Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler

Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler (28 October 1879 – 21 December 1933) was an Austrian physicist and science teacher. In 1903, she became the first woman to earn a physics doctorate at the University of Vienna. She established the first Wiener Handelsakademie für Mädchen (Vienna Commercial Academy for Girls), as well as a grammar school for girls, in 1907.

Biography Early years Olga Steindler was born in Vienna to lawyer Leopold Steindler and Caroline Steindler, née Goldberg. She had three siblings. As women could not take the Matura (comparable to A-Level exams) in Vienna at the time, Olga Steindler went to Prague, where she took her exam on 7 July 1899.

Steindler began to study mathematics and physics at Vienna University in 1899, which was then newly possible for women. She wrote her thesis on the validity of the Helmholtz equation for various elements. Her doctoral adviser was Franz Serafin Exner. In 1903, she became the first woman to earn a physics doctorate at Vienna University.

Work for girls' and women's education For some years, Olga Steindler gave science lectures for women and girls on physics experiments, electricity, and other topics. She also taught at a girls' gymnasium (roughly equivalent to a preparatory high school or a grammar school) in Vienna. In 1907, she founded a girls' gymnasium in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, She became principal of the Handelsakademie, which today is located in Josefstadt. and the honorary title Hofrat in 1931.

Publications Steindler, Olga: Über die Temperaturcoeffizienten einiger Jodelemente ("About the temperature coefficients of some iodine elements"), doctoral thesis, 1903. Steindler, Olga: Die Farbempfindlichkeit des normalen und des farbenblinden Auges ("The colour sensitivity of the normal and colour-blind eye"), 1906.