WOMEN DENTISTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22685, 24 March 1937, Page 5

WOMEN DENTISTS

PROFESSION IN GERMANY

DISCOURAGEMENT BY HITLER

" "Women make very good dentists. It is not strength, but skill and mechanical knowledge that is required in dentistry, even in drawing out the most resistant molar," said Mrs. H. Bechmanne, who arrived at Auckland on Monday on her way to England. Dining tlie past three months she has been touring in the East and Australia.

Before her marriage Mrs. Bechmanne practised as a dental surgeon at Berlin and was for some years dental assistant at the Freiberg University. This was before" Herr Hitler issued his decree that a woman's place was in the home. Nowadays, said Mrs. Bechmanne, there were very few practising women dentists, although some of them were still to be found in dental hospitals for school children at Berlin, Hamburg and other large cities. Until quite recently dentistry as a profession for women had been very popular in Germany.

Mrs. Bechmanne remarked that a gold filling was now practically a thing of the past in Germany, as this precious mineral was so scarce. Dentistry was one of the most important professions in that country and while German people seemed to have naturally good teeth they were jealous of their condition.

Prior to the rise of Herr Hitler, and even under such adverse conditions following the Great War, women were making of the German universities valuable organisations in the functioning of social and scholastic life, said Mrs. Bcchmaiiue. As members of the International Federation of University Women they had more than played their part in furthering understanding and friendship and the federation's ideal of making knowledge and the search for knowledge a common meeting ground for all nations.