Esteemed lecturer and honorary meteorologist
Ingrid von Reyher
Being the first female lecturer at Mittweida School of Engineering, Ingrid von Reyher faced an uphill struggle with male prejudice. But through a combination of expertise and perseverance, she soon became a role model for her colleagues and students alike.
Since 2012, the annual Ingrid von Reyher Award has been presented at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences in her honour.
Ingrid von Reyher came from a German-Baltic noble family. In 1927, she left her native Łódź and moved to Vienna, where she enrolled at the university to study chemistry and physics. After completing her doctorate, she returned to Łódź and worked as a chemist at the State Institute of Hygiene. After the war, Ingrid von Reyher was expelled from Łódź and settled in Mittweida. Because of the acute shortage of lecturers at Mittweida School of Engineering, Ingrid von Reyher was taken on there in November 1945. Looking back, she described her initial experience there as follows: “Yes, it was terrible at first. People told me that at my first lecture, the students almost fell off their seats because they hadn’t thought it possible to be taught by a woman.” Fortunately, their doubts soon subsided.
Ingrid von Reyher remained one of the few female lecturers at Mittweida School of Engineering until her retirement in 1968. Aside from teaching, Ingrid von Reyher worked hard for the town of Mittweida and became a local councillor from 1977 to 1989. As an honorary registrar, she performed over 400 weddings. She applied her expertise by volunteering for the meteorological service of first East Germany and then Germany as a whole following reunification. For her services to meteorology, in 1993 Ingrid von Reyher was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On her 90th birthday, she was made a freewoman of Mittweida. Ingrid von Reyher died in Mittweida in 2004.
Fotonachweis: Hochschularchiv Mittweida (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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