User:Mwadastra

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I'm Marianna and I'm a student at Freiburg University.

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Frauenstudium im deutschen Sprachraum --> Übersetzung: Women at German universities

Marianna: Entstehungsphase der Universitäten User:a/Women at German universities

Lara: 16. -19. Jahrhundert

Simon: 19. Jahrhundert + Schweiz als Vorreiterin

Matej: Die russischen Studentinnen

Lena: Deutsches Reich - Vorreiterinnen

Christmas market in Berlin History Part 1 (Rafael & Marianna)
The earliest references to events similar to Christmas markets date back to around 1530 and can be found in the municipal register of Cölln. These were first held in the streets between Petriplatz – Gertraudenstraße – Köllnischer Fischmarkt – Mühlendamm – Molkenmarkt – Poststraße and Heiligegeiststraße. According to Jutta Schneider, "stall holders were explicitly allowed to trade honey cake and other types of syrup based pastries at the Petriplatz and the fish market of Cölln in exchange for a stall fee of two Groschen a day during the Christmas season".

In 1750 the trading, which originally lasted from 11th December to 6th January of the following year, was moved to the Breite Straße by the city's administration. Later on the Christmas market expanded in the direction of the Schlossplatz and remained in the city center until 1873. Since 1872, 27th December has marked the end of the selling season. However, there have been repeated attempts to keep the market off the streets, as it led to significant traffic disruptions in the inner city. Furthermore, Breite Straße store owners feared the Christmas market would compromise their sales, saying the market was "a thoroughly obsolete institution for traders, not befitting the conditions and grandeur of the capital of the Reich anymore."

In 1873, the Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden) was chosen as the new location, but it was moved to Arkonastraße from 1891 onwards, with an interruption during World War I, because of safety considerations and the construction of the Berlin Cathedral. Between 1937 and 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, the market returned to the Lustgarten. During its peak, there were up to 2000 merchants.

Women at German universities: Founding stages of universities
Not until the beginning of the 20th century were university studies fully accessible to women in German speaking countries, with the exception of Switzerland. The possibility for women to have access to university education, and moreover to obtain a university degree is now part of general higher education for all.

Founding stages of universities / Medieval universities
From the 12th century onwards, universities were first founded based on customary law, then after 1350 universities were also established as the territorial lord'sendowment. During these initial stages, the social conditions of the Middle Ages led to the establishment of universities as a purely masculine domaine.

Many universities emerged from cathedral schools for future priests. Therefore, university lecturers belonged to the clergy and had to live in celibacy(only since 1452 have medical doctors been officially allowed to marry). Additionally, students had to go through a basic clerical education in the Seven Liberal Arts in order to continue their studies, graduating from the Faculty of the Arts included a lower ordination.This way women were implicitly excluded from university studies because, due to the oath of secrecy attributed to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, they were not allowed to be ordained.

The Schola Medica Salernitana, which was founded in 1057 and remained a purely medical college, allowed women to study. Names of female medical doctors of this college have been verified. Trota von Salerno for example, presumably at the beginning of the early 12th century, worked as a practical doctor at the school in Salerno. She wrote several treatises on medical practice in general and on gynaecology in particular. One of the works published at the Schola Medica Salernitana in the 12th century includes texts from the school's seven masters (magistri), among which Trota's teachings may be found. In the 13th century a Jewish woman called Rebekka was awarded a doctorate in Salerno as one of the first female doctors ever. Hence, individual schools allowed women to study and teach medicine.  The establishment of universities led to the expansion of the importance and function of the sciences as opposed to the trade apprenticeships. Moreover, academics and scientists developed an identity which linked masculinity with mind and spirit. These polarised images of the genders (men = intellectual beings; women = physical beings) were adopted from medieval theology. Thus, science and femininity were seen as a contradiction. Female skills and knowledge were more and more demonised (witches, poisoners). Women, and especially inquisitive women, were seen as distractions from the sciences for the (intellectual) man and often even as a threat to scholars (compare the story of Abelard and Héloïse as well as Merlin and Viviane). Although, university lecturers and students chose a female scholar as their patron saint, namely Saint Cathrine of Alexandria, according to the legend, Cathrine did not use her knowledge for power or leverage. By rejecting all secular powers, she limited her own options to act. 

Soon the universities developed men's societies (so-called Männerbünde) with a corresponding subculture (compare for example the songs of the Carmina Burana). The uncontrolled actions of some students often led to conflicts with the city's inhabitants. Sometimes this could lead to the departure of entire groups of academics who then founded new universities elsewhere. Among the universities' intellectuals many rejected the ideas of clerical celibacy as well as marriage. They saw themselves in a competitive situation with the hereditary nobility, which found its expression in showing off their sexual triumphs and sexual assaults against women. In order to protect the citizens' daughters, the cities set up brothels. 

Extending admissions at the end of the 19th century
Since the end of the 19th century women have been gradually allowed to enrol at German universities. In 1880, Hope Bridges Adams Lehmann, who had attended classes as a guest auditor in medicine, was the first woman to graduate with a Staatsexamen from a German university. However, her degree from the University of Leipzig was not officially recognised. Subsequently, she obtained a doctorate in Bern. In 1881, she received the British licence to practise medicine in Dublin.

The central cause of the women's movement during the time of the German Empire was the improvement of women's education and their access to professions and careers reserved for men. In 1888, the General German Women's Association submitted a petition to the Prussian House of Representatives asking for the admission of women to the studies of medical and academic teaching degrees. In the same year, the German Reformed Women's Association petitioned for the admission of women to all subjects of study. However, these initiatives did not achieve any immediate success.

However, individual women achieved exceptions. These exceptions opened a back door to the admission of women at universities: What started as an exception became the rule.The first step had been the admission of women as guest auditors, which had been permitted in Prussia since 1896. This status allowed many women to study. Among them were important figures of the German Empire, such as Helene Stöcker or Gertrud Bäumer. Some women, for example Gertrud Bäumer in 1904, used the opportunity complete their studies with a doctorate.

Between 1852 and 1920, women were not admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich anymore. Therefore, in order to receive an education in the Fine Arts, future female artists had to enrol at expensive private schools or at newly founded institutions such as the ladies' academy of the Künstlerinnen Verein (1884-1920) or the Debschitz-Schule (1902-1914). However, the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule, founded in 1868, had allowed women to attend classes since 1872 in a faculty reserved for women. The increase in female students after World War I (as for instance at the University of Würzburg) was criticised and debated in the student body because women were deemed "useless" during times of war. In December 1919, this led to the foundation of the AStA subcommittee for female issues by the student of mathematics Alma Wolffhardt. She tried to dismiss the allegation that women tried to take intellectual advantage of the war. There began a tenacious fight for admissions to the academy, which finally had success in the winter semester 1920/1921. In total 17 women were allowed to enrol and to study under the same conditions as their male peers.

Role of jewish Women
Most of the female auditors attended the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. During the first years, there were particularly many Jewish women, especially from the Russian Empire. At the faculty of medicine they even represented the majority of the female students. Many of these women had previously studied in Switzerland and therefore could provide proof of examination at an academic level. One of the arguments to open German universities to women was that Swiss universities had had good experiences with female students. The most famous was Rosa Luxemburg, who had studied economics during the 1890s at the University of Zurich. Other prominent women who studied at Swiss universities included the sisters Hanna and Maria Weizmann, as well as Vera Chazmann, who later on became the wife of Chaim Weizmann. In addition, the philosopher Anna Tumarkin became the first female professor of the University of Bern.

Baden as the model state
On 28 February 1900, the Grand Duchy of Baden was the first German state to issue a decree which allowed women the full access to universities. Since 1895 women had been granted revocable rights to pursue academic studies at the faculty of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. A decisive role had been played by Johanna Kappes, an auditor at the University of Freiburg, who had filed a petition with the state government. In Freiburg, the state's decree was implemented reactively for the winter term 1899/1900. In addition to Johanna Kappes, four women were admitted at the University of Freiburg as regular students. In Heidelberg, regular admissions for women were implemented in the summer semester 1900. Among these women was the Jewish student of medicine and subsequent physician Rahel Straus, who writes about her times as a student in her memoir.

Edith Stein, who obtained a doctorate summa cum laudeat the University of Freiburg in 1916, was the first German university assistant with Edmund Husserl in philosophy. Later on he admitted that she would be able to pursue a habilitation but obstructed her career ambitions because of "general concerns". In her habilitation thesis Finite and Infinite Being(Endliches und Ewiges Sein) she had engaged with the works of Husserl and his successor Heidegger.

The situation in Württemberg
On 16 May 1904 the King of Württemberg issued a decree that "women in the German Empire should be able to apply to the University of Tübingen under the same conditions as their male peers". Since 1 December 1905 this applied as well to the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart.

Prussia
In Prussia, women had been admitted as guest auditors since 1896. Yet women had been able to study in Prussia with a special permit issued by the minister of education before. Already in 1895 40 women studied in Berlin and 31 in Göttingen. Overall the admission of women as guest auditors had been a significant improvement of their legal status because they were allowed to obtain a doctorate.

In 1908, women were allowed to enrol as regular students at Prussian universities. In 1913 approximately 8 % of all students were women. Until 1930 their percentage increased to 16 %.