Margarete Hedwig Zuelzer (2 February 1877 – 29 August 1943) was a German

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

specializing in the study of

protozoa Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...

Biography

Margarete Zuelzer was the daughter of Jewish textile manufacturer Julius Zuelzer (1838–1889) and Henriette née Friedlaender (1852–1931). She studied natural sciences at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

and at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. She was among the first generation of women to officially attend university in Germany. Studying science in particular was so unusual for a woman at the time that Zuelzer had to get special permission from each of her professors to attend their classes. She earned her doctorate in 1904 with a dissertation on Difflugia urceolata Carter, a

. This made her the 37th woman to have earned a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg and the sixth to have earned one from its faculty of natural sciences.Universitätsarchiv Heidelberg, Sign. H-V-5/2 In 1907, she became the assistant at the water treatment center in Berlin. In 1916, she took a position at the Imperial Ministry of Health (Kaiserliches Gesundheitsamt), later the Reich's Ministry of Health (Reichsgesundheitsamt). After 1919, she led the Protozoa Laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem and continually served as one of the few women on the advisory board, sometimes the only one. From 1926 to 1929, she was invited by the Dutch government to carry out a research study on "Weil's disease" in the Dutch Indies, specifically in Bali, Sumatra, and Java. There, she became friends with German-Dutch biologist Wilhelm Schüffner. In April 1933, she lost her position at the Protozoa Laboratory due to the

Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Hitler Service (german: Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-es ...

, which allowed civil servants of "non-Aryan descent" to be dismissed. Zuelzer wrote an appeal demonstrating her ancestors' support of German nationalism, but this made no difference. In October 1939, Zuelzer immigrated to the Netherlands, where she procured a position at the Institute for Tropical Hygiene, which was led by Wilhelm Schüffner. Her sister Gertrud Zuelzer, a noted painter, was arrested in September 1942 and sent to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

after a failed attempt to flee Germany to Switzerland. Margarete sent Gertrud packages of clothing and colored pencils with which Gertrud drew portraits of other prisoners in exchange for food. Gertrud credited her sister Margarete's packages as the reason that she was able to survive. In April 1943, Margarete Zuelzer was forced to move into a Jewish ghetto in Amsterdam. On 21 May, she was sent to the Westerbork Transit Camp. Before her deportation, her friend and colleague Wilhelm Schüffner had attempted in vain to procure a special position for her. She died of starvation in the Westerbork Transit Camp on 23 August 1943, aged 66. In 2012, a Stolperstein ("stumbling stone") was laid in her memory at Eichkampstrasse 108 in Berlin, her last residence in the city.Vogt, Annette.
In Memoriam: Margarete Zuelzer.
9 February 2012. Accessed 7 June 2016. File:Reichsgesundheitsamt.jpg, In the garden of the health department of the empire, fall 1926. Margarete Zuelzer (middle), Wilhelm Schüffner (second from left), and Paul Uhlenhuth (third from right) File:Gertrud und Margarete Zuelzer (um 1920).jpg, Gertrud and Margarete Zuelzer (circa 1930) File:Stolperstein Eichkampstr 108 (Westend) Margarete Zuelzer.jpg, Stolperstein for Margarete Zuelzer, Eichkampstr 108 Berlin

Bibliography

* Bloch, Max. "Gertrud und Margarete Zuelzer. Zwei Schwestern im Holocaust." ''Aschkenas'', Vol. 24 (2014), Issue 1, pp. 195–214. * Bogdanov, Franziska. "Das Leben wird anders schauen nach dieser Schreckenszeit. Der Nachlass von Gertrud und Margarete Zuelzer im Jüdischen Museum Berlin." ''Journal of the Jewish Museum Berlin''. Volume 13 (2015), pp. 40–41.

References

External links

"Stumbling stone" (Stolperstein) for Margarete Zuelzer with biography (in German and English)

Short biography on "Stolpersteine-Berlin" (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuelzer, Margarete 20th-century German zoologists 1877 births 1943 deaths German women biologists Women zoologists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Heidelberg University alumni German people who died in Nazi concentration camps Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands 20th-century German women scientists Deaths by starvation German Jews who died in the Holocaust