Biography Kräutle
Nora Kräutle studied chemistry in Stuttgart and was one of the first female chemists at the Höchst dye works. However, her employment ended when she married in 1919. Her husband worked for the same company – and this was not considered acceptable.
Eleonore (Nora) Kräutle was born in Stuttgart in 1891. Her father was a senior building official with the Royal Württemberg State Railways. After attending the Höhere Töchterschule and obtaining her school-leaving certificate at the Königin-Charlotte-Gymnasium in Stuttgart, she studied chemistry at the Technical College (TH) in her home city. Having passed her diploma examination in January 1914 and been awarded the academic degree “Dipl.-Ing. Chemie”, she became the first female graduate engineer of the TH Stuttgart. She completed her doctoral thesis in the laboratory of Alexander Gutbier (1876–1926), Professor of Electrochemistry and Chemical Technology at the TH Stuttgart. Following an interruption caused by the war, during which she worked as an assistant with the Red Cross and at the Stuttgart Food Office, Kräutle became the first woman to be awarded a doctorate with distinction at a technical college in the German Reich in July 1915.
She then worked for a year in Heidelberg in the private laboratory of Max Buchner (1866–1934), on whose initiative the German Society for Chemical Apparatus Engineering (DECHEMA) was founded in 1926. When Buchner moved to Hanover and took up a position with the chemical company Riedel de Haen in Seelze, Kräutle also moved into industry. In January 1917, she became one of the first female chemists at the then “Farbwerke Höchst am Main, formerly Meister Lucius & Brüning” in Höchst am Main, Nassau, which was incorporated into Frankfurt am Main a few years later. This company subsequently became the chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Hoechst AG.
In 1919, Kräutle married her colleague Anton Gramberg (1875–1966). This brought her Career to an end, as it was not considered proper for a married couple to work for the same company. While her husband progressed professionally, the talented chemist was encouraged to leave the company. The couple also had two children, whose upbringing she took care of.
Nora Kräutle died in Frankfurt am Main in 1981.
In January 2014, the University of Stuttgart, which emerged from the TH Stuttgart, commemorated its first female graduate. To mark the 100th anniversary of Nora Kräutle’s diploma graduation, the university awarded the Prima! Prize for the first time. It recognises outstanding final-year projects by female graduates of the University of Stuttgart.
Source
G. Hardtmann and N. Hille: The Beginnings of Women’s Studies in Württemberg: The First Female Graduates of the TH Stuttgart. An anniversary publication, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2014
Nora Kräutle as a student in the laboratory at the Technical College (today: University) of Stuttgart in the winter semester of 1911/12.
Authors
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Ehlers
Prof. Dr. Heribert Offermanns
Editorial work
Dr. Uta Neubauer
Project management
Dr. Karin J. Schmitz (GDCh-public relations)
The authors are responsible for the content of the biographies.
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