Dagmar Hülsenberg ( Hinz; born 2 December 1940, in Sonneberg) is a German materials scientist and

university professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

. In 1975, at age 34, she became the youngest

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

. By that time she had already distinguished herself by obtaining doctorates in two barely related disciplines:

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

Cost accounting Cost accounting is defined as "a systematic set of procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services in the aggregate and in detail. It includes methods for recognizing, classifying, al ...

(1969) and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

/ Materials science (1970).

Life

Dagmar Hinz was born soon after the start of the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

Sonneberg Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg. Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home to ...

, a small town in the centre of southern Germany, located between Würzburg and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. Before she was 3 her father had been killed in the fighting. Her mother worked as a

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of ...

. By the time she had successfully completed her schooling the war had ended, in May 1945, and after the armies had finished repositioning themselves Sonneberg had ended up at the edge of the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

in what remained of Germany. The entire zone was refounded as the

in October 1949. During the later 1950s Hinz undertook an apprenticeship for work as a

Ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

and

Pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

technician. She later recalled that she had really wanted to become an economist, but had been unable to obtain a study-place. In 1960, with support from her boss at the ceramics factory, she was able to obtain a place at the

Freiberg University of Mining and Technology The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public university of technology with currently 3655 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. Its focus is on exploration, mining & ...

where she studied Silicate Metallurgy, emerging with a degree in 1965. She then obtained a university position as a research assistant and started working on a doctorate. During the 1960s she married the economist Frieder Hülsenberg. At this time Hülsenberg was writing a book, drafts for which his wife read. She alerted him to an important inconsistency in the text which he was obliged to discuss with his co-author, the Dresden Economics Professor Otto Gallenmüller. One upshot of the ensuing discussions was that Dagmar Hülsenberg hurriedly mastered relevant portions of the

syllabus and, in 1969, obtained a doctorate from Freiberg University in Economics for a dissertation entitled "Determining an optimal number of cost centres and cost objects, with particular attention to error aggregation" Just a year later, in 1970, she received a second doctorate, this time in Material Sciences: her dissertation on this occasion was entitled "High-temperature deformation of heterogeneous materials, illustrated using fire-resistant chamotte (fire clay)"''Hochtemperaturdeformation heterogener Materialien, dargestellt am feuerfesten Werkstoff Schamotte'' In 1970, she moved to the ' ( Ministry of light industry) and later to the ' (Ministry for the glass and ceramics industries) where she was involved in preparing the national plan for science and technology ('). Looking back, she recalled that she had not much enjoyed work at the ministries: five years had been enough. In 1975 she switched again, back to the academic world, accepting the newly created professorship of "Glass and Ceramics Materials and Technology" at the Ilmenau Technical Academy, back in

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. At the time she was the youngest professor in the country, and her tenure would comfortably

outlast ''Outlast'' is a 2013 first-person survival horror video game developed and published by Red Barrels. The game revolves around a freelance investigative journalist, Miles Upshur, who decides to investigate a remote psychiatric hospital named M ...

the German Democratic Republic itself, ending only in 2007. From 1984 until 1990 Dagmar Hülsenberg served as a member of the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

. Between 1976 and 1987 she chaired the Silicates Technology Expert Committee of the

FDGB The Free German Trade Union Federation (german: Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 and 1990. As a mass organis ...

Chamber of Technology, and from 1987 until 1992 she served as (the last) president of the Chamber of Technology, in succession to Manfred Schubert who had died young. She became a corresponding member of the national German Academy of Sciences in 1989. and has been a member of the Saxony Academy of Sciences, based in

since 1986: she became a member of the presidium in 2004. She is a member of the German Ceramics Society, the German Glass Technology Society and of the German Academy of Science and Engineering.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulsenberg, Dagmar 1940 births Living people People from Sonneberg Socialist Unity Party of Germany members German materials scientists Women materials scientists and engineers East German women Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin