Ingeborg Rapoport

Ingeborg Rapoport (September 2, 1912 – March 23, 2017) was a German pediatrician. She was an important figure in East German medicine and, at age 102, the oldest person to receive a Doctorate degree.^[2]

Dr. Ingeborg Rapoport M.D.
Born	Ingeborg Syllm (1912-09-02)2 September 1912 Kribi, Cameroon
Died	23 March 2017(2017-03-23) (aged 104) Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German (East German 1952–1990)
Alma mater	University of Hamburg Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)	Physician and professor in East Germany
Known for	oldest person to receive a Ph.D. (age of 102)
Political party	Socialist Unity Party of Germany[1]
Spouse	Samuel Mitja Rapoport
Children	4
Awards	Patriotic Order of Merit, National Prize of East Germany and other East German awards

Early life

Rapoport was born as Ingeborg Syllm in September 1912 to Protestant German parents in Kribi, Cameroon, a German colony at this time.^[3]

Medical career

Rapoport studied medicine in Hamburg at the University of Hamburg in Nazi-Germany, but was denied a medical degree because her mother was Jewish. She fled Nazi persecution and immigrated 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 GDR (East Germany). She became the first chair of neonatology in whole Germany and retired in 1973. She was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany.

Honors and awards

In East Germany, Rapoport received Habilitation in 1959. She was awarded the National Prize of East Germany as well as other awards. 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.^[4]

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.

Personal life

Rapoport was married to Samuel Mitja Rapoport, whom she met in Cincinnati, Ohio. They had four children. Samuel died in 2004. She lived in Berlin. Rapoport turned 100 in September 2012.

Rapoport died on 23 March 2017 at her home in Berlin at the age of 104.^[5]