Vicar and Teacher

Passing the School of Theology’s exam in 1927, Ina Gschlössl completed her degree in theology at the University of Marburg. A new church law enabled her to start a vicarage in Cologne with the “red pastor” Georg Fritze (1874–1939) that same year.

Although Fritze, a noted representative of the “religious socialists”, advocated the ordination of women, there was no possibility of it becoming accepted in the Old Prussian Union. Ina Gschlössl vented her indignation in the magazine “Die Christliche Welt” that upon closer examination nothing of the office of vicar remained than occasionally substituting and constantly dealing with minutiae and working as an assistant under the direction of the theologian in charge.

The consistory resolved that she had to cut her vicarage short in November of 1927 because of her inconvenient views and she was “assigned” to be a teacher at the vocational schools, a position financed by the city rather than the church. Collaborating on the introduction of religion class at vocational schools, Gschlössl was a pioneer in this field of work in those years. She taught at seven different schools and in a total of thirty-seven graduating classes.