Annie Leuch-Reineck (born Annie Reineck: 26 November 1880 - 21 December 1978) was a Swiss mathematician and women's rights activist. She was one of the most influential participants in the Swiss women's movement during the 1920s and 1930s.

Life

Provenance and early years

Annie Reineck was born in Kannawurf, a village in the countryside between

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

and

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Erhard Reineck (1841–1932), her father, was a protestant

church minister In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidan ...

and superintentant (church administrator) originally from

. Her mother, born Marie Godet (1847–1936), was from

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

in francophone western

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Annie grew up in Kannawurf and then in nearby

Heldrungen Heldrungen is a town and a former municipality in the Kyffhäuserkreis district, Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the town An der Schmücke. Nearby rivers are the Unstrut and the Wipper. It is known for its fortification ...

. She received her early education at the home of her elder sister, Theodora (Theodora Reineck, 1874–1963). Later, between 1895 and 1898, she attended the "École Vinet", a secondary school in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

. The school was headed up by her aunt, Sophie Godet.Silke Redolfi: Frauen bauen Staat, 100 Jahre Bund Schweizerischer Frauenorganisationen, NZZ-Verlag Zürich, 2000, p. 70,

Student

Reineck enrolled at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

in 1901 or 1902. She studied Mathematics and various Natural Sciences, notably Physics and Earth Sciences. In 1905 she received a secondary school teaching certificate. There were still very few female students at the university, and several of the members of the small "Bern Female Students' Association" (''"Berner Studentinnenverein"'') became, in different ways, pioneering feminists and lifelong friends. For Annie Reineck these included Gertrud Woker (1878 - 1968) and the physician

Ida Hoff Ida Hoff (8 January 1880 - 5 August 1952) was a pioneering medical doctor in Switzerland. As a woman in a man's world she achieved a number of "firsts". She was the first woman to be employed as a school doctor in Bern. She was a feminist activ ...

(1880 - 1952).

Teacher

In 1907 Annie Reineck became the first German-language woman at the

to receive a doctorate in Mathematics. Her dissertation concerned "The relationship between

spherical functions In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields. Since the spherical harmonics form ...

and

Bessel function Bessel functions, first defined by the mathematician Daniel Bernoulli and then generalized by Friedrich Bessel, are canonical solutions of Bessel's differential equation x^2 \frac + x \frac + \left(x^2 - \alpha^2 \right)y = 0 for an arbitrary ...

s" (''"Die Verwandtschaft zwischen Kugelfunktionen und Besselschen Funktionen"''). From this point till 1925 she taught at the Girls' Secondary School in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

(where

was appointed school doctor in 1913) and at the city's training college for women teachers. In 1913 she married the commercial lawyer Georg Leuch (1888 - 1959). He became a

cantonal The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Con ...

high court judge in 1920 and a Federal Supreme Court Judge in 1925, which involved relocating to

. By this time Annie Leuch-Reineck's time and energies had become divided between mathematics teaching and political campaigning: she now resigned from her teaching jobs in

Women's rights

In 1916 she took on the leadership of the

section of the "Swiss Association for Women's Voting Rights" (''"Schweizerischer Verband für Frauenstimmrecht"''). In 1919 or 1921 she was a co-founder of the "Bernese Women's League" (''"Berner Frauenbund"''). Between 1920 and 1933 she campaigned for the rights of Swiss women o retain their Swiss citizenship rights if they married a foreigner. She was a member of various legal commissions established by the League of Swiss Women's Associations (''"Bund Schweizerischer Frauenvereine"''). In 1921 she co-organised the "Second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests" (''"2. Schweizer Kongresses für Fraueninteressen"''), held that year in

. In 1928 she was appointed to the national presidency of the "Swiss Association for Women's Voting Rights" (''"Schweizerischer Verband für Frauenstimmrecht"''), a post she retained till 1940. She was also, from 1928, one of those working on the 1929 "Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work" (''"Schweizer Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit"'' / SAFFA). In 1929 she led that year's petition demanding for women the right to vote. She was a member of the national executive (''"Vorstand"'') of the "Swiss Social Policy Union" (''"Schweizer Vereinigung für Sozialpolitik"'') and a member of the commission set up by the Weltbund für Frauenstimmrecht (''"International Alliance of Women"'') to enquire into the citizenship rights of wives.

Family

Annie Leuch-Reineck was a grand daughter of the reformist theologian Frédéric Louis Godet (1812–1900) from

. Her sister, Eva Reineck, was a professional violinist who built her career in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and married a graphic artist of Jewish provenance called David Spear. Annie Leuch-Reineck was thereby an aunt to this couple's son,

Walter Eric Spear Walter Eric Spear FRSE PhD FRS FInstP (20 January 1921 – 21 February 2008) was a German physicist noted for his pioneering work to help develop large area electronics and thin film displays. He was born in Frankfurt to a Jewish father and a ...

, a notable physicist who built his career in England and Scotland after the family managed to escape from Nazi Germany in 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leuch-Reineck, Annie Scientists from Thuringia 20th-century Swiss mathematicians Swiss women mathematicians Swiss feminists 1880 births 1978 deaths People from Saint-Prex People from Sömmerda (district) German emigrants to Switzerland