Uta Ranke-Heinemann

Uta Ranke-Heinemann (born 2 October 1927) is a German theologian, academic and author. She holds the (nondenominational) chair of History of Religion at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, her birthplace.

Ranke-Heinemann's parents were Protestants (Calvinistic). Her father Gustav Heinemann was an SPD politician and president of Germany 1969–74. Her mother Hilda Heinemann, a descendant of Albrecht von Haller studied theology under Rudolf Bultmann at the University of Marburg. In 1944, Hilda brought Uta to Bultmann as a refugee after Essen was heavily bombed. Uta lived with Rudolf Bultmann's family until the end of the war 1945. She was the first and only girl at the Burggymnasium Essen, which was founded in the 9th century and passed her final examinations (Abitur) "with distinction", the only one of her class. "Abitur with distinction" was rare at the time, the last one at Burggymnasium happened 30 years before.

After nearly seven years' study of Protestant theology in Bonn, Basel, Oxford, and Montpellier, she converted to Catholicism in 1953 and was promoted to doctor in 1954 in Munich. Before 1954 no doctorate in Catholic theology for women was possible. She had been a classmate of Joseph Ratzinger, when they were doctoral students together at the University of Munich in 1953/54.

In 1969 Ranke-Heinemann became the first woman to hold a chair of theology at a German university. She subsequently held the Essen University chair of ancient church history and the New Testament. In 1987 Bishop of Essen Franz Hengsbach withdrew her license to teach Catholic theology for disputing the virgin birth of Jesus. This effectively disqualified her from the post she had held for three years.

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