To path indicator Subpages of “University“ To navigation by target groups To navigation by topic To quick access To footer with other services
To content
Sunset at the North Campus © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund
Obituary

Mourning for Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth

-
in
  • Top News
  • People
Photo: A person speaks at a podium of TU Dortmund University. © Lutz Kampert​/​TU Dortmund
Rita Süssmuth was a professor at TU Dortmund University from 1973 to 1982. The photo shows her in 2018.
TU Dortmund University mourns Rita Süssmuth, who died on 1 February at the age of 88. On 24 February, she was commemorated with a state mourning ceremony. Before her political career, the former federal minister and long serving President of the Bundestag held a professorship at what was then the University of Dortmund from 1973 to 1982 and simultaneously taught at Ruhr University Bochum. Throughout her life, she advocated for gender equality and for better social cohesion within society.

At the age of 36, Rita Süssmuth was appointed to the professorship for “General Pedagogy” at the Pädagogische Hochschule (PH) Ruhr in Dortmund. After the integration of the PH Ruhr into the University of Dortmund in 1980, she additionally assumed the position of deputy head of the Institute for Social Pedagogy within the Department of Educational Science. At the same time, Süssmuth began to engage politically: she served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Family Affairs of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs and on the third Family Report Commission. In 1982, her academic career took her to Hanover, where she headed the research institute “Woman and Society” until 1985.

Rita Süssmuth will be remembered above all for her political engagement from 1985 onward. A Christian Democrat, she was the first Federal Minister for Youth, Family, Women and Health, advocated for women’s freedom of choice between family and career, supported a more liberal abortion law, and campaigned against the exclusion of people with AIDS. From 1988 to 1998, she held the office of President of the Bundestag and, at the head of the German parliament, oversaw its reform necessitated by German reunification as well as its relocation to Berlin. Süssmuth continued to take clear public positions, for example on issues of women’s policy. She remained a member of the Bundestag until 2002, where she was committed, among other things, to immigration and integration.

Rita Süssmuth last returned to TU Dortmund University in 2018: on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the university awarded an honorary doctorate to Donald Tusk, who at the time was President of the European Council. In her laudatory speech, Süssmuth praised Tusk’s passionate commitment to the European Union.

With Rita Süssmuth, TU Dortmund University loses a remarkable and highly esteemed personality – and will preserve her memory with honor.

Back