Marie Busch was born on January 21, 1894, as the daughter of the manufacturer Karl Ernst Busch and his wife Emilie, née Gissler, in Remscheid. At this time there were various independent tool makers with the name Busch, many of whom came from a long line of manufacturers. Marie Busch probably came from one of these families and was thus familiar from a young age with the everyday world of industry or a company. She received the typical education of “high-born” daughters in this period: after primary school she moved in 1903 to a lyceum, and from 1910 took a private course to prepare for her final school leaving examination. She took the examination in 1914 as an external candidate at the Röntgengymnasium in Lennep, probably because girls were not at the time allowed to attend this gymnasium (high school) on a regular basis. Coeducation was not yet widespread.  

In the same year she began studying business at the Cologne Business School, from which she graduated in February 1916 with a master’s degree in business administration and the overall grade “very good.” Looking back after she retired, she said, “What I always loved was law. But since women were not allowed to take the state exam in those days, and I nevertheless wanted to, I took my master’s in business administration, not thinking that the semesters in Cologne would not count towards the law doctorate. As the war forced me to complete my studies quickly, I did my doctorate in political science, concentrating mainly on legal topics as advised by my professors.” For this Marie Busch changed to the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, where she studied law and political science until 1918. In May 1918 she obtained her doctoral degree with a dissertation on industry in Remscheid during the war. One of her professors said of her later that “In this (thesis) as in the rest of her work, Dr. Busch has skillfully combined her practical powers of observation with theoretical analysis. Special mention must be made of her understanding of legal matters based on her excellent knowledge of the subject, which was particularly evident in her doctoral examination.”  

Unfortunately it is not known what instigated the next step in the career of the woman who was now Dr. Marie Busch: perhaps she had contacts through acquaintances in Remscheid or Lennep, the birthplace of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, with the medical engineering company of Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (RGS), which already had a reputation throughout Germany, or perhaps she heard of a vacant position while still in Heidelberg, where she lived at least until September 1918. By whatever means the contact with the company in Franconia was originally established, Marie Busch in any case applied in September for the position of assistant to the then head of the RGS managing board, Karl Zitzmann. Her references and interview most probably convinced him to employ her, and on October 15, 1918 she started work in the managerial secretariat.  

In October 1944, Marie Busch was transferred from Berlin to Erlangen when various departments were relocated. Back in Franconia she took over the personnel department, first for SRW Erlangen and then after the war for the whole company. In addition, from 1950 she became a member of the managing board of the “INAG” Industrie-Unternehmungen AG, a subsidiary of SRW. She held both positions until she retired in 1959 after over 40 years of service. The Managing Board wrote: “Dr. Busch / the Corporate Personnel Department asked us some time ago to release her from her responsibilities at SRW as she intended to retire. The Managing Board has now granted this wish, so that she will cease active service as of September 30, 1959 after over 40 years of valuable work. We would like to thank her most sincerely for her outstanding achievements.”  

It is not easy to describe Dr. Marie Busch’s character on the basis of her career. There is little information about her as a person in the MedArchiv in Erlangen, primarily due to the war. When Marie Busch was asked by the MedArchiv in 1964 to supply her “biographical data” she said, “It was rather difficult to put these together, as I lost almost all my papers during the war and thus cannot always provide the exact dates […]”.

However, the few documents that exist give a picture of an ambitious and highly-qualified woman who was promoted at regular intervals and who also received regular salary increases. In responsible positions, she helped to shape the company for over 40 years. When Marie Busch died on December 10, 1964 of a severe illness, the CEOs of SRW and INAG wrote “Dr. Busch had outstanding professional knowledge which enabled her to carry out her responsibilities exceptionally well. She was also a distinctive personality, highly educated and with a wide range of interests, who is inseparable from the history of the Siemens-Reiniger-Werke. With the personal interest she took in all those with whom she came into contact through her work she was popular with everyone and greatly respected. We will not forget her.”

March 6, 2012 – Dr. Florian Kiuntke