Emilie Kempin-Spyri

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emilie Kempin-Spyri, ca.1885
Emilie Kempin-Spyri, ca.1901

Emilie Kempin-Spyri (* 18th March 1853 in Altstetten ; † 12. April 1901 in Basel , born Spyri, married Kempin.) Was the first Swiss woman , as in Switzerland jurist doctorate was and habilitation . As a woman, however, she was not allowed to practice as a lawyer , which is why she emigrated to New York , where she taught at a law school she founded for women.

Life

Emilie Kempin-Spyri was a daughter of the pastor Johann Ludwig Spyri and a niece of the author Johanna Spyri . Kempin-Spyri enrolled at the University of Zurich in 1883 as the first Swiss woman to attend the Faculty of Law. In July 1887 she received her doctorate with the dissertation The liability of the seller of a foreign thing to the first doctor of the law of Europe. In the same year Meta received his doctorate from Salis at the philosophical faculty. Due to the lack of "active citizenship" (right to vote), however, Kempin-Spyri was not admitted to the bar . Her lawsuit before the Federal Supreme Court for a reassessment of Article 4 of the Federal Constitution, according to which the term Swiss in the constitution includes both men and women ( generic masculine ), just as women were of course also meant based on other formulations of the current constitution, was rejected on the grounds that this view is “just as new as it is bold”.

After she had also been rejected as a lecturer at the University of Zurich , she emigrated with her family to New York for a short time in 1888, where she founded the first Women Law College . Because of the homesickness of her husband Walter Kempin , who could never acclimatise in New York, the family returned to Switzerland.

In 1891, Emilie Kempin-Spyri submitted another application for a habilitation at the University of Zurich. Although the university senate again refused, the education department gave her the Venia Legendi as an exception. On March 4, 1891, she gave her inaugural lecture as a private lecturer on the Sherman Antitrust Act . From then on until the summer semester of 1895 she taught two to four hours a week at the University of Zurich. However, with this occupation she could not keep her head above water financially. From 1895 Emilie Kempin-Spyri taught commercial and exchange law at the commercial class of the secondary school for girls. In the same year she took a leave of absence and went to Berlin, where she enrolled as a lecturer for lectures on family law at the Friedrich Willhelm University. From 1896 she lectured on private law and German family law at the Humboldt Academy. She has now definitely settled in Berlin.

Throughout her life, Kempin-Spyri fought for her admission as a lawyer and finally broke because of this unsuccessful fight as well as additional private problems after the divorce from her husband in 1896. In September 1897 she was admitted to the Berolinum Sanatorium in Berlin-Lankwitz because of mental illness briefed. In 1898 she was incapacitated. In March 1899 she was transferred to the Friedmatt insane asylum in Basel . Whether she was actually insane is controversial. In the same year she applied in vain for a job with Alfred Altherr's family .

In 1901 she died impoverished of uterine cancer in Basel. She found her final resting place in the Horburggottesacker in Basel, opened in 1890 and closed in 1931.

Thanks to Emilie Kempin-Spyri, a new lawyer law was introduced in the canton of Zurich in 1898, which allowed women to practice the legal profession despite the lack of active citizenship. This provision was not enforced nationwide until 1923.

Appreciation

On April 19, 2004, the Zurich Women's Guild Society in Fraumünster honored Emilie Kempin-Spyri as a woman from Zurich who, despite her outstanding achievements, has been forgotten; the event took place under the patronage of the University of Zurich. The provisional roll of honor unveiled at the time was replaced on May 28, 2009 by the definitive roll of honor in the foyer of the library of the Institute of Law .

During a ceremony on January 22, 2008 , a monument designed by Pipilotti Rist in the form of an oversized chaise longue was unveiled in the atrium of the University of Zurich ; this recognizes the role of Kempin-Spyris as the first private lecturer at the University of Zurich and as a pioneer for equal rights for women.

Emily Kempin-Spyri's life was dealt with literarily in Eveline Hasler's book The Wax Wing Woman . In Altstetten , the Emilie-Kempin-Spyri-Weg was named after her.

Movies

  • Rahel Grunder: Emilie Kempin-Spyri - Europe's first female lawyer. Documentary. 52 minutes, Switzerland 2015.

literature

  • Emilie Kempin-Spyri: The position of women according to the legal provisions currently valid in Germany and according to the draft of a civil code for the German Empire. Edited by the General German Women's Association, Leipzig 1892.
  • Marianne Delfosse: Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853-1901). The work of the first Swiss female lawyer with special consideration of her commitment to the rights of women in Swiss and German private law. Jur. Diss. Zurich 1994. ( e-periodica )
  • Christiane Berneike: The question of women is a question of law. The lawyers of the German women's movement and the civil code. Baden-Baden 1995, ISBN 3-7890-3808-3 . About Kempin: i.a. Pp. 81-102.
  • Jiro Rei Yashiki: Emilie Kempin-Spyri 1853-1901. A sketch of the life and work of the first woman to have a doctorate in law in Europe. In: Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 33 (2005), pp. 7-17. [1] and 34 (2006), pp. 45-56 [2] .
  • Eveline Hasler : The wax wing woman, story of Emily Kempin-Spyri. Dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-12087-8 .
  • Association of Feminist Science Switzerland (ed.): Just as new as bold: 120 years of women's studies at the University of Zurich. Editors: Katharina Belser, Gabi Einsele, Rachel Gratzfeld, Regula Schnurrenberger. Zurich 1988. (Series of publications / Feminist Science Association), ISBN 3-905493-01-2 .
  • Christine Susanne Rabe: Emilie Kempin. In: Equivalence of men and women. The Krause School and the bourgeois women's movement in the 19th century (= legal history and gender research . Vol. 5). Böhlau, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-412-08306-2 , pp. 36-39 (also Diss., Univ. Hannover, 2005/2006).
  • Barbara Stolba: Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853–1901) - lawyer without rights. In: Verena Parzer Epp, Claudia Wirz (ed.): Trailblazers of modern Switzerland. Women who lived freedom. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03823-928-4 , pp. 86–91.
  • Eveline Hasler, Marcel Senn, Brigitte Tag: New Year's Gazette of the Fraumünster Society for 2010, Fourth Edition, Edition Gutenberg Vol. 4, Zurich 2010, ISSN  1663-5264 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Klöti : Speech on the occasion of the honor by the Fraumünster Guild ( Memento from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Zurich 2004 (PDF; 464 kB).
  2. ↑ Eveline Hasler: The wax wing woman. Story of Emily Kempin-Spyri. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1998, p. 170 .
  3. ↑ BGE 13 I . P. 1 ff. (PDF; 267 kB).
  4. ↑ Christine Susanne Rabe: Emilie Kempin . In: Equivalence of men and women. Böhlau, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-412-08306-2 , pp. 36-39.
  5. ^ Roger Jean Rebmann: The Horburggottesacker in Basel. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Honored by the Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster (2004) , University of Zurich website, accessed on June 28, 2009
  7. ↑ Brigitte Blöchlinger: Posthumous tribute to Emilie Kempin-Spyri , April 7, 2004
  8. ^ Marita Fuchs: Honor roll for the first female lecturer at the University of Zurich
  9. ^ "Chaiselongue" monument 2008 , University of Zurich website, accessed on June 28, 2009
  10. ↑ NZZ A chaise longue as a place of remembrance
  11. ^ Film website , accessed April 22, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Kempin-Spyri, Emilie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer, the first woman to do a doctorate and habilitation in Switzerland
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Altstetten , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1901
PLACE OF DEATH Basel , Switzerland