Sandra L. Singer

In the period between the Civil War and World War I, German universities provided North American women with opportunities in graduate and professional training that were not readily available to them at home. This training allowed women to compete to a greater degree with men in increasingly professionalized fields. In return for such opportunities, these women played a key role in opening up German universities to all women. Many devoted the rest of their lives to creating better research and graduate opportunities for other women, forever changing the course of higher education in North America. This study provides accounts of the incredible barriers encountered by these first women students in Europe. It documents their perseverance and hard-won triumphs and includes as well the stories of the progressive men who mentored them and fought for their rights to higher education. Never before has documentation of so many North American students at German-speaking universities been included in one volume. This collection of stories from women across disciplines makes it possible to assess the truly remarkable nature of their combined contributions to higher education and research in North America and Europe.

In their lifetime, Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) and Helene Bohlau (1856-1940) earned the praise of women's rights activists such as Minna Cauer and Helene Stocker for their contributions to modern women's literature. Dohm engaged in debates on the women's movement with Lou Andreas-Salome, Ellen Key, and Laura Marholm. Bohlau shocked the reading public with her novel "Halbtier ," in which a woman triumphs after killing an abusive man. On the other hand, Isolde Kurz (1853-1944), who distanced herself from the women's movement, seems the odd woman out. Yet boundaries among these writers are more fluid than expected, especially in their portrayals of sexuality and spirituality."