Anna Fischer-Dückelmann

Anna Fischer-Dückelmann (5 July 1856 – 1917) was a German physician and naturopath. She was among the first women to receive a medical degree in German-speaking Europe. She earned her degree at the University of Zurich in 1896, a time before women were allowed to enrol in German universities or medical schools,

Life

Anna Dückelmann was the daughter of the Austro-Hungarian military doctor and landowner Friedrich Dückelmann. They originally lived in Graz and then moved to Frankfurt. She decided to keep her maiden name, which was not common in the 1800s. Arnold Fischer worked for the Frankfurter Tagblatt, and the couple founded the weekly newspaper Volkswohl together, in which Fischer-Dückelmann wrote about medical topics and also criticized the lack of female doctors: "It remains embarrassing for many women that they should let men teach them about the most delicate things. How immature our sex is until it is able to protect itself from such male interventions in its innermost affairs by female physicians." In Frankfurt she met the first gynaecologist in Germany, Hope Bridges Adams Lehmann.

As a mother of three children, she moved to Zürich with her family at the age of 34. She studied medicine there from 1890 to 1896. In 1913, she acquired an estate near the local naturopathic institution based on a voluntary association. Critics denounced her medical self-help and naturopathy as quackery.

Vegetarianism

Fischer-Dückelmann was a vegetarian and did not drink alcohol.

She argued that her migraine attacks from her youth had been caused by meat consumption and that these attacks stopped when she gave up eating meat. However, she still considered herself a neurasthenic as she could not cope with mental stress.

Works Die Frau als Hausärztin (The Woman as a Family Doctor, 1901) was one of her best-known works. The original text was adapted for male readers; this version remained in print for 60 years. A version of the book was published up to 1993. Some of her writings were completed by her daughter Elsa.

Legacy The Anna Fischer-Dückelmann Visiting Professorship is awarded each year at the University of Zurich.