Ira Rischowski

Ira (Irene) Rischowski (1 August 1899 – 1989) was one of Germany's first female engineers and active in the German anti-Nazi resistance group Neu Beginnen before fleeing to Britain. The family were Jewish by heritage but the children were baptised. Albert Rischowski ran shipyards and took young Ira with him to watch the riveting of the ships which inspired her to become an engineer. Her successful application was supported by six months experience repairing agricultural equipment. She was responsible for encoding and decoding correspondence with comrades abroad.

Interned for a year at the Rushen Camp on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien, she was released without restrictions in November 1941 on appeal

Career She worked as a draughtsman and planning engineer, first at Tuvox Ltd and later at James Gordon Ltd, where she became Head of Projects. Rischowski was the accommodation secretary for the second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists held in Cambridge in 1967, whilst working as a consultant in power generation for Elliott Process Automation.

Family life Rischowski met her future husband Fritz Bruno Karthäuser (1898–1973) while studying engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. They married in December 1922, and they had two daughters. Bruno and Ira divorced in 1933. When she was forced into exile in 1935, Rischowski left her children in the care of her elderly mother Ida in Berlin until 1938 when, with support from members of the Women's Engineering Society and their connections, she was able to bring them both to London. Ida was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto where she died in 1943.

On her death in 1989, the then WES President Dorothy Hatfield called Rischowski "an inspiration to us all".