Kathrine Chemnitz

Vilhelmine Else Kathrine Dorthe Chemnitz (; 28 June 1894 – 1 December 1978), known as Kathrine Chemnitz, was a Greenlandic politician, and a champion of Greenlandic women's education.

Biography Chemnitz's parents were Kanuthus Josefsen and Juliane Kielsen. Early in 1900, there were no educational opportunities for women in Greenland. She therefore got a job as a maid, with a Danish family. She traveled to Denmark with this family, where they tried to enroll her in school, but Chemnitz was rejected on the grounds that she would not be respected in Denmark. As a result of this refusal, Chemnitz later became a champion of Greenlandic women's education. Chemnitz married into an influential and well-educated family. This gave her an opportunity to help establish the first women's association in Greenland in Nuuk in 1948. Here she had jobs in several committees and with others, secured the establishment of schools in Qaqortoq and Aasiaat. When her position ended in 1950, she was awarded the Royal Medal of Recompense in gold.

Personal life On 25 August 1917 Chemnitz married , an interpreter and member of the Greenland Provincial Council, with whom she had six children. Chemnitz's children include Guldborg Chemnitz, an interpreter, politician, and women's rights advocate, an interpreter and politician, and Lars Chemnitz, a politician.

On 1 December 1978 Chemnitz died in Nuuk, aged 84.