Cornelia Schorer

Cornelia Bernhardine Johanna Schorer (born July 12, 1863 in Lübeck , † January 9, 1939 in Potsdam ) was a German doctor. She was one of the first women in Germany to study medicine; she was the first woman from Lübeck to receive a doctorate as a doctor. For most of her professional life she worked as a psychiatrist in the United States.

Life

Cornelia Schorer was the daughter of the Lübeck pharmacist Theodor Schorer and grew up with five siblings. Her sister Maria Schorer, who was two years younger than her, made a career as an impressionist painter under the stage name Maria Slavona . The family lived on Johannisstraße in the Löwen-Apotheke building , the oldest preserved Romanesque secular building in the city of Lübeck. Cornelia was the oldest daughter. She completed the Roquettesche private teachers' seminar , which at the time was the only school in Lübeck to offer women two years of qualified professional training. Cornelia Schorer passed her examination in 1882; In 1892 Fanny zu Reventlow , who was eight years his junior, was one of the graduates.

Cornelia Schorer stayed in Lübeck for two years and taught French and German eight hours a week at the Ernestine School , where she worked as a “scientific assistant”. In 1889 she went to Berlin, where she continued her education at a women's education institution headed by the pedagogue and women's rights activist Helene Lange .

In the winter semester of 1891/92 she began studying philosophy at the University of Zurich . From 1892 she studied medicine there. She received her doctorate in 1897 with the dissertation "Clinical reports on chlorosis". After graduating in 1898, she spent a few months as a doctor in the dermatological clinic at the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. In the same year, before emigrating to the USA, she met Fanny zu Reventlow, who, as a writer and divorced mother of a young son, belonged to the Munich bohemian family. She noted the date of June 16, 1898 in her diary: Cornelia Schorer. Visited secession with her when it was raining terribly . With a cold, always pain. Then written, practiced, etc. pp.

In 1899 Cornelia Schorer was licensed as a doctor in Massachusetts . From 1901 to 1908, when she first gave up her job due to illness, she worked at a psychiatric clinic in Worcester . She returned to Germany in 1909 and had an operation in Munich. In 1910 she resumed her work at Worcester State Hospital and worked there until 1914. She then worked at Boston State Hospital until 1916 . She was involved as a psychiatrist in a study of mentally ill women who had come into conflict with the law. In 1920 she moved to Foxborough State Hospital, where she was a senior assistant doctor.

In 1933, at the age of 70, she retired and returned to Germany. She traveled within Germany and Europe. In 1935 she traveled again to the USA. Cornelia Schorer died in 1939.

Honors

Cornelia Schorer honored her hometown Lübeck by naming a street in the new university district after her. Her life's work was recognized in 2005 as part of an exhibition on women in the history of Lübeck .

literature

• Christine Lipp: Dr. med. Cornelia Schorer - Lübeck's first doctorate In: Women in the history of Lübeck Women’s Office of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Ed.) Lübeck 2005, p. 36 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ City of Lübeck: Exhibition boards, page 16 (pdf)
2. ↑ Diary entry from Fanny zu Reventlow ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.