First female lecturer and economics professor
Ingeborg Esenwein-Rothe
For decades, Ingeborg Esenwein-Rothe was regarded as the leading figure of economic statistics. Her academic career began in Saxony. Following her doctorate in economics, in 1947 she became the first woman to teach at Chemnitz Technical Academy. Ingeborg Rothe was born in 1911 into a wealthy family from Chemnitz. Her father was the consul and banker Alfred Herrmann Rothe. In 1928, Ingeborg initially decided to study foreign languages and music at Lausanne Conservatory in Switzerland. After her return, however, Ingeborg Rothe embarked upon another career closer to home when she became a trainee banker in her father’s company. In 1933, the ambitious Ingeborg Roth began studying music and economics at the universities of Rostock, Würzburg, Berlin and Leipzig. She climbed the next rung of the academic ladder in 1938 when she received a doctorate for her thesis ‘The economic structure of the Ore Mountain village’ at Leipzig University. This was followed by appointments at Leipzig Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Salzburg Department of Agriculture. After 1945, Ingeborg Rothe returned to her old hometown. In May 1947, she became the first female lecturer at Chemnitz Technical Academy (now Chemnitz University of Technology), teaching economics. In 1948, she married engineer Dr Hermann Esenwein. Two years later, the couple emigrated to West Germany, where Ingeborg Esenwein-Rothe taught at Wilhelmshaven College of Labour, Politics and Economics. In 1954, she was awarded the habilitation by the University of Münster. This paved the way for professorial appointments at first Wilhelmshaven College and then the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1976, emeritus status was conferred on Professor Esenwein-Rothe, and in 1986 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Trier. During her long academic career, she wrote over 100 publications, including a core work providing an introduction to demographic research. Ingeborg Esenwein-Rothe died in 2002 near Nuremberg.
Fotonachweis: Wikimedia Commons (1); Universitätsarchiv Leipzig (2); Universitätsarchiv Chemnitz (3); Universitätsarchiv Erlangen-Nürnberg, Bischof & Broel, Nürnberg (4)
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