In early modern Europe learned women were by no means rare and in some cases got degrees from universities such as Bologna or Padua. Yet until the reign of Frederick II of Prussia no German university had ever given an academic degree to a woman. In order to compete with other European nations Frederick gave his approval in 1742 to Dorothea Christiane Leporin's request to study medicine at the University of Halle together with her brother. This university had been founded in 1694 according to a reform model developed by Christian Thomasius, the enlightenment philosopher and holder of a chair in the law faculty at Halle University. In his early works Thomasius had been willing to renounce old prejudices against women and demanded equal opportunities in education for both sexes. Also Dorothea Christiane Leporin in her critique of the exclusion of women from academic study, published in 1742, defended the position that women should acquire knowledge besides fulfilling their duties as wives, mothers and housekeepers. Dorothea Christiane herself had been supported by her father and several of his educated friends in Quedlinburg. Therefore she had a good knowledge of foreign languages, especially Latin and skills in theoretical and practical medicine. Despite having received permission to enroll at Halle she at first married a widowed pastor with five children, gave birth to four children of her own and in time became a general practioner for the poor. Only the complaints of other physicians caused her finally to gain a doctorate in 1754 in order to be a „doctor“ in the common sense: Germany had its Laura Bassi. Erxlebens (born Leporin) achievement remained an exception, however, until the late nineteenth century when women started to struggle for regular access to universities and for the right to become physicians. But in the long transition from the enlightened censure of prejudices to concrete measures for gender mainstreaming that exist nowadays, Lepotin's unusual career was an important first step.
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