Ingeborg Rapoport

Life & Legacy

Ingeborg Rapoport (née Syllm; 2 September 1912 – 23 March 2017) was a German pediatrician who was a prominent figure in East German medicine and, at age 102, the oldest person to receive a doctorate degree.
Rapoport studied medicine in Hamburg in Nazi Germany, but was denied a medical degree because her mother was of Jewish ancestry. She fled Nazi persecution and emigrated to the United States in 1938, where she completed her education in medicine. In the early 1950s, as a result of an investigation of her and her husband for un-American activities, she left the United States and eventually, after staying in Vienna for a year, moved to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). She became the first chair of neonatology in the whole of Germany and retired in 1973. She was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
In East Germany, Rapoport received Habilitation in 1959. She was awarded the National Prize of East Germany and Honoured Doctor of the People as well as other awards and honorary titles. As a pediatrician, she helped to considerably reduce infant mortality in East Germany, which, during her active years was even lower than in West Germany.
In 2015, the Faculty of Medicine of Hamburg University corrected the injustice of the Nazi regime and awarded her a medical degree after an oral examination. She became the oldest person to receive a Doctorate degree at the age of 102.