Berta Ottenstein: the career of a German-Jewish dermatologist after 1933

Berta Ottenstein, a German-Jewish dermatologist held PhDs in chemistry (1913) and in medicine (1919) from the University of Nuremberg as well as a Habilitation in dermatology (1931) from the University of Freiburg. She was the first woman in Freiburg and the first woman in dermatology to earn this highest academic qualification, which is required in many continental European universities to conduct self-contained university teaching, and to obtain a professorship. After her dismissal from the University of Freiburg, she first migrated to Hungary, later to Turkey, and finally to the US. As a dermatologist, she was very well respected and a ground-breaking researcher, but as a woman she had to overcome many obstacles; as a Jew she was expelled and discriminated against in her own country. Without her professional network, which was based on her scientific excellence as well as on her ability to build friendships in all the many places she lived, she would have not been able to continue her career in exile.

Bildquelle: Universitätsarchiv Freiburg D001301393

The visualization shows the biographical data of Berta Ottenstein.

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The visualization shows Berta Ottenstein's personal network.

Notes on visualization:
If you move the mouse over the individual nodes, the meaning of the nodes pops up. The nodes can also be moved around. The following reading example should help you to read the visualization: We are looking at the blue node labeled "Istanbul University". The green nodes connected to the blue node show which people (red nodes) worked professionally at Istanbul University. The yellow nodes connected to the persons (red nodes) show the personal relationships with other persons. So you can see that Berta Ottenstein, who worked at the University of Istanbul, was friends with Alfred Heilbronn, who also worked at the same University. The same picture can be seen with Berta Ottenstein and Philipp Schwartz. On the other hand, it also appears that Friedrich Dessauer, for example, was also active at the University of Istanbul, but has no personal relationship with Berta Ottenstein (according to current knowledge). On the other hand, the visualization shows that Philipp Schwartz had a role in the employment relationship Friedrich Dessauer-University of Istanbul.

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The visualization shows the biographical data of the people belonging to Berta Ottenstein's network.

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Expulsion, migration, and changing Networks. Mathematics during the NS-Period in Germany and Switzerland

Based on our dataset we will digitally trace in some detail the direct results of the declaration of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the mathematicians at Göttingen University and focus on the changing academic reputation of the Göttingen Institute for mathematics. In the second part, focusing on Switzerland and based on two examples, we will show how digital approaches can be used to illustrate the interdependencies of Swiss universities and/or professors working at Swiss universities within the transnational network of science to clarify to what extent these digital approaches can also stimulate questions about Swiss appointment policy(s).

The biographical perspective on the impact of the forced migration in the 1930s and 1940s on individual careers is one of three main objectives of our research project.  We are equally interested in the way the transnational academic network and the academic landscape as such changed due to the expulsion of academics. [....]

The visualization displays the career steps of the Göttingen mathematics between 1925 and 1950. Hence it shows their worldwide movements in terms of career but also illustrates how the academic standing of the mathematical institute in Göttingen changes over time. The dots indicate career positions, which mean places of graduation or scientific appointments. The larger a dot the more career steps of mathematicians are located at this place or institution.

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This pie chart visualizes the reasons for termination of mathematicians at European universities between 1933 and 1939. The reasons were grouped thematically in order to the information in our database. If one clicks on a category it is possible to hide it and thus to compare different universities on a specific issue.

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The geographical visualization shows the career paths of all mathematics professors who occupied a full professorship at a Swiss university between 1900 and 1950. The visualization thus depicts the (inter)national mobility of this group of mathematicians in the first half of the 20th century.

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he chronological visualization presented here shows the total number of full professors in mathematics in Switzerland (vertical, blue lines) as well as their distribution among the different universities (horizontal, colored lines/dots) between 1914 and 1950.

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The geographical visualization shows the career paths of all professors of mathematics who held a full professorship at a Swiss university between 1900 and 1950. In order to better trace the career paths of George Polya and Anton Huber, they have been drawn in a different color.

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