Born: April 7, 1918, in: Dresden
Died: February 14, 2010, in: Torekov/Sweden
Faculty: Fac ulty of Physics
Academic title: Dr. Ing.

Sibylle von Schieszl was born in Dresden in 1918 as the daughter of Martha and Walther Schieck, who later became the last Saxon Minister President of the Weimar Republic. In 1937, she completed the "Reich Labor Service for Young Women", which was obligatory for young women. This was followed by a short period of employment at Zeiss Ikon AG before she began studying physics at the Dresden University of Technology in 19401

During her studies, she worked as an assistant and carried out physics internships. After graduating in November 1943, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Physics. She rescued the doctoral thesis she had begun under Prof. Dr.-Ing. Enno Heidebroek, later Rector of the University, from the destroyed university building on Bismarckplatz (now Friedrich-List-Platz) after the bombing raids on Dresden.

In 1944, she married Karl Theodor Schieszl von Buda, who was drafted in April 1945 and became a Soviet prisoner of war. Their daughter was born on July 3, 1945.

Sibylle von Schieszl was offered a new position at the THD and completed her doctorate in 1948 on the subject of "Experiments to clarify the validity limits of hydrodynamics in thin layers of lubricating oil". Sibylle von Schieszl was a scheduled assistant at the Institute of Physics until 1950. She then worked at the THD as a senior assistant at the Chair of Electrochemistry under Professor Schwabe.

In 1952, a list was leaked to him containing the names of 20 students who were threatened with arrest following a denunciation. Professor Schwabe passed this list on to Sibylle von Schieszl as he felt he could do nothing himself. She decided to warn those affected. She first informed her husband, who had returned from war captivity in the meantime, and then drove individually to all the students whose names were on the list, knowing that they would no longer be able to stay in the GDR.

In order to avoid arrest herself, Sibylle von Schieszl fled with her family to West Berlin on November 18, 1952. She was then recognized as a political refugee. From West Berlin, she moved with her family to Mannheim, where Sybille von Schieszl worked for several years in the central laboratory of the US Army Procurement Group.

In 1956, she was employed by the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg. She headed the laboratory for inorganic chemistry there. One of her tasks was to set up the department for central damage assessment. In 1972, she was promoted to head of the quality promotion department. This made her the first woman to hold a managerial position in the VW Group. Sibylle von Schieszl retired in 1979. Until then, she had played a key role in active quality policy.

In addition to her commitment to an active quality policy in the VW Group, she also campaigned for the international networking of female academics and had been a founding member of "Soroptimist International", a women's organization that promotes exchange among working women, since 1963.

In 1990, Sibylle von Schieszl moved to live with her daughter in Sweden, where she died in 2010. In 2015, a women's place was dedicated to her at the phæno science center in Wolfsburg.

Footnotes

1. During her studies, she was a member of the National Socialist German Student Association. Documents from the TUD University Archives show that from 1940, there was a formal obligation to join the NSDStB, or its offshoot for female students, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nationalsozialistischer Studentinnen, when starting a degree course.

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