Charlotte Engel-Reimers

Charlotte Henriette Pauline Emilie Engel-Reimers (born September 26, 1870 in Hamburg , † October 29, 1930 in Berlin-Steglitz ) was a German national economist and women's rights activist .

Live and act

Charlotte Engel-Reimers was a daughter of the doctor Julius Engel-Reimers (1837-1906) and his wife Marie Antonie. Her mother, who gave birth to daughter Helene (1873–1954), was a German-American, Swiss citizen and died in 1880. The father, who raised his daughters strictly, was considered progressive. After the death of his first wife Amalie Jebens, whose father worked as a wine merchant in Hamburg, he married.

Charlotte Engel-Reimers attended the girls ' school at St. Johannis Monastery from Easter 1880 to April 1885 , then a girls' school until the end of March 1886. According to her graduation certificate, which did not represent a formal qualification, she had good to very good grades; their performance in arithmetic and gymnastics was considered “sufficient”. One reason for the poor assessment in physical education could be health problems from which she suffered for life. Since she wanted to take the Abitur, which was only possible for boys at the time, she tried to take an external exam. From Easter 1899 until the exam in the summer of 1901, she took private lessons with renowned professors and was one of the first women in Hamburg to receive the Abitur certificate with the grade "good" at the Wilhelm Gymnasium .

At the turn of the century, Charlotte and Helene Engel-Reimers worked in the women's movement. In the beginning they did social work and donated significant amounts to associations, including for the proof of work for women, Uhlenhorst-Barmbek from 1898. In addition to the Frauenwohl association headed by Lida Gustava Heymann , Charlotte Engel-Reimers was involved in the Hamburg branch of the Centralstelle for women on stage in Germany , the poor actresses provided costumes and had a support fund. After the First World War , she worked in conservative church-social associations of the women's movement.

Shortly after graduating from high school, Engel-Reimers began studying economics at the University of Berlin . Gustav Schmoller was one of her teachers and had a lasting impact on her. During her studies she dealt with issues related to the women's movement. In her doctorate in 1906, she described the production of felt shoes in Berlin. In 1911 she wrote a book about the economic situation of German stage employees. Her father's will secured her financially and enabled her to lead an independent life.

After completing her doctorate, Engel-Reimers was more concerned with philosophy, which she wanted to combine with economics. Since women were not allowed to do their habilitation, the Berlin University did not accept their first script in 1912. Engel-Reimers then taught at the Department of Political Science. Since she repeatedly became seriously ill in the mid-1920s, she was only able to complete her habilitation in 1930 on "Idealism in Economics".

Charlotte Engel-Reimers died a little later without having given her inaugural lecture.

literature

• Kirsten Heinsohn : Engel-Reimers, Charlotte . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 88-90 .