Mary Hegeler

Mary Hegeler Carus

Lesedauer: 2 min
Mary Hegeler
Mary Hegeler

Educated factory-owner and publisher

Mary Hegeler

As a child, Mary Hegeler was fascinated by her father’s zinc production. Her thirst for knowledge took her from her native Illinois to Freiberg Mining Academy, becoming the first woman to enrol there. At the age of just 25, Mary Hegeler became a factory manager. Mary Hegeler was born in La Salle in the USA in 1861 as the first of ten children of German immigrants. When she was still a young girl, she would follow her father to the smelting furnaces in his zinc factory. Mary’s parents supported their daughter’s talent and interests and encouraged her to study chemistry. In 1882, Mary Hegeler became the first female graduate of the University of Michigan, where she was awarded a bachelor’s degree. But Mary Hegeler wanted to learn more. In 1885, she moved to Freiberg in Saxony in order to study. She already had ties to Freiberg Mining Academy, for her grandfather Julius Weisbach (1806–1871) had once taught there as a professor of mathematics, physics and mechanics. However, despite earning top grades in all subjects, Mary Hegeler was not allowed to formally graduate because she was a woman. In 1886, she returned to La Salle, where she took charge of the zinc factory of her father, who was increasingly focusing on his new firm, the Open Court Publishing Company, which specialized in journals on the humanities, philosophy and religion. In 1888, Mary Hegeler married the publishing house’s editor-in-chief Paul Carus (1852–1919) and they went on to have six children. They also financed the construction of a school in La Salle. Following the death of her husband, Mary Hegeler Carus began editing the journals The Open Court and The Monist. She died in 1936 after a short illness. At Freiberg Mining Academy, the Mary Hegeler Carus Fellowship has been awarded in memory of the talented scientist since 2012 to support female postdoctoral researchers.

 

 

Fotonachweis: Universitätsarchiv Freiberg (1, 2, 4); Wikimedia Commons (3)

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