Oktavia Aigner-Rollett

Oktavia Aigner-Rollett as a medical student (before 1905)

Memorial by Barbara Baur-Edlinger in front of the Paulustor

Memorial by Barbara Baur-Edlinger in front of the Graz preclinical facility

Oktavia Auguste Aigner-Rollett (born May 23, 1877 in Graz ; † May 22, 1959 ibid) was the second woman who graduated from the University of Graz with a degree in medicine (1905), the first woman to work as a doctor in Graz opened a practice and became the first female secondary doctor in Austria. She was the eldest daughter of the physiologist Alexander Rollett .

Life

Oktavia Rollett was the first woman to graduate from Graz in 1900 as an external student at the First State High School in Graz (today's Academic High School ). Her father Alexander Rollett, rector of the University of Graz, was reluctant to allow her to study at the university. On December 9, 1905, she was given a doctorate in all medicine in the auditorium of the new university . Before her, only Maria Schuhmeister, who was born in Vienna, had completed a degree in all of medicine in Graz. In 1906 Oktavia Rollett was admitted to the Graz regional hospital as an unpaid assistant doctor. The completion of the study of philosophy and chemistry and thus a second doctorate failed in the course of the dissertation due to professors' resistance, the acceptance of the doctoral thesis was refused.

In 1906, Oktavia Rollett was the first doctor at the General Hospital in Graz (Paulustor) to work as an unpaid assistant doctor. Then (1906/1907) she got a job as a secondary doctor in the surgical department of the private Anna Children's Hospital. In 1907 she opened her own practice as a general practitioner at Humboldtstrasse 17, which she ran until 1952. In 1908 she married the anatomist Walter Aigner (1878–1950). The marriage produced three sons, including the mathematician Alexander Aigner (1909–1988) and the psychologist and high school professor of geography and history Adalbert Aigner (1912–1979). In 1935 she was awarded the title of Medical Councilor.

Oktavia Aigner-Rollett is buried in the family grave at the Graz Central Cemetery (field 10d III 1).

Honors

• A two-part memorial for Oktavia Aigner-Rollett was erected in Graz in 1997 at the Paulustor and in front of the preclinical facility.
• The Aigner Rollett Guest Professorship for Women and Gender Studies at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz was named in her honor.
• The urban retirement home in Graz-Geidorf was renamed the Aigner-Rollett am Rosenhain nursing home after the general renovation in 2014 .

Web links

• Biography with photos on gsund.net
• CV on the website of the University of Vienna
• Entry on "Fräulein Doktor" was the first female doctor from Graz in the Austria Forum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karin Derler, Ingrid Urbanek: Planning for Infinity - The Graz Central Cemetery. Steirische Verlagsgesellschaft, 2002, ISBN 3-85489-086-9 .
2. ↑ OFFSITE_Graz: Memorial for Aigner-Rollett
3. ↑ Aigner Rollett Visiting Professorship for Women and Gender Studies ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ City of Graz: Aigner-Rollett nursing home at Rosenhain ( memento of the original from July 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.