sons Carl and Franz, with Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius already was 42 years old at the second birth - an unusual for this age for motherhood. Despite starting a family she did not give up their profession, even if motherhood and work activities with the basic civic values ​​of their time were not compatible. The son of Dr. Franz Tiburtius was born on January 24, 1876 and died as a Navy senior assistant physician at July 5, 1904 during the Herero uprising in German South-West Africa.

Social activities

In addition to motherhood, work and marriage, she passionately dedicated himself for the less fortunate. The friendship with her future husband has probably meant that he could convince his sister Franziska Tiburtius by the inclusion of a medical school in Zurich, which she finished in 1876 as one of the first practitioners in Germany in private practice doctor. From then enjoyed the " double name Tiburtius a full sound ." In 1876, Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius in a Berlin working-class neighborhood along with her ​​sister Franziska Tiburtius and her colleague Emilie Lehmus the first headed by women polyclinic. A short time later, she founded the "Association for the Rescue minorener girl " and the "home building for position -seeking girl," later a " care home for fallen girls and women," added. Opened in 1881, Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius as an extension to the Polyclinic female doctors, a nursing station for women in their old apartment in Berlin's Friedrichstrasse to now also supply stationary can.

Death

After 30 years of practical activities, Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius withdrew from active practice and moved to their retirement home in Berlin- Marie Felde. On August 25, 1911, she died after a short illness.

Honors

In Memory of Henriette Hirschfeld- Tiburtius has been installed a commemorative plaque on February 14, 1998 at the house Behrenstraße 9/Berlin-Mitte, her former practice site.

During the 50th Annual Meeting of the Dental Association of Schleswig -Holstein Sylt- Westerland received on 9 May 2008, a hitherto nameless pedestrian walkway between the Norderstrasse and the Lornsenweg an extension of the forest road to a resolution of the municipal assembly in honor of the first dentist in Germany the name " Henriettenweg ".