Who was Dr. Johanna Budwig?

Johanna Budwig, daughter of Elizabeth and Hermann Budwig, was born on 30th September, 1908, in Essen an der Ruhr. 1908 was important year for the emancipation of women in Germany. Prussia opened its universities and allowed women to study full degrees, meaning that this was now possible for women in the whole of Germany for the first time, opening up possibilities that the young Johanna was later to grasp. And on April 8th the German parliament voted to allow women to become members of political parties and other clubs.

But liberalisation was slow and old values continued to hold sway. Women stayed at home to look after the children and the housework; men went to work. After the death of her mother in 1920, Johanna's father, a mechanic, is no longer able to look after Johanna. She has to go into a children's home. This is a great shock for the young Johanna, but it does have one positive side: school fees must no longer be paid for her, and she is even able to go to grammar school where she demonstrates great ability.

In 1926 Germany was slowly recovering from the after effects of the First World War. It was a good time for scientific discovery in the Weimar Republic - one third of all Nobel prizes were being given to German academics. In order to emulate them, Johanna Budwig decided to join a Protestant sisterhood – the renowned Diakonissenanstalt Kaiserswerth. Her gifts were quickly recognized and, after working as a novice looking after the sick and weak and spending some time in the administration of the sisterhood, she was made a “Diakonisse”, a deaconess, herself after just seven months.