Gertrud Savelsberg

Gertrud Savelsberg (born February 3, 1899 in Ramsbeck ; † August 5, 1984 in Kiel ) was a German social scientist and deputy director of the library of the Institute for World Economy in Kiel.

Live and act

The daughter of a mine director from Ramsbeck and a member of the board of Stolberger Zink AG graduated from high school in 1918 at the "Evangelische Höheren Töchterschule", today's Viktoria-Schule , in Aachen and then began studying economics at RWTH Aachen University . A year later she moved to the University of Freiburg and in 1921 to the University of Kiel , where, after successfully completing her diploma thesis, she did her doctorate in 1924 with the subject: " The international protection of women and the problem of women's work " with Bernhard Harms . She then went on a few study trips and finally returned to the TH Aachen. As assistant to Carl Max Maedge, she completed her habilitation in 1930 with the topic: " The statistical documents on wage problems and their uselessness for understanding the private economic situation " and was then employed as a private lecturer for economics and economic and social policy . After Maria Lipp and Doris Schachner, she was only the third female habilitation employee at the TH Aachen and the first in the department of economics .

With Maedge and Alfred Meusel she also belonged to the circle of friends and students around Ferdinand Tönnies , whom she and Meusel knew from her time in Kiel. After Meusels was expelled from Aachen in 1933 by the National Socialists due to his alleged proximity to communist ideas, Savelsberg also temporarily took over his chair. Although she joined the National Socialist Teachers' Association (NSLB) from August 1, 1933, and a year later the National Socialist Legal Guardian Association (BNSDJ) and, from November 25, 1938, joined the NSDAP and the university community of German women in the National Socialist Student Fighting Aid of the NS- When she joined the student union of the NSDAP, she tried to remain relatively neutral politically. This gradually led to her being isolated, and only through Maedge's encouragement could her early transfer be prevented. Gertrud Savelsberg became increasingly ill with this tense situation and finally decided to return to Kiel at the turn of the year 1939/40.

In 1941 she was given her habilitation and was initially taken on as a research assistant at the library of the Institute for World Economy under the direction of Wilhelm Gülich . After the transfer of an unscheduled professorship in 1944, she taught and researched at the Faculty of Law and Political Science in the field of social policy and social and economic source studies and, among other things, participated in financial policy training together with the later SPD Minister Karl Schiller of the students of the institute. She is increasingly becoming the right-hand man of her library director Gülich, whom she significantly supported in his Bundestag mandate from 1949 to 1960 and during his time as Finance Minister of Schleswig-Holstein in 1949/50. She was also involved in the return of the library that had been relocated to the Ratzeburg Cathedral and its reconstruction, and in 1951 in the resumption of scientific operations in the rebuilt original institute building. Eventually she was promoted to assistant director of the library. However, after Gülich's death in 1960, she was refused promotion to director and instead appointed one of her former students in the person of Erwin Heidemann. In 1964 Gertrud Savelsberg retired and died unmarried on August 5, 1984.

Gertrud Savelsberg wrote a large number of publications, some of which were published in the Concise Dictionary for Social Sciences. She also participated as a co-author in several compilations such as the works “ Technology, Economy, Culture ” (Düsseldorf 1954), “ Present Problems of Agricultural Economics ” (Hamburg 1958) or “ Economic and Social Science Papers ” (Munich 1962).

Gertrud Savelsberg was a member of the Association for Social Policy , the Society for Social Progress and the German Association of Women Academics . She was also involved in the Kiel City Academy and in her Heilig-Geist-Gemeinde in Kiel. In her honor, a street in a new building area in Kiel was named Gertrud-Savelsberg-Weg .

Works (selection)

• The international protection of women and the problem of women’s work , Phil. Diss. Kiel, 1924
• (with Hermann Gross and Jens Meier): Economic and social science work. An introduction to essence, methods and bibliography , Olzog, Munich / Vienna 1969

Literature and Sources

• Irene Raehlman: Work sciences during National Socialism, a scientific-sociological analysis ; Page 80 ff., VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften; [1]
• Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933–1945) , p. 292 ff., Verlag Mainz, 2003, ISBN 3861301814 : [2]
• Ingrid Bohn and others: Scientists at the Christiana Albertina , in the Advisory Board for History Chap. 9, p. 48 ff .: PDF
• Prof. Dr. Gertrud Savelsberg . In: Nicole Schultheiß: There is no such thing as impossible ... 24 portraits of outstanding women from Kiel's city history . Kiel 2007, p. 79 ff.

Web links

• http://www.archiv.rwth-aachen.de/web/rea/Seite/biographien_frau_savelsberg.htm
• http://www.kiel.de/kultur/stadtgeschichte/ gehtnichtnahmsnicht/Buch_26_Portraet_Savelsberg.php