| Born: | 05-25-1916 |
| Faculty: | Law School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Margarete Charlotte TANZER (née EISENSTÄDTER, later married name HAIMBERGER), born on May 25th, 1916 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna, citizenship 1938: Austria), was the daughter of the lawyer Dr. Gustav Eisenstädter (1868-1939) and his wife Margarete. She lived lived with her husband Kurt Tanzer (1912-1955) and with her parents in Vienna's 18th district, Abt-Karl-Gasse 25.
In 1939, she gave birth to her first son, Hardy Eisenstädter, in Egypt, who later became an interpreter and brigadier in the Austrian army. He grew up there until the age of 16.
According to the National Socialist racial laws, Margarete Tanzer was considered a "Mischling 1. Grades" and was able to continue her studies for the time being after the Anschluss - subject to revocation at any time. She was last enrolled in the 4th year of studies at the School of Law in the 1st trimester of 1940.
When "Mischlinge" had to apply to the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin for admission to study from the first trimester of 1940, Margarete Tanzer submitted an application to continue her studies in April 1940. However, on May 9th, 1940, the Reich Ministry of Education decided not to allow Tanzer to continue her studies.
Margarete Tanzer was only able to resume her law studies after the end of National Socialism, her dissertation from 1940 ("Beling's forms of negligence and the concept of negligence according to Beling", reviewers: Prof. Roland Graßberger jun., Prof. Alexander Hold-Ferneck) was approved on December 3rd, 1945, she passed the final oral examination on December 13 and on December 20, 1945 she graduated with an individual doctorate with an overall grade of "very good" as "Dr.jur.".
In the following summer semester of 1946, she enrolled again as a doctor in order to attend new law courses.
Margarete Haimberger-Tanzer specialized in criminal law: "I brought this preference for criminal law with me from university. I also wrote my dissertation on criminal law and I believe that it is an area that can really suit a woman." (Margarete Haimberger, Die Juristin in der Strafrechtspflege, in: Bundesministerium für Justiz (ed.), Beiträge zum Thema „Die Juristin in der Justiz“. Tagung des Bundesministeriums für Justiz am 29. und 30. Oktober 1968 in der Justizschule Schwechat, Vienna 1968, 43)
After graduating, Margarete Tanzer began working as a trainee lawyer at the public prosecutor's office at the Vienna Juvenile Court in 1946.
After the first two women were admitted as trainee judges in the same year, Margarete Tanzer also embarked on this career path shortly afterwards. In 1947, she was accepted as a trainee judge and began working at the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna. Looking back decades later, she described the obstacles that stood in the way of her first career steps in this professional field as a female pioneer:
"When I started working as a trainee lawyer in 1946, my wish was immediately taken into consideration and I was assigned to the investigating judge at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters.I believe this wish was even gladly granted, because at that time there was a very noticeable shortage of manpower in the criminal law sector. [...] [I] was called upon from the very beginning to carry out all investigative judicial activities, with the exception of voting, which is only reserved for appointed judges. And no one found anything objectionable about that, because my work was not done in public [...]. In the fall of 1946, I was assigned to the public prosecutor's office at the Vienna Juvenile Court and that's when the difficulties began. At that time, in view of the aforementioned labor shortage, the trainee lawyers were also assigned to represent the court and had to perform all the functions of a public prosecutor during the trial.
Unlike my colleagues, I did not receive any meeting schedules and initially believed that this was a coincidence.But when it turned out that it was not a coincidence, but intentional, I did not want to let the matter rest. When I asked the relevant authorities about this, I was not told that perhaps the reason a woman could not be assigned to meetings was because it was assumed that this required special male talents that a woman could not possess, such as presence of mind, authority and oratory skills. The answer I was given was much more typical. It was: 'You would have to wear a gown at the meetings and a woman can't do that.
So apparently an outward appearance - the gown!
But on closer inspection, it wasn't about an outward appearance at all, but much, much deeper, namely the [...] traditional image formation, the image of the criminal judge or the public prosecutor.
I then fought a very tough, intensive and successful battle, which, moreover, lasted no longer than a fortnight.
The gentlemen in charge, Minister Dr. Gerö, Chief Public Prosecutor Dr. Reitinger and the Chief Public Prosecutor Dr. Nagel, were fortunately open-minded, modern-thinking people who would not have found satisfaction in forcibly delaying a natural development. [...] So it came about that from September 1946 a woman appeared in public as a representative of the public prosecutor's office at the Vienna Juvenile Court. And I was pleased to note that this appearance was not a sensation for anyone, neither in a positive nor in a negative sense, but was generally taken for granted. But when I was transferred to the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office in 1947, it was no longer a matter of course.
I was again not allowed to attend the hearings, but instead a grotesque situation arose: I was in charge of a department at the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, but was sent to the Vienna Juvenile Court for the hearings.
I tried very hard to put an end to this strange situation, and I succeeded in doing so in a relatively short time. From spring 1947 - I had meanwhile been appointed as a candidate judge - I was then assigned to the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters as a court representative." (Haimberger 1968, 44f.)
In 1949, her second son, Dr. Michael Tanzer, who later became an associate university professor of financial law, was born.
After the death of her first husband in 1955, she married Dr. Georg Haimberger (born 1918) in her second marriage.
Margarete Tanzer was appointed a judge and subsequently also worked at the Bad Ischl District Court in 1950/51, where she was again confronted with prejudice - as well as an examining magistrate at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters, where she was the first woman to preside over jury trials in 1956 (photo):
"They didn't like it at all at the Linz Higher Regional Court at first that I wanted the criminal division. They would have preferred to give me a guardianship division and the objection was that a woman would not be able to assert herself as a criminal judge among the rural population.
In the end, however, it was not difficult for me and I never encountered the slightest resistance from the rural population. The greatest resistance, however, came when I sought a presidency as an examining magistrate at the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna.
The objections that were raised against it were legion. [...] And so, in April 1956, what you really have to call a 'miracle' happened, namely that a woman presided over jury trials. However, in the following years I was practically burdened with two divisions, as I was also given the investigative division, with the very flattering justification that one simply could not do without such an outstanding investigative judge. I didn't take this justification seriously, but I didn't give up.
On the contrary, I coped very well with this double burden for five years, because I believe that a pioneer must not be snivelling and has to put up with something.
From 1961 to 1963, I was chairman of the Vienna Juvenile Court and found it quite pleasant that I didn't have to deal with two departments but, like the other colleagues, could get by with just one." (Haimberger 1968, 46f.)
In the spring of 1963, she returned to the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office and was appointed First Public Prosecutor.
In this capacity and as a pioneer of women in criminal law, she took part in the 1968 conference "Die Juristin in der Justiz", which was organized by the Federal Ministries of Justice and Social Administration. The conference participants - most of whom were women working in Austria as judges, public prosecutors, lawyers and notaries or in the fields of administration, legal doctrine and legal research - discussed their professional activities and ways of improving working conditions.
Under the title "The female lawyer in the administration of criminal justice", Margarete Haimberger, First Public Prosecutor of the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, first gave an overview of the female criminal and investigating judges, public prosecutors, lawyers and criminal police officers currently working at the Austrian courts. Although progress has been slow since the first female lawyer in the criminal justice system - in 1933, Dr. Adrienne Schnitzer was the first woman to conduct a defense before the jury court - Haimberger said:
"what's 35 years in a development that proceeds evolutionistically, i.e. is not dictated or promoted from above, such as in the Soviet Union or in the Eastern Bloc countries, where women are exceedingly well represented in all legal professions!
[...] In our country, evolution is taking place very slowly [...]."
(Haimberger 1968, 41)
Although, according to National Socialist ideology, women should have been primarily active in the family, the Second World War and the shortage of manpower associated with conscription meant that women were called upon to perform functions as judges and public prosecutors from around 1942:
"However, these women had to remain strictly behind the scenes [...] because at the time, the public appearance of a woman in the courtroom was unthinkable. The year 1945 then brought a progressive development. The constitution of 1920 was reactivated, which could be called the 'Magna Charta of equality' because it excluded all privileges of certain categories." (Haimberger 1968, 42)
Margarete Haimberger saw the lack of historical predecessors and role models for women in criminal law as a difficulty, as well as the widespread association ("image") of the criminal judge and public prosecutor with the office of priest ("idea of atonement"), which is traditionally male-dominated.
In conclusion, she emphatically called for the use of female lawyers in juvenile criminal justice in particular.
In the discussion, Margarete Haimberger once again addressed the hurdles to a career as a judge:
"I believe that the root of the fact that everything is somehow slow is to be found in the transfer to the judicial preparatory service. I really don't see why men and women are judged differently, why a woman should perform better than a man. Both come from university, both have completed the same course of study, both are completely equal under the constitution. So where does the idea come from that you have to look more closely at a woman? What are the men's thoughts?
The fact that fewer women are admitted means that women cannot be elected to the staff senates, because that is purely a question of majority. If there are more women in a court today, a woman will inevitably be elected."
(Contribution to the discussion by Margarete Haimberger, in: Bundesministerium für Justiz (ed.), Beiträge zum Thema "Die Juristin in der Justiz". Tagung des Bundesministeriums für Justiz am 29. und 30. Oktober 1968 in der Justizschule Schwechat, Vienna 1968, 112f.).
She was awarded the professional title of Hofrat in 1974 and became Vice-President of the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters in 1976. She was also committed to the legal establishment of animal protection, women's issues and the time limit solution for abortions.
Dr. Margarete Charlotte Tanzer-Haimberger, née Eisenstädter, died on April 22nd, 1987 in Perchtoldsdorf, Lower Austria.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") Law School 1937-1946, final examination registry ("Rigorosenprotokoll") IUR 48 (1940-1946) No. 121, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR XI (1939-1959) No. 676; Bundesministerium für Justiz (ed.), Beiträge zum Thema "Die Juristin in der Justiz". Tagung des Bundesministeriums für Justiz am 29. und 30. Oktober 1968 in der Justizschule Schwechat, Wien 1968, esp. Margarete HAIMBERGER, Die Juristin in der Strafrechtspflege, 39-47 and contributions to thediscussion 112f, 118; Petra TEMPFER, Das Recht ist weiblich, in: Wiener Zeitung vom 4. November 2013; Foto von Margarete Tanzer als erste vorsitzende Richterin einer Schöffenverhandlung, April 1956; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2016; KOROTIN 2016, 1156; Ilse KOROTIN u. Nastasja STUPNICKI, ed., Biografien bedeutender österreichischer Wissenschafterinnen, Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2018, 315; Gabriele SCHNEIDER, Margarethe Haimberger, in: Evangelisches Museum Österreichs; www.juristinnen.de; wikipedia.
Katharina Kniefacz
