Ingeborg Rapoport
| Dr. Ingeborg Rapoport M.D. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Ingeborg Syllm 2 September 1912 Kribi, Cameroon |
| Residence | Berlin, Germany |
| Nationality |
German (East German 1952–1990) |
| Alma mater |
University of Hamburg Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Physician and communist functionary of East Germany |
| Political party | East German Communist Party[1] |
| Religion | Protestantism |
| Spouse(s) | Samuel Mitja Rapoport |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Patriotic Order of Merit, National Prize of East Germany and other East German awards |
Ingeborg Rapoport (born 2 September 1912) is a German physician and a former communist functionary of East Germany.
She emigrated to the United States in 1938, but left the country for East Germany in the early 1950s as a result of an investigation of her and her husband for un-American activities. An avowed communist and anti-Zionist, she became an influential member of the all-powerful East German Communist Party and held leading positions in the strictly communist-dominated university system of East Germany until her retirement in 1973.[1] East German universities systematically discriminated against non-communists and even children of non-communists, who were banned from employment and studies. After the fall of communism, she has continued to defend the East German communist regime and denies that it persecuted political opponents through its infamous secret police, the Stasi.[2]
In East Germany, Ingeborg Rapoport was much honored and received the Patriotic Order of Merit, the National Prize of East Germany and other awards of the communist regime. Despite already holding an East German Habilitation, a higher doctorate, she became the oldest person to receive a doctorate in 2015 at 102 years old, but not the oldest person to receive her first doctorate.
Early life
Rapoport was born as Ingeborg Syllm in September 1912 to Protestant German parents Paul Friedrich Syllm and Maria Syllm in Kribi, Cameroon, a German colony at this time.[3][4][5] Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Hamburg, Germany, where she grew up with her parents. Both her parents were Protestant Christians, but her mother had Jewish ancestry.[4][6] She was raised as a Protestant.[4] Her father was a businessman with conservative and German nationalist beliefs, and claimed descent from the Sillem family, a prominent Protestant family from Hamburg, with Syllm being a variant spelling. Her parents divorced in 1928.[7]
Ingeborg Syllm was inspired to study medicine by the work of the German Lutheran theologian and physician Albert Schweitzer.[4] She attended the University of Hamburg and passed the state examination as a physician in 1937. The following year she submitted her doctoral dissertation about diphtheria.[4][5] Because she was categorized as a "Mischling" (i.e. someone with both Jewish and "Aryan" ancestry) by the Nazis,[5] she was not permitted to conduct a thesis defense and was denied the Doctorate degree.[4][6] Her thesis supervisor, Rudolf Degkwitz, was a member of the National Socialist Party; however, he was imprisoned for his opposition to the childhood euthanasia program spurred on by the Dean, who was a fanatical Nazi supporter.[4]
Life in the United States
Rapoport immigrated to the United States in 1938.[6] She interned in medical schools in Brooklyn, New York, Baltimore and Akron, Ohio. She completed her graduate education at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (absorbed by Drexel University) in Philadelphia and received an M.D.[4]
Rapoport worked as a neonatologist in Cincinnati, Ohio.[4] She went on to become the head of the paediatric department.[4]
Investigation of "un-American activities" and life in East Germany
When the House Un-American Activities Committee launched an investigation of Rapoport and her husband for engaging in illegal communist activities, they left the United States in 1950, and later claimed to have "fled" the country. They first went to Austria, but found it difficult to get employment there, which they attributed to pressure by the American government on account of their communist activities. In 1952 they moved to East Germany, which claimed to have given them "political asylum" from the United States.[4][8] Her husband had been offered a position at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, but since the Rapoports were both communists and avowed anti-Zionists, they preferred East Germany.[8]
In East Germany, Rapoport became a member of the East German Communist Party[1] and held leading positions in the strictly communist East German academia. At the time, only communists could be employed in academic positions there, while non-communists and those from non-communist backgrounds were banned from studying or working at universities.[4] Cooperation with the Stasi was both the rule and a requirement for someone with her position. She was awarded an East German Habilitation in 1959 and was employed at the university in East Berlin. She was involved in the establishment of the first clinic of neonatology in East Germany and was appointed by the East German communist regime as a professor of neonatology in 1969.[9]
Views on East Germany
Rapoport says that "East Germany was not a state of injustice" and denies that Stasi persecuted political opponents.[2] She denies that East Germany was an immoral state and has harshly criticized the 1953 democratic uprising against the Soviet dictatorship.[10] After 1989, she has labelled former East German communists who acknowledged the crimes of the East German communist regime as "traitors," and she has described the critical depiction of East Germany in German media and scholarship and inquiries into the crimes of the Stasi as "slander."[10] She attributes the downfall of the East German regime to Erich Honecker's weak personality, and laments the fact that East Germany didn't have a leader like "Castro or Ho Chi Minh."[10]
Rapoport claims that modern society can learn from East Germany and has said that "I'm homesick for the GDR" (East Germany) and that East Germany was "the best society I have seen." She contends that "in the future, I think they will think about us (East Germany) quite differently from how they do now.[11]
Life in retirement and second doctorate
Ingeborg Rapoport continues to live in the former East Berlin as a retiree. Although Ingeborg Rapoport already held higher qualifications than a German doctorate, including an East German Habilitation from her time as a privileged functionary of the East German university system due to her status as an influential member of the all-powerful communist party, she chose to resubmit her original 1937 dissertation about diphtheria as a publicity stunt, and was granted another doctorate in May 2015 based on this dissertation.[4] She is the oldest person to receive a doctorate; however she is not the oldest person to receive her first doctorate or a doctorate as the highest qualification.[4][5] She used the occasion to draw attention to what she perceives as injustices not only by the Nazis, but also by the United States and especially by the post-reunification German government towards former communist functionaries of East Germany.
Personal life
She was married to Samuel Mitja Rapoport, whom she met in Cincinnati.[4] They had four children.[4] One of their sons, Tom Rapoport, was a Professor at the East German Academy of Sciences, was fired from his job after the fall of communism and moved to the United States.[4] Another son, Michael Rapoport, is a mathematician. A widow since 2004, she lives in Berlin, Germany.[4] Rapoport published a memoir in 1997.[4]
References
- 1 2 3 Barbara Einhorn, "Heimkehren" nach Ostdeutschland, p. 59, 2000
- 1 2 http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bezirke/pankow/102-jaehrige-doktorin-aus-berlin-pankow-leben-mit-der-geschichte/11813250-2.html
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Roland R. Wauer, , Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin e.V. (DGKJ), August 31, 2012
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 James Graff, Ingeborg Rapoport to Become Oldest Recipient of Doctorate After Nazi Injustice is Righted, The Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2015
- 1 2 3 4 Never too late: Nazi-discriminated 102yo becomes world’s oldest doctorate recipient, Russia Today, May 14, 2015
- 1 2 3 Noah Rayman, 102-Year-Old Who Fled Nazis to Become Oldest Doctorate Recipient, Time, May 14, 2015
- ↑ http://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003117;jsessionid=uun2h0nl5lav?wcmsID=0003&XSL.lexmlayout.SESSION=lexmperson_all
- 1 2 http://www.klahrgesellschaft.at/Mitteilungen/Oberkofler_3_08.pdf
- ↑ McGuinness, Damien (9 June 2015). "Germany's oldest student, 102, gets PhD denied by Nazis". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- 1 2 3 Walter Laqueur, "World Revolution, or the Dream That Failed" (pp. 186–187), Generation Exodus, I.B.Tauris, 2003, ISBN 9780857712875
- ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/07/07/us-germany-wall-westerners-idUSTRE56601920090707
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