Gertrud Woker

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Gertrud Woker as allegedly "the first female professor in Germany" in 1911.

Gertrud Johanna Woker (born December 16, 1878 in Bern , † September 13, 1968 in Marin ) was a Swiss women's rights activist , chemist and peace activist .

Life

Gertrud Woker was the daughter of the old Catholic theology and history professor Philipp Woker . From 1900 she studied organic chemistry at the University of Bern and graduated in 1903 with a doctorate. She then studied physical chemistry in Berlin . In 1907 she received the venia legendi in Bern , making her the first private lecturer in chemistry at a Swiss university. Her inaugural lecture on catalytic research outlined her research topic for the next few years. From 1911 she headed the Institute for Physico-Chemical Biology in Bern. In 1917 she pointed out the toxicity of leaded gasoline and made suggestions for the production of unleaded motor gasoline . After her groundbreaking work was available - and despite her pacifist and science-critical political standpoint - she received an extraordinary professorship in 1933, which she held until 1953. She became one of the pioneers in biochemistry .

Since the First World War she has been active against the war , already with leaflets against the poison gas war, a topic that she gradually expanded and presented in various forms and editions. She also worked for women's rights and called for women's suffrage . In 1915 she co-founded the “International Women's Association for Lasting Peace”, which was later renamed the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IFFF). Together with Clara Ragaz, among other things, she built up the Swiss branch of the IFFF and led it after Clara Ragaz's death. She was a strong advocate of chemical and gas weapons bans.

She was involved in the Christian Catholic Church and was also an artist. Streets in Bern and Düsseldorf are named after her.

Quotes

"Within a few years a young Swiss woman, Miss Gertrud Woker, passed the following exams at the University of Bern: high school, secondary teacher, doctoral and grammar school teacher exams."

- Report in the Neue Wiener Tagblatt from January 17, 1904

"With the beginning of the summer semester, the University of Bern received its second female lecturer after the Russian Miss Dr. Tumarkin (in the meantime already appointed professor) made a bold start with her lectures with philosophical, especially ethical and aesthetic content, which are also popular with the stronger sex. The new, still very young private lecturer, Miss Dr. Gertrud Woker finished her chemical studies in Bern several years ago and will now start her new career with the inaugural lecture on the topic: "Problems of catalytic research". She is the daughter of the well-known history professor Philipp Woker, who is still responsible for his profession when he is still young, and Bern is experiencing the certainly rare case of seeing father and daughter working side by side at his alma mater as a teacher. "

- Report in the Wiener Hausfrau dated June 16, 1907

Works

  • Sketches . Bern: Sturzenegger 1902
  • Synthesis of 3,4 dioxyflavone . Diss. Bern 1903
  • Problems of Catalytic Research . Inaugural lecture, 1907
  • The catalysis. The role of catalysis in analytical chemistry , in four volumes, 1910–1931. (Part volumes 11/12, 21/22, 23/24 and 27/28 of the 51-volume series The Chemical Analysis. Collection of individual presentations in the field of chemical, technical-chemical and physical-chemical analysis , Enke, Stuttgart, 1907– 1962)
    • Volume 1: General part , iv, 646 pages, 1910
    • Volume 2: Inorganic Catalysts , xxii, 790 pages, 13 illustrations (Part 2, Special Part. Division 1), 1916
    • Volume 3: Biological Catalysts , Half 1: Hydrolyzing Ferments , xvi, 583 pages, 4 illustrations (Part 2, Special Part. Department 2), 1924
    • Volume 4: Biological Catalysts , Half 2: Respiratory Ferments , xix, 592 pages, 2 illustrations (Part 2, Special Part. Department 2), 1931
  • On poison gases (lecture given at the IFFF Congress in Washington), May 1924
  • Science and Scientific War . Zurich: Swiss Central Office for Peace Work, [1925]
  • The coming poison gas war . Stuttgart: Glaser u. Sulz, 1925. 5th edition 1927
  • Autobiography in: Leading Women in Europe. In sixteen self-descriptions , ed. by Elga Kern , Munich: E. Reinhardt, 1928, pp. 138-169
  • Poison gas and animals . Zurich: Central Office for Peace Work. 1928 (7S) also: as Hidigeis end. A little story to think about for cat lovers, Swiss women's calendar, Zurich 1929
  • Gas! . In: Das Tagebuch 10th year 1929, issue 1 from January 5, 1929, pp. 12-16.
  • The coming poison and fire war and its effects on the civilian population . [The foreword is from 1925, the foreword to the sixth edition from 1932.] Leipzig: Ernst Oldenburg Verlag, 1932
  • Biological Warfare Report. 1949
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction . o .O., 1952
  • Save humanity! Address to the German-French-Swiss peace meeting that took place on May 6, 1962 in the “Hirschen” in Lörrach. 1962
  • What about respect for human life? 1963
  • To the yesterday . Zurich (cooperative printing), around 1956
  • Atomic Energy and alternative sources of power . Geneva: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1957
  • Nuclear armament in Switzerland too? Zurich: Pacifist Bookstore, 1958
  • The catalysis. The role of catalysis in analytical chemistry . Stuttgart: F. Enke
  • The chemistry of the natural alkaloids . Stuttgart: Enke 1953

literature

  • Rogger Franziska: Gertrud Woker, in: The doctoral hat in the broom cupboard - the adventurous life of the first female students - using the example of the University of Bern, Bern 1999, ISBN 3-905561-32-8 , pp. 178–198.
  • Majken Larsen: "The struggle of women against the hell of poison and fire". The IFFF, Gertrud Woker and the poison gas discussion in Switzerland in the interwar period. Licentiate thesis, University of Zurich, 1995.
  • Gerit von Leitner : Do we want to wash our hands in innocence? Gertrud Woker (1878–1968), chemist & International Women's League 1915–1968. Weidler, Berlin 1998.
  • Lexicon of women . 2 volumes. Encyclios, Zurich 1953/1954, vol. 2, col. 1653 f.
  • Swiss Association for Women's Rights (ed.): The struggle for equal rights - Le combat pour les droits égaux. Schwabe, Basel 2009.
  • Gudrun Wedel (Ed.): Autobiographies of women: A lexicon. Böhlau, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20585-0 , p. 944 ( Google Books ).
  • Bettina Vincenz: honest women or champions? The Swiss Association of Women Academics (SVA) in the interwar period. Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-03919-198-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Staff news . In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt . January 17, 1904, p. 30 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed May 5, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Mrs. Hadwig: Female lecturer [sic!] In: Wiener Hausfrau . June 16, 1907, p. 11 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed May 5, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Woker, Gertrude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woker, Gertrud Johanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss women's rights activist, chemist and peace activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1968
Place of death Marin