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Martha Krug-Genthe, born in 1871 and died in 1945 was a German geographer. She became the world's first female doctor in geography in 1901, this pioneer had an exceptional career for a woman in world geography during the Belle Époque.

The world's first doctor of geography in Germany
Martha Krug is the first woman in the world to obtain a doctorate in geography, in 1901 in Heidelberg, under the direction of Alfred Hettner.

In her thesis, Martha Krug examines how hydrographic charts are used to map ocean currents. In particular, she analyzes the extension of the Gulf Stream to the northeast, the North American current, to map out the burgeoning knowledge in the field of oceanography.

According to Ginsburger, her doctorate is made possible by a favorable context and environment, at a time when women do not pursue academic careers. Krug studied under Friedrich Ratzel at the Leipzig University, a few years after Ellen Churchill Semple, the first known geography student in Germany, was present clandestinely as a free auditor in 1891-1892. Krug met Alfred Hettner in Leipzig, who made her defend her doctorate and publish several articles on the teaching of geography in the German and American school systems, in the journal he founded in 1895, the Geographische Zeitschrift.

In the United States
Krug married in 1901 with Karl Wilhelm Genthe, and joined him in Boston the same year. As a zoologist, he is employed in various private universities in the United States.

In 1901, National Geographic magazine published a 14 pages article she wrote on german geography. She then obtained a teaching position at the Beacon School in Hartford, a secondary school for young women where she taught geography.

As an expert in the school geography of both countries, she has established herself alongside Semple in national (American Association of Geographers - AAG) and international (International Congress of Geography in Washington) disciplinary institutions.

At the 1904 International Geographical Congress in Washington, Martha Krug-Genthe was chosen to deliver the "Tribute", a speech commemorating Friedrich Ratzel, the most influential cultural geographer of that time. She also features an article on « School Geography in the United States » in the geography and education section, the only section open to women.

She is one of the 48 founding members of the AAG, the only woman alongside Ellen Churchill Semple, and also the only one of the 48 founders of the AAG present in Philadelphia to have a doctorate in geography.

Martha Krug-Genthe is named associate editor of the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. This affiliation strengthened her professional credentials and constitutes the only secure anchor point accessible to her as a woman in the world of university geography.

In 1907, the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society published its work Valley Towns of Connecticut. It is a regional study of the economic factors driving the evolution of Hartford's urban system as the preeminent center of the Connecticut River Valley.

Return to Germany
Her return to Germany in 1911 marked her total and definitive exit from the disciplinary field.

A pioneer
Krug-Genthe had a short (a decade) but highly visible career, at a time that was very restrictive for women. Ginsburger mentions that « "We don't know if she had to go abroad to follow her husband and promote his career to the detriment of her's, or if she made the choice to give up a very hypothetical university post in Germany to invest in school geography was only open, being little valued in the Germanic geography but booming in the United States. She found there an undeniable form of recognition, in an American disciplinary field then much less prestigious than in Germany, but valuing the skills of this outsider and giving women a more favorable place, at least in pre-university education. ».

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