Waltraut Kruse

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Waltraut Kruse (full name: Maria Christina Waltraut Susanne Kruse, née Ebbertz ; * March 12, 1925 in Walheim in the Aachen district ; † February 27, 2019 ) was a German general practitioner and psychotherapist as well as a local politician ( CDU ). From 1979 to 1989 she was the mayor of Aachen .

Live and act

After graduating from the Ursuline grammar school in Aachen, Kruse initially did a student compensation service on an estate on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen and began studying medicine in Gdansk during the Second World War . Due to the war, she had to interrupt her studies, as she was called up to work as a Red Cross helper for the Posen area and later in Siegburg in the Rhineland . After the war she continued her medical studies at the medical faculty of the University of Frankfurt am Main and graduated with the state examination and the dissertation The Plague in Aachen and in the neighboring Rhineland with Hans Schlossberger .

After her assistantship, among other things at the Mariannen Institute in Aachen, and corresponding specialist training, she settled in 1968 as a specialist in general medicine with a country doctor's practice in Aachen-Walheim. After further training, she received an additional qualification as a specialist in psychotherapy in 1973 and then expanded her practice to become a group practice for general medicine and psychotherapy. One of her main focuses was the further development of autogenic training in the treatment of psychosomatic disorders in children and adolescents.

In 1976 Kruse was entrusted with the management of the field of general medicine at the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University and in 1983 was appointed honorary professor. In addition to supervising doctoral students, her focus was on research in the areas of addiction prophylaxis, family medicine and prevention in children and adolescents.

Also in 1976, the University Clinic in Aachen entrusted her with the organization and management of the newly established and initiated West German Psychotherapy Seminar in Aachen, which has been taking place annually since then with a specific set of topics. Even if the organization has been spread over several shoulders for several years, Waltraut Kruse was still a member of the management group of the 36th event in 2012, despite her advanced age.

Influenced by her mother, who had been a member of the Aachen City Council for 17 years, and at the request of her patients, Waltraut Kruse was encouraged to become politically active in her district in the early 1970s. In 1975 she succeeded in the local elections in the city council of Aachen, to which she belonged until 1994. In 1979 she was elected mayoress as the first woman in Aachen by the city council and, after being re-elected in 1984, she remained in this office for ten years. She had been married to the physician Herbert Kruse since 1949, who died in 1985 at the age of 62. The marriage had four children, including the psychologist and gerontologist Andreas Kruse .

Memberships (selection)

In addition to her professional and political obligations, Waltraut Kruse also belonged to a number of specialist organizations and took on various voluntary functions. Among other things, she was:

  • Member of the Max Planck Society
  • 1989 to 2003 First chair of the Association of University Lecturers and Lecturers for General Medicine (GHA)
  • Chairwoman of the Society for the Promotion of General Medicine at the Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen eV
  • Member of the scientific editorial team of Deutsches Ärzteblatt
  • Board member of the German Congress for Medical Training in Berlin
  • Honorary member of the German Society for Medical Hypnosis and Autogenic Training

Honors

After her retirement from the Aachen City Council, Waltraut Kruse was awarded the City of Aachen's Golden Ring of Honor on March 24, 1995 for her longstanding political services . In addition, she received the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 12, 1999, and an honorary citizen of RWTH Aachen University on December 12, 2002 .

In 2015 she was awarded the Paracelsus Medal , the highest honor awarded by the German medical profession.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aachen mourns the loss of former mayor Waltraut Kruse accessed on February 28, 2019
  2. ↑ Pioneer as a politician and doctor: Waltraut Kruse turns 85. aachener-zeitung.de on March 11, 2010 , accessed on July 26, 2012
  3. ↑ Document on the city's website , accessed on July 27, 2012
  4. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Laudations 2015. In: bundesaerztekammer.de. Retrieved May 17, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Kruse, Waltraut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kruse, Maria Christina Waltraut Susanne (full name); Ebbertz, Waltraut (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychotherapist, local politician (CDU), Mayor of Aachen
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 2019