Clara Willdenow

Clara Willdenow (8 October 1856 – 4 July 1931) was one of the first German women to attain a medical degree, though because she was denied study in her own country, she earned her degree in Switzerland. Opening a private gynaecology clinic, she operated it for more than two decades. Willdenow was openly lesbian and did not attempt to hide her orientation.

Biography

Clara Willdenow was born on 8 October 1856 in Bonn, Kingdom of Prussia.[1] Her father, Karl Willdenow is sometimes styled as a pedagogist from Berlin,[2] at others as a privy councilor from Breslau[1] and at others a curator at the University of Bonn. Her great-grandfather was the botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow.[3] She was privately educated until completing her Abitur and then enrolled in 1884 at the medical school at Zurich University.[1] At the time, German universities refused to admit women.[4] Studying in Zurich until 1887,[1] after passing her Propaedeutic Examinations she went on to further her education at Bern, with a specialty in pediatrics.[1][3] While she was still a student, she met Friedrich Nietzsche and belonged to his circle, which included Agnes Bluhm, Eva Corell, Meta von Salis, and Resa von Schirnhofer.[5] She was awarded a degree in 1893,[1] becoming one of the few German women granted a medical degree prior to 1900.[6]

Willdenow conducted laboratory work under Edmund Drechsel, the noted chemist. She studied the milk protein casein and conducted research into the inorganic salts of lysine in the 1890s.[7][8][9][10] In 1894, she opened a private gynaecological practice in the Seefield district of Zurich, which she operated until 1923.[3][7] She was known for her explicit relationships with women and was likely exclusively lesbian. Between 1904 and 1909, she was the lover of Mentona Moser and then for thirty-one years had a relationship with Pauline Bindschedler.[11][3] The word lesbian was not in common use at the time, but in describing their relationship, Moser specifically called it "lesbian love".[12]

In 1900, Willdenow and other doctors signed a petition asking the Federal Council to accept examination results for Swiss universities as prerequisites for the German examinations.[3] Though in 1899, German law changed and allowed women to participate in the medical profession, the application of the law was varied among the German states.[13] Willdenow later volunteered as a doctor in a Berlin clinic. She died on 4 July 1931 in Zurich.[7]

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References

Citations
  1. Creese 2004, p. 138.
  2. Schmid 2003, p. 83.
  3. Institute for the History of Medicine 2015.
  4. Albisetti 1982, p. 104.
  5. Schmid 2003, pp. 83-84.
  6. Hoesch 1995, p. 375.
  7. Creese 2004, p. 139.
  8. Forbes & Keith 1914, p. 263.
  9. Mann 1906, p. 395.
  10. Willdenow 1898, p. 523.
  11. Leidinger 2008, p. 67-68.
  12. Schnurrenberger & Winter 2002.
  13. Albisetti 1982, p. 120.

Bibliography
  • Albisetti, James C. (1982). "The fight for female physicians in Imperial Germany" (PDF). Central European History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 15: 99–123. ISSN 0008-9389. Retrieved 3 June 2017 – via Cambridge University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Creese, Mary R. S. (2004). Ladies in the Laboratory II: West European Women in Science, 1800-1900: a Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4979-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Forbes, Ernest Browning; Keith, M. Helen (1914). A Review of the Literature of Phosphorus Compounds in Animal Metabolism. Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Series. Bulletin #5. Wooster, Ohio: The Agricultural Commission of Ohio. OCLC 38253064.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hoesch, Kristin (1995). "Die Bemühungen in Deutschland tätiger Ärztinnen um die Approbation von 1877–1900". Medizinhistorisches Journal (in German). Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag. 30 (4): 353–376. ISSN 0025-8431. JSTOR 25805142.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Leidinger, Christiane (2008). Keine Tochter aus gutem Hause: Johanna Elberskirchen (1864-1943) (in German). Konstanz, Germany: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft. ISBN 978-3-86764-064-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mann, Gustav (1906). Chemistry of the proteids. London, England: Macmillan and Company. OCLC 5315611.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Schmid, Holger (2003). Briefe von und an Friedrich Nietzsche, Januar 1885 - Dezember 1886 (in German). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017428-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Schnurrenberger, Regula; Winter, Anita (translator) (2002). "Mentona Moser (1874-1971), Clara Willdenow (1856-1931), Pauline Bindschedler (1856-1933) [online]". Lesbengeschichte. Zurich, Switzerland: Boxhammer, Ingeborg/Leidinger, Christiane. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2017. self-published but with references.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Willdenow, Clara (1898). "Ueber Lysursäure und ihre Salze" [About lysuric acid and its salts]. Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie (in German). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. 25: 523–550. doi:10.1515/bchm2.1898.25.5-6.523. ISSN 0018-4888. Retrieved 3 June 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Clara Willdenow". Geschichte Charité Berlin (in German). Berlin, Germany: Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und für Ethik in der Medizin, Charité. 2015. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
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