List of department heads in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society

The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was a less misogynistic institution compared to the universities . Women scientists worked in some Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes from 1912 onwards, and in 10 Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes there were at least 14 heads of department whose status corresponded to that of an associate professor .

Three of the 14 department heads were appointed Scientific Members . Three others were only unofficially entrusted with this position.

KWI for	Head	Department	from ... to
chemistry	Lise Meitner (Scientific Member 1914–1938)	Physics.-radioactive	1917-1938
brain research	Cécile Vogt (Scientific Member 1919–1937)	Brain anatomy	1919-1937
Pulp chemistry	Gerda Laski	Ultrared research	1924-1927
Foreign public Law and international law	Marguerite Wolff (unofficial)	English and American Legal issues	1925-1933
biochemistry	Maria Kobel	Tobacco research	1929-1936
Medical research	Isolde Hausser (Scientific Member 1938–1951)	"Hausser Department"	1929-1951
brain research	Marthe Vogt	Chemical	1931-1935
Flow research	Irmgard Flügge-Lotz (unofficial)	Theoretically. aerodynamics	1934-1938
brain research	Gertrud Soeken	Clinic director	1935-1939
Animal breeding research	Ann-Charlotte Frölich	biological chemistry	1940-1943
biochemistry	Else Knake	Tissue engineering	1943–1945 / 63
Crop research	Elisabeth Schiemann	History of Cultivated Plants	1943–1945 / 56
Silicate research	Luise Holzapfel	Silica chemistry	1943 / 45–1962
Foreign public Law and international law	Angèle Auburtin (unofficial)	Americ. Constitutional and Administrative Law / Kath. Canon Law	1934 / 44-1945

In addition, a total of 254 women scientists were employed at the 41 research institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society until 1945. The KWI thus assumed a special position among the non-university research institutions, since before the 1950s women did not take on management positions in any academy apart from the Leopoldina . Annette Vogt attributes this to the so-called Harnack principle of the KWI, according to which scientific employees could not be democratically elected by all members, but rather determined by the directors of the respective institutes. This completely excluded female scientists from some institutes, but gave them higher chances of employment at other institutes.

literature

Annette Vogt : From the back entrance to the main portal? Lise Meitner and her colleagues at the Berlin University and in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. Steiner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-515-08881-7 , ( Pallas Athene 17).
Annette Vogt: Scientists in Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. A – Z. 2nd expanded edition. Archive for the history of the Max Planck Society, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-927579-12-5 , ( publications from the archive for the history of the Max Planck Society 12).
Annette Vogt: The Kaiser Wilhelm Society dared: women as department heads . In: Renate Tobies (Ed.): “All male culture in spite of”. Women in math and science. Campus, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1997, ISBN 3-593-35749-6 , p. 203.

Individual evidence

^ Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 171.
^ Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 170.
^ Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 172.

[1] Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 171.

[2] Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 170.

[3] Annette Vogt: Barriers and Careers - Using the Example of Women Scientists in Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In: Hildegard Küllchen, Sonja Koch, Brigitte Schober and Susanne Schötz (eds.): Women in Science - Women at the TU Dresden. Conference on the occasion of the admission of women to study in Dresden 100 years ago, Leipzig 2010, pp. 161–179, here: 172.