Agnes Hacker

Agnes Magdalena Hacker (* 1860 in Insterburg ; † September 6, 1909 in Schöneberg ) was a German doctor and advocate of the women's movement .

Life

As the daughter of a judiciary and with numerous siblings, Agnes Hacker grew up in Insterburg, East Prussia . No news is known about their early life development. It can therefore only be assumed that, like many of the first and second generation of doctors, she initially trained as a teacher before finally deciding to study medicine in Switzerland , where this was already the case for women at the end of the 19th century was possible. At the University of Zurich , she initially enrolled at the Philosophical Faculty (1889/90) before moving to the Medical Faculty in 1890, where she also passed the state examination in 1896 and received her doctorate in 1897 . She wrote her dissertation on a procedure for the surgical removal of the uterus with Friedrich Schauta at the I. University Women's Clinic in Vienna. This was followed by a phase of practical training, initially as an assistant in the women's department at the Burghölzli insane asylum in Zurich . It is possible that during this time she decided to specialize in surgery . Further stations consequently led her to Ernst Wertheim in Vienna and Max Sänger in Leipzig . In 1898 she then moved to Berlin. In the remaining eleven years of her life, her name appeared there in connection with “a wide variety of medical activities”. In the same year she was listed alongside Pauline Ploetz and Agnes Bluhm as a physician of the “Commercial and Industrial Aid Association for Female Employees” and in 1900 she was appointed as the first female police doctor in Berlin, an office that she held until 1905. In addition, she was the head doctor of the Weißenseer Bethabara-und-Beth-Elim-Stiftung (today: Stephanus-Stiftung ) and surgeon , most recently a general practitioner at the clinic for female doctors. The foundation supported prostitutes who had been released from prison, to whom it offered initial accommodation, financial help and the same in their job search.

It was not until 1899 that the Federal Council decided to admit women to the medical, dental and pharmaceutical state exams, albeit excluding those who had received their previous education abroad or who had passed their exams there. For Agnes Hacker and other doctors of her time such as Franziska Tiburtius and Emilie Lehmus , this not only meant an unsecured legal position with regard to their professional practice, but also represented an existential burden. In the aftermath of the Federal Council resolution of 1899, the commercial health insurance company and commercial aid association for female employees is prohibited from employing female doctors who are not licensed in Germany. Bluhm, Hacker and Ploetz could only continue to work if they appeared as club doctors. A petition brought before the Federal Council by Hacker in association with the vast majority of the other doctors, to also give doctors a license to practice medicine without a prior state examination in Germany, was unsuccessful. It was probably due to the fact that Hacker was still very busy that she did not register for a review in Germany until 1908, which ultimately failed to materialize due to her early death.

In 1997 a street was named in her honor in the so-called doctor's quarter in Berlin-Altglienicke . Other streets were given the names of Dorothea Erxleben , Emilie Lehmus, Josepha von Siebold , Franziska Tiburtius and Martha Ruben-Wolf (1887–1939).

family

Her sister Adrienne Hacker, a painter, lived with the doctor Agnes Bluhm in Berlin until her death in 1916 , with whom she was also buried in a common grave. Another sister, Anna, was married to the court actor Arthur Kraussneck (born April 9, 1856 at Gut Ballethen in East Prussia; † April 21, 1941 in Berlin; real name Arthur Carl Gustav Müller).

The women's clinic

Shortly after her arrival in Berlin in 1898, Agnes Hacker began working in the Berlin clinic for female doctors . Last but not least, her experience in the field of surgery, which she had previously gained in Zurich, Vienna and Leipzig, was beneficial there. She herself attached greater importance to this activity than to practical work. From 1905, the year she resigned from her post as police doctor, she also took over the management of the clinic, which was reflected in the number of operations performed. While the number of operations was on par with comparable clinics, Hacker pushed for a clinic expansion at an early stage. To this end, in 1908, with Franziska Tiburtius, who was no longer practicing, she founded the association of female doctors to establish a women's hospital in Greater Berlin . 17 of the 18 Berlin doctors became members. The goal was the large gynecological clinics in Boston , London or New York and the construction of a new hospital was planned. Due to the bustling activities of the association, the nursing ward within the Knoop hospital (Karl-Schrader-Straße 10) was initially expanded. The operating room was equipped with the most modern aspects from the doctors' own resources, with Agnes Hacker admitting most of it. The clinic was the center of her life. She moved into an apartment in the clinic, headed her as a family doctor and, according to Agnes Bluhm, was "also the caring nurse". Soon after her death, the “Frauenwohl” association set up the “Agnes Hacker Foundation”, which was used to finance a free bed . For Agnes Hacker, it was of fundamental importance to found a clinic that was "only intended for women and built under the direction of female doctors [...] by a female architect [...]". Ultimately, the construction of the new clinic was not realized. After Hacker's early death, there was no successor who could have continued the project.

“She performed the operations with recognized outstanding skill, and indeed her inclination was mainly in this area. Dr. Hacker has proven through years of activity that women are also capable of excellent results in surgery. The calm, determination and strength with which Dr. Hacker carried out difficult operations are recognized even by their male colleagues, who generally still do not like to accept the abilities of female doctors ... "

- Minna Cauer : The women's movement (obituary 1909).

Women's movement

As a police adviser, it was one of Agnes Hacker's tasks to carry out the initial examinations on women who were actually or allegedly pursuing prostitution and living in Berlin. The fact that she was able to pursue this task, especially as a doctor who was not licensed in Germany, was probably due to the so-called morality movement. After numerous attacks on the part of the male-dominated police, not only the women's movement called for female moral doctors. A more extensive debate on this issue was conducted within the " abolitionist movement". It should be noted that Hacker's activity in the circle of the " International Abolitionist Federation ", to which she herself belonged, was viewed critically. But it was important to her "[...] to alleviate the harshness of a system that she fought against, but which still exists [...]". Agnes Hacker belonged to numerous other associations and organizations that had committed themselves to the fight against traditional morals and the restriction of women in their rights, including the " German Society for Combating Venereal Diseases ", the Berlin " Verein Frauenwohl ", founded in 1902 " German Association for Women's Suffrage ", the association "Women's Education - Women's Studies" and as a board member of the " German Lyceum Club ". She was also a co-signatory of the founding appeal of the “ German Association for Maternity Protection and Sexual Reform ” (as one of only a few doctors) and as a member of the “Commission for the Improvement of Morality” within the “ Federation of German Women's Associations ” on a draft petition on the subject of venereal diseases . In 1904 she spoke as one of the few female speakers at the annual meeting of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin.

According to Agnes Bluhm, Hacker was a staunch advocate of the women's movement's approach that the best doctor for a woman must also be female. Apparently her contemporaries were of the opinion that she came so close to the positions of the women's movement that at the end of 1907 she was asked to travel to Toronto in 1909 as an expert from the Health Section for the General Assembly of the International Women's Federation . Thanking Marie Stritt for the honor , she announced that she wanted to encourage more women to travel. Due to her illness, she was no longer able to make the crossing.

Fonts

• About total abdominal extirpation of the pregnant myomatous uterus. Karger, Berlin 1897, OCLC 610718394 (dissertation, University of Zurich, 1897; digitized version ).

literature

• Kristin Hoesch: A second generation doctor: Agnes Hacker: surgeon, educator, politician. In: Eva Brinkschulte (Ed.): Female doctors. The implementation of the job description in Germany. Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-119-5 , pp. 58-64.
• Kristin Hoesch: "Professional comrades ..." Three life descriptions on the way to recognition of female doctors in Berlin. Franziska Tiburtius, Emilie Lehmus and Agnes Hacker. In: Henrike Hülsbergen (Hrsg.): Cityscape and women's life. Berlin in the mirror of 16 portraits of women (= Berlinische Lebensbilder. Vol. 9). Stapp, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87776-213-1 , pp. 205-231.
• Stefan Wünsch: “... by working you forget your work, i. H. the strange thing about it. ”Agnes Hacker, a doctor with the Berlin moral police. In: Ariadne. Forum for women's and gender history. Vol. 62, 2012, pp. 22-31.

Web links

• Doctors in the German Empire: Agnes Hacker. Charité , Berlin (with different date of death)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Hoesch 1994.
2. ↑ Death Register StA Schöneberg I, No. 1368/1909; Hoesch 1994: 169 states that Hacker died on August 8, 1909.
3. ^ Association of Feminist Science Switzerland (ed.): Just as new as kühn. 120 years of women's studies at the University of Zurich. eFeF, Zurich 1988, p. 206.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Hoesch 1997.
5. ↑ Ümit Yoker: Zolliker psychiatrist shaped schizophrenia disease picture: torn between inside and outside. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 28, 2013.
6. ↑ Doctors in the Empire: Agnes Bluhm. Charité, Berlin, accessed on May 26, 2016.
7. ^ Parkfriedhof Lichterfelde. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
8. ↑ Kraussneck, Arthur Carl Gustav. In: Who is it . IX. Output. Degener, Berlin 1928, p. 863.
9. ^ Christiane Leidinger: No daughter from a good family. Johanna Elberskirchen (1864-1943). UVK, Konstanz 2008, ISBN 978-3-86764-064-0 , p. 97.