Elsa Mühlethaler

Elsa Mühlethaler (born April 1, 1917 in Bern ; died September 25, 1998 there ) was the first woman in Switzerland to have her own small animal practice.

Life

Elsa Mühlethaler was the daughter of Fritz Mühlethaler, a scientist and grammar school teacher , and Rosa Mühlethaler-Reinhard. After graduating from high school in 1936, she was the first woman to complete a full veterinary degree in Bern . She was one of the first women to do a doctorate as a veterinarian in Switzerland (1942). In Germany, however (from 1918 with Agnes Sjöberg and 1925 with Ruth Eber) and in Zurich (from 1937 with Eva Simon ) there were some earlier vet. med. Doctoral degrees or specialist exams ( Ella Blatter 1938).

Elsa Mühlethaler's practical training period fell during the Second World War . Professors and students were in active service . The Bern animal hospital had been converted into a military horse sanatorium. Although not yet fully trained, Elsa Mühlethaler had to deal with all veterinary tasks and duties independently with a single veterinarian at her side. With this commitment, she penetrated the domain of large animal medicine, which had previously been reserved for men.

After the war she found work in the chemical industry. At JR Geigy AG, she was heavily involved in contact insecticide and in vitro helminth research (e.g. DDT). She also undertook trips abroad (France / USA) for the globally operating group.

In 1949 Elsa Mühlethaler was the first woman in Switzerland to open her own veterinary practice (for small animals) in Bern. She ran it for 26 years until 1974.

Mühlethaler was a member and coordinator of the Thai prisoners section at Amnesty International Switzerland.

Fonts

• The histological picture of the parotid, submandibular and sublingual salivary glands of the cat after parasympathetic and sympathetic irritation. Diss. Vet. Med. Bern, Basel 1946.
• A Swiss veterinarian explains why she says “Dr. med. vet. ”. In: You. Cultural Monthly, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 1943.
• Experiences from my small animal practice. In: Yearbook of Swiss Women, 1952.
• with V. Kocher: About the fermentative clearing out of necrotic processes. In: Tierärztliche Umschau, No. 12, Konstanz 1958.

Literature and archival material

• Marianne Sackmann-Rink: The beginnings of women's studies at the two veterinary medical faculties in Switzerland . In: Schwizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde 128, 1968, pp. 27–39.
• Valérie Florence Blattmann and Renzo Giulio Bassetti: The practicing medical profession of the Canton of Bern: annotated directory of doctors, dentists and veterinarians . Vol. 2, Diss. Med. dent. Bern, [Sl]: [sn], 2004.
• The first female Dr. med. vet. In: Der Bund, Bern, May 19, 1942.
• The vet. In: Frauen-Zeitung Berna, No. 24, Bern 1942.
• Franziska Rogger: The doctoral hat in the broom cupboard 1999

Web links

• Alexander Weber: Elsa Mühlethaler. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .