Margarete Ehrlich

Born:	09-28-1915
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Margarete EHRLICH, born on September 28^th, 1915 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), daughter of Dr. Josef Ehrlich (b. 1877, lawyer) and Charlotte Ehrlich, née Kobak (b. 1881), lived in Vienna's 2^nd district, Hollandstr. 7. She graduated from High school on June 26^th, 1934 at Reformrealgymnasium in Wien II ("Matura/Reifepruefung") and then started to study mathematics, physics and chemistry (certificate to became a high school teacher) at that University of Vienna in fall term 1934/35 and was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 4^th and last year of her studies and took courses in Physics. She had already registered for the viva (final examinations "Rigorosen") on September 24^th, 1937, and successfully passed the first viva on October 16^th, 1937. After that, the examination procedure for her doctorate in physics interrupted (her thesis supervisor Prof. Felix Ehrenhaft was also expelled in 1938). Under National Socialism, she was admitted to continue her studies for two months after the Anschluss at the beginning of June 1938 within the framework of the 2% Numerus Clausus for Jewish Students until the end of the spring term 1938 - but was then finally forced to quit her studies without a degree for racist reasons and to leave the University of Vienna. She had to flee from Vienna and managed to emigrate to the USA together with her mother, her younger sister Gertrude Ehrlich (born in Vienna in 1923, later professor of mathematics at the University of Vienna) and her aunt, the painter Mathilde Ehrlich, after they had succeeded in obtaining an entry visa in Stuttgart on July 13^th, 1939. They traveled on the ship SS Statendam on July 25^th, 1939 from Rotterdam to the USA where they arrived in New York on August 1^st, 1939 and from there continued to their mother's brother, Benedict Kobak, in Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, where they lived for the next few years. Her father was not able to emigrate to the United States until April 25^th, 1940, via Genoa on the SS Conte di Savoi.

Margarete Ehrlich worked in New York and Atlanta as a seamstress and drugstore worker and attended courses in medical laboratory and x-ray technology at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta from 1939-1941 and then worked there as a chief x-ray technician from 1942-1948. She became a U.S. citizen on January 25^th, 1945, and worked as a radiation physicist at the Center for Radiation Control, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., beginning in 1948, while studying in evening classes at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., 1949-1954. She received her Ph.D. in physics in 1955 and worked as a radiation physicist in the USA. For a short time she worked again in Vienna in 1960/61, as a consultant for photographic personal dosimetry at the UN Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) located there, then again in the USA. She participated in numerous congresses, published extensively on radiation protection and dosimetry, was a member of numerous scientific associations, and received numerous awards, including Silver Medal, Civil Service Award (1962), Gold Medal (1977). She lived at 9006 Kensington Parkway in 20815 Chevy Chase/MD from the 1980s. She died on August 1^st, 2007 in Chevy Chase, Montgomery, Maryland/USA.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale ") PHIL 1937-1938, PHIL examination files ("Rigorosenakt") Nr. 13714; Austrian State Archive, OeStA/Archive of the Republic, AdR /E-uReang/VVSt/VA 38967; KEINTZEL/KOROTIN 2002, 161-164; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 377; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 118; American Men & Women of Science. A biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences. 16th edition. Eight volumes. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1986. (AmMWSc 16); www.sysoon.com; www.ancestry.de.

Herbert Posch