Dorothea Erxleben

Dorothea Christiane Erxleben, born in 1715 and dying in 1762, was a German physician who became the first woman to earn a doctorate of medicine in Germany. Her father, a physician, taught her, and she petitioned Frederick the Great of Prussia for permission to study at the University of Halle. After marrying and raising children she began practicing in Quedlinburg in 1747 without a degree and became well regarded there. Local physicians who saw her as a threat brought a charge of quackery, and in 1754 the king ordered her to sit an examination and submit a dissertation at Halle. Her dissertation argued against the routine use of strong laxatives, purgatives and sweat-inducing agents and against needless prescribing of opiates. She continued practicing in Quedlinburg until she died of breast cancer.