102-year-old physician is only now receiving her doctorate

The 102-year-old doctor Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport has finally received her doctorate 77 years after submitting her dissertation. The Nazis then denied her defense because she was considered a "half-Jew". She should now be the oldest doctoral student in the world.

102-year-old pediatrician receives doctorate
On Tuesday, pediatrician Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport is to receive her doctoral degree certificate in Hamburg. And that at the age of 102! As the news agency dpa reports, she had once been denied admission to the oral exam because of her Jewish descent from the National Socialist university authorities. From 1937 to 1938, Syllm-Rapoport worked as an assistant doctor at the Israelitic Hospital Hamburg and wrote her doctoral thesis. In front of professors at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), she successfully completed her oral doctoral examination in May - 77 years after submitting her dissertation on diphtheria.

Late doctorate for a doctor (Image: fotomek / fotolia)

PhD student was considered a "half-Jew"
Her former doctoral supervisor, Professor Rudolf Degkwitz, was later sentenced by the People's Court to seven years' imprisonment for his opposition to child euthanasia. In 1938 he certified to her "that this work would have been accepted by me as a doctoral thesis, if the existing laws did not make the admission to the doctorate impossible because of the descent of Miss Syllm". In an interview with the "taz", Ms. Syllm-Rapoport said: "He accepted the topic, I did the experiments and did the work. He accepted her as a doctoral thesis, but could not invite me to the oral exam because I was considered a "half-Jewish woman."

Processing the darkest pages of German history
As the "Wall Street Journal" reported, the PhD student fumbled for the oral exam with the help of relatives and friends. She could not use a computer or read books due to her poor eyesight. The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Uwe Koch-Gromus, said after the 45-minute exam, "Not only considering their old age, she was just brilliant." He also stated that the UKE with the subsequently obtained doctoral degree for the work-up the darkest pages of German history would like to contribute to the universities and colleges. However, wrong done can not be made good again. At a ceremony the doctoral certificate should be handed over. Ms. Syllm-Rapoport may then "Prof. Dr. Call Dr. ".

First Ph.D. in the USA
The daughter of a merchant and a pianist emigrated to the USA in 1938, where she got her first doctor and met her husband Samuel Mitja Rapoport, also physicians and biochemists. The couple became involved in the Communist Party. Samuel Rapoport received an award from US President Harry S. Truman for his research into the preservation of blood after World War II. After being threatened in the 1950s with a summons for his communist activities, Rapoport did not return to the United States for a stay abroad. In 1952 he and his wife moved to East Berlin, where they worked at the Charité.

Oldest PhD student in the world
Syllm-Rapoport habilitated in 1958 and became a lecturer at the Charité Children's Hospital the following year. Finally, in 1968 she was appointed full professor. She founded the Department of Neonatology (neonatal) at the Charité and received in 1984 the National Prize of the GDR. Now Syllm-Rapoport may be the oldest doctoral student in the world. So far, the medical professor Heinz Wenderoth from Elsfleth near Bremen was the oldest person ever to have taken a doctoral examination. He had his doctorate at the age of 97 years on cell biology in Hannover. The oldest doctoral candidate was Rosemarie Achenbach, who earned her doctorate at the University of Siegen at the age of 90. The University of Siegen had still recognized the old banknotes of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München after about 60 years. The topic of her dissertation: "The Philosophy of Death". (Ad)