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Elsbeth Steinheil (married name Franz) (10 July 1893 - 1955) was the first German woman to graduate in mechanical engineering, qualifying in 1917 from the Technical University of Munich.
Elsbeth Steinheil | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 July 1893 Munich |
| Died | 1955 |
| Alma mater | Technical University of Munich |
| Known for | first German woman to graduate in mechanical engineering |
Steinheil was born on 10 July 1893 in Munich, to Emmy (née von Voit) and physicist Rudolf Steinheil, the eldest of five daughters.[1] Her maternal grandfather was physiologist and dietitian Carl von Voit, and her maternal great-grandfather was architect August von Voit.[2][3]
Steinheil attended the Städtische Höhere Töchterschule in Munich, and from 1909 to 1913 she attended grammar school courses for women at a private grammar school in Munich. In 1913, she passed her Abitur (secondary education examinations) as an external student at the Wittelsbacher Gymnasium.[2]
Steinheil then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. Her father encouraged her studies and her four sisters also attended university.[1] She graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1917, the first German woman to achieve this.[2][4]
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After graduating, she worked in her father's family company, "Optical-astronomic Anstalt CA Steinheil & Söhne", founded by her paternal great-grandfather Carl August von Steinheil. In 1918, she married Ludwig Franz, a graduate engineer who was chief engineer in her father's company.[2] In 1918, in his speech at her wedding, Rudolf Steinheil said "If nowadays someone has no son but a daughter and a profession in which he needs help and a successor, then he simply lets his daughter learn the necessary things and everything is won."[1] Elsbeth stopped working at the company shortly after she married, which disappointed her father, who lamented her "relapse into atavistic tendencies".[5]
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Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) named a room for Steinheil in 2022, alongside ones for Elisabeth von Knobelsdorff, the first woman in Germany to earn a degree from a technical university, graduating in architecture in 1911, and Verena Wein-Wilke, who was the first woman to graduate from the TUHH, also in architecture.[4]
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