Asta Hampe


Professor Asta Hampe was a German electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, economist and statistician. She was born in Helmstedt to parents Hans Hampe and Emmy Busch. According to The Woman Engineer, Hampe was the first German member of the Women's Engineering Society, which she joined in 1929.

Education and Career

Asta Hampe was educated at the Klosterschule, Hamburg and the Technische Hochschule, Munich, where she was one of five women among 500 men. Her further studies were financially supported by her grandfather and uncle. In 1931, she received her diploma in engineering and she went on to work as an assistant at the Research Laboratory at Friedrich Krupp AG, Essen. In 1933, she was fired from her job at Barmbek Hospital for being a woman, with the dismissal saying that Physics is no profession for a woman, therefore, Hampe must be dismissed. In 1938, she wrote to the Women's Engineering Society about her position at Philips' radio. During the Second World War, Hampe was recruited to work as a physicist for the German Marines. From 1968-69, she held a professor position at the Philips University in Marburg.

Membership of the Women's Engineering Society

Records from the Women's Engineering Society show that professor Hampe was an active member. She provided a listing for herself in the 1935 Register of Women Engineers and, in the same year, attended the thirteenth annual conference for the society speaking to delegates about her experiences as an engineer in Germany. In response to the toast by Amy Johnson to women engineers across the world, Hampe is reported to have outlined some of the changes for women in engineering in Germany following the election of the National Socialist party, though mostly there were training opportunities for women and some employment options. In The Woman Engineer in 1986, there is a listing for Professor Dr Asta Hampe as a full member.