Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff (17 June 1877

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

– 20 April 1959 Bassum) was a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

, and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Early life

Her parents were the Major General Heinrich Wilhelm Kurt von Knobelsdorff (born 13 April 1850) and Marie Elizabeth Fancis Gertrud Dyhrenfurth (born 17 September 1856).

Education

In 1906, Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff graduated from the Munich Realgymnasium. In 1907, she began studying architecture at the TH Charlottenburg, first as a guest student, after the admission of women at the universities in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

in 1909. She finished her studies in 1911, as the first woman in Germany with the diploma in engineering.

Career

In 1912, she became the first female member of the Association of Architects and Engineers in Berlin (AIV) and took part in the exhibition "The Woman in Home and Work", a showcase of the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...

. The organizers of this exhibition included her aunt Gertrud Dyrenfurth (1862-1946), who lived on the estate of the family in Jakobsdorf near Wroclaw. Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff designed a community center for the Silesian village, which was built in 1915. It remained until 1946, the social center of Jakobsdorf. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she worked as a "field architect in the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

" in the military building administration in Doberitz near Potsdam, and at the German Army High Command in occupied Belgium. After World War I, she worked as an architect at the provincial government in

. In 1921, she passed the state examination for the building authority, and was again appointed as the first woman in Germany, master builder for the government. In 1922, she married Kurt Wilhelm Viktor von Tippelskirch, Legation manager in the Foreign Office, and was then released in 1923 (as married) from the civil service. She then worked freelance as an architect in

Berlin-Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the l ...

, until she accompanied her husband to the United States in 1927. After returning in 1938, the couple lived in Jakobsdorf, from where she was expelled at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff lived in Bassum near Bremen from 1946 until her death in 1959.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knobelsdorff, Elisabeth von 1877 births 1959 deaths Engineers from Brandenburg 20th-century German architects 20th-century German engineers 20th-century German women artists German expatriates in the United States German military engineers German military personnel of World War I German women in World War I German women architects German women engineers People from Potsdam Technical University of Berlin alumni 20th-century women engineers