Minna Lang

Minna (Wilhelmine) Lang (born March 20, 1891 in Sackisch , Glatz district , province of Silesia ; † July 30, 1959 in Pforzheim ) was a German physicist , teacher and science journalist . In 1917 she was the first woman to receive a doctorate in physics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . After the Second World War, she founded an important collection of Upper Pliocene mastodon remains in Meiningen ( southern Thuringia ).

Life

The daughter of the businessman Wilhelm Lang and his wife Willy Lang, née Freund, attended a private school in Berlin with her younger sister Käthe. When her father died in 1899, the mother and her two daughters returned to their parents' house in Frankfurt am Main , where they attended the Humboldt School ( secondary school for girls ). Since the family's financial situation was very tense, Minna then decided to attend the teachers' seminar , which did not require a high school diploma to attend . Here she met Emmy Klieneberger , with whom she had a lifelong friendship. After taking the exam in 1911, she taught at the Elisabeth School , but then decided to continue her education. Since there was still no university in Frankfurt, she attended the mathematics and physics courses at the Academy for Social and Commercial Sciences , from which the university then emerged.

From the winter semester of 1914, Minna Lang was able to study at the newly founded university in Frankfurt. After two semesters she became an assistant to Richard Wachsmuth , with whom she also received her doctorate. Friedrich Dessauer supported her with the measurements for the work "Absorption of hard X-rays in gases" . Together they passed the oral doctoral examination on February 5, 1917. Since the only way to earn a living for women with a degree in natural sciences was to become a teacher at the time, she took the state exams in physics, botany, zoology and mathematics. On April 1, 1918, the Royal Provincial School College awarded her "employability as a senior teacher at high schools and secondary educational institutions for young women".

In addition to her work as a teacher at a lyceum with a seminar for teachers in Meiningen from 1919 to 1947, she worked as a science journalist. Through her numerous articles in the daily press on topics of astronomy , botany and paleontology she became known to a wide audience. She acquired her knowledge through personal contacts with famous scientists. The astronomer Cuno Hoffmeister corresponded with her and made it possible for her to work at the Sonneberg observatory . She deepened her interest in geology through personal contact with Georg Wagner , who became her mentor.

Minna Lang did not remain unmolested by the political events and the increasing influence of the National Socialists. During this time she sought support in correspondence with Friedrich Dessauer, Otto Hahn and Max Planck . After she was accused of spreading the theories of the "Jew" Albert Einstein in physics class , she turned to the Nazi-recognized physicist Max Planck. She asked him to publicly acknowledge Einstein. Planck wrote to her on January 2, 1933: “As far as I am concerned, for years I have tried to explain and justify my appreciation of his great scientific achievements in the clearest possible manner. But because of some unpleasant experiences, I finally renounced to go into the political field. ”He informed her that he“ did not feel able to express myself in a daily newspaper about these things with even a few words. ”In 1937 she stepped forward the alternative of leaving school or becoming a member of the NSDAP entered the party. After the end of the war, she was therefore dismissed from school and had to look for a new field of activity.

In February 1945, after an air raid on Meiningen , Minna Lang and a colleague rescued the remains of the scientific collection of the secondary school in Meiningen Schloss Elisabethenburg , thus laying the foundation for the natural science department of the museum , which she subsequently built up and looked after as curator . When she received mastodon teeth in 1949 , which were found near Sülzfeld near Meiningen, she turned to the curator of the Natural History Museum Berlin , Wilhelm Otto Dietrich , who assisted her with the further supervision of the excavation and determination of the finds. Minna Lang's systematic collection led to the establishment of a mastodon room in the Meininger Museum, which opened in 1953. Today the collection is mainly in the South Thuringian collection of the Quaternary Paleontology Department in Weimar and in the Natural History Museum in Schleusingen . In 1978, between Untermaßfeld and Meiningen, a large complex site was discovered with the Ur-Werra , which today is one of the most important excavation sites in Europe for animals from the early Ice Age. Minna Lang died in 1959 and so did not see this important development again.

The Minna Lang hut on the eastern outskirts of Meiningen is named after Minna Lang. The large log house , in which there was initially a scientific bird teaching show, is now used as a venue for events and gatherings.

literature

• Käthe Lang: As long as it is day. Life and work of Dr. phil. nat. Minna Lang (1891-1959), Pforzheim 1960
• Renate Strohmeier: "This is the crazy search of our time": Betty Schloss-Weil - Minna Lang - Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel. The first women scientists at the University of Frankfurt am Main. In "Communications from the Institute for Science and Art", 56th year 2001, No. 4
• R.-D. Kahlke: On the history of the discovery and exploration of the Lower Pleistocene complex discovery site Untermaßfeld. In the S. (Ed.): The Pleistocene of Untermaßfeld near Meiningen (Thuringia) Part 1, Bonn 1997
• Archive of the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Physics Department, Minna Lang estate

Web links

• Literature by and about Minna Lang in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications by and about Minna Lang in WorldCat