Gabriele Possanner

Gabriele Possanner (1860–1940) was the first female doctor to practice medicine in Austria.[1] She was the daughter of the Austrian jurist Benjamin Possanner, and lived in six different cities until the age of twenty due to him moving often for his work.[2] In October 1880 he was appointed as Section Chief at the Imperial Treasury in Vienna, and the family, including Gabriele, was able to settle in Vienna.[2]

As a doctor Gabriele initially worked as a public medical officer in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Muslim women refused to be seen by male doctors.[3] She had been given a medical degree by the University of Zurich in 1894, but it was not until 1897 that she was able to take the viva voce examination a second time, this time in front of Viennese examiners, thus qualifying her to practice as a doctor in Austria.[4] She thus became the first woman to graduate from the University of Vienna with a medical degree in 1897.[4] After that she was the only female doctor at an Austrian-Hungarian hospital until 1903.[3]

Legacy

In 1960 the Possannergasse in Hietzing was named after Gabriele.[3] In 2004 the Gabriele-Possanner-Park in the 9th Viennese district was named after her as well.[3] There is also the Gabriele Possanner Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in the 21st Viennese district.[3]

The Gabriele Possanner State Prize (German: Gabriele-Possanner-Staatspreis) is a state award for feminist research in Austria, named for Gabriele. It was established in 1997, and is awarded every second year by the Federal Ministry of Science and Research.[5]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Buffalo Medical Journal. 1896. pp. 910–.
  2. 1 2 "Gabriele Possanner von Ehrenthal". 20 August 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Geocaching. "GC4RXAA Vienna Science Quest 7 - Frauen in Wissenschaft (Multi-cache) in Wien, Austria created by OpenScience". Geocaching.com.
  4. 1 2 "Women Students".
  5. ↑ "BMWFW".
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