Katharina von Künßberg

Katharina Freifrau von Künßberg , b. Samson (born May 5, 1883 in Cottbus , † October 27, 1977 in Heidelberg ) was a German zoologist and founding member of the German Women's Association .

Katharina Freiin von Künßberg was born as Katharina Samson into a Jewish family. She graduated from high school in Wroclaw in 1902 . She studied zoology, botany, geology and philosophy and received her doctorate in 1908. She was a student of Franz Eilhard Schulze . In 1909 she became a private assistant at the University of Munich. A year later she moved to the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin. In 1910 she married the legal historian Eberhard Freiherr von Künßberg , with whom she lived in Heidelberg. As of 1933, as a Jew, she was endangered in Germany. In 1942 she was supposed to be deported, which the Dean of the Law Faculty of Heidelberg, Eugen Ulmer , prevented. She was later hidden by her faithful housekeeper, Marie Geiser. Eberhard von Künßberg died in May 1941 as a result of gastric surgery. The five children of the Künßberg couple left Germany during the Third Reich and emigrated to England. In 1946 Katharina von Künßberg followed her children, only to return to Heidelberg a year later. In 1947 she became a founding member of the German Women's Ring and the founder and chairwoman of the Heidelberg German-American Women's Club.

literature

• Katharina Holger: About the slow rise of women. Dr. Katharina Freifrau von Kuenssberg tells from her life, Neumann Heidelberg 1979.

Web links

• Samson, Katharina in the German biography
• Database of international networks of female academics: Dr. Katharina (Käthe) von Künssberg , accessed on March 19, 2019.
• Friends of the Archive and Museum of Heidelberg University, Klaus-Peter Schroeder : Katharina von Künßberg - a German-Jewish journey through life , accessed on March 19, 2019.
• Calliope network : Samson, Katharina (1883–1978)