Rahel Hirsch zählt zu den Pionierinnen der Medizin in Deutschland. Aufgrund ihrer
wissenschaftlichen Leistungen wurde ihr 1913 als erster Ärztin in Preußen der Professorentitel
verliehen. Zu lesen, wie sie es schaffte, überhaupt Medizin zu studieren und in einer
von Männern besetzten Domäne zu bestehen, gleicht einer Zeitreise. Ein Beitrag über
das Leben einer beeindruckenden Wissenschaftlerin.
Abstract
Rahel Hirsch, whose 150th birthday was celebrated on 15 September 2020, is one of the female pioneers of medicine
in Germany. Since it was not yet possible for women to study medicine in Germany at
the end of the 19th century, she initially worked as a teacher. In 1898 she went to Switzerland to study
medicine, graduating in Strasbourg in 1903. From 1903 to 1919 she worked in the 2nd Medical Clinic of the Berlin Charité hospital. Due to her scientific achievements,
she was the first female medical doctor in Prussia to be awarded the title of professor
in 1913. Her early investigations into the permeability of the intestinal mucosa for
large corpuscular particles and their renal elimination were initially met with rejection
and ignorance. It took more than half a century until the phenomena she discovered
found their way into the specialist literature as the “Hirsch effect”. After the First
World War, Rahel Hirsch worked mainly in her own practice. As a Jew during the dictatorship
of the National Socialists, she was marginalised and increasingly endangered, and
emigrated to England in 1938. There she lived in modest circumstances and died in
London in 1953. Rahel Hirsch, who asserted herself in a male-dominated environment
both as a doctor and as a scientist, is a suitable role model for those who work for
more gender equality in medicine and society today.
Schlüsselwörter
Rahel Hirsch - Frauen in der Medizin - Innere Medizin - Hirsch-Effekt - Charité
Key words
Rahel Hirsch - medical women - internal medicine - Hirsch effect - Charité
