Liselotte Dieckmann

Liselotte Dieckmann was a German-American art historian and scholar of comparative literature. She was born on October 31^st, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1927, she received her doctorate from the University of Heidelberg for her studies on Christian Thomasius, a lawyer and philosopher from the 17^th century who pioneered the early enlightenment in Germany. Because of her Jewish ancestry, Liselotte, along with her husband, fled Nazi Germany in 1933 after her father was forcibly retired by the Nazi Regime. After teaching in Turkey for a brief time, they relocated to the U.S. in 1938.

She joined the Washington University faculty in 1944 where she continued her professional career for more than three decades. During World War II, she worked for the Army Specialized Training Program at the University, teaching the future occupation soldiers. In 1955, she won the Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities for her studies in German and Scandinavian Literature. She became a professor of German in 1958 and served as chair of the German department from 1963-1967 and 1970-71, a time when very few women served as academic chairs. After becoming professor emerita in German in 1971, she decided to use her time in retirement to publish two books on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She died on October 28, 1994, leaving behind an incredible legacy for not only women scholars, but women everywhere.

Evidence of her lasting impact can be seen in the festschrift published in 1972, after her retirement: Essays on European literature, in honor of Lisolette Dieckmann.