History professor and archive director Renate Drucker, her father a lawyer, graduated from Salem Castle School. At this point, the whole world of knowledge lay before her. But then the Nazis came to power with their ‘racial laws’ followed by the war. Nevertheless, she made it to the apex of Leipzig University Archive. Originally, Renate Drucker, the youngest member of a Leipzig family of lawyers, had intended to join the legal profession, too. However, on leaving Salem Castle School, she opted to read history, German, English and Latin at Leipzig University. But in April 1938, she was expelled because she could not prove that she was a member of the Aryan race and even barred from setting foot on the institute’s premises. She was harassed by the Nazis because of her Jewish background and refused a work permit. Although her expulsion was revoked in 1941, she was still not allowed to take the state examination or a doctorate in Leipzig. Renate Drucker therefore transferred to Strasbourg, where she was awarded a doctorate on 23 November 1944, just hours before the arrival of American troops. The University of Tübingen issued her with a provisional doctorate certificate. On her return to Leipzig after the war, Renate Drucker was employed as a secretary by the Board of Lawyers and Notaries. In 1947, she began teaching medieval Latin at Leipzig University. In 1950, she was appointed director of the university archive. In addition to researching the history of Leipzig University, she worked tirelessly to rebuild the archive, which had been badly damaged in the war. Until her retirement in 1977, Renate Drucker also taught as an adjunct professor in the Faculty of History. In 1997, she was awarded the Saxon Order of Merit for her dedication and hard work researching Leipzig’s Jewish history. That same year, she was declared the first female freewoman of Leipzig. Renate Drucker died in Leipzig on 23 October 2009 at the age of 92.
Fotonachweis: Universitätsarchiv Leipzig (2, 3, 4); Universitätsarchiv Leipzig, Petra Hesse (1)
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