From the 17th century onwards, new places of knowledge had arisen through princely courts, academies and scholarly salons, which offered certain opportunities for women, especially those coming from noble backgrounds. Yet, the path to the university was still reserved for men. Dorothea von Schlözer (1770-1825) overcame the first hurdle on the way to a university career when she graduated with a doctorate in 1787. However, she was denied an academic career. Even her father, a Göttingen professor for Constitutional Law and History, who had supported her academically from an early age, was not in a position “to make a scholar [!] out of her.” And so, after her doctorate, she was supposed to follow the then predetermined path for women, that of a wife and mother.
