Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin

The university was founded in 1899 by Alice Salomon, a strong advocate for women's rights and social justice. During its early years it was named the "Social School for Women".[citation needed] In 1925, she created an initiative to train women in pedagogy and social work. Though students were mostly from Germany, the school admitted some foreign students, like Rayna Petkova, who would become one of the first professionally trained social workers of Bulgaria. The curricula included both theoretical training and required practical experience. Among the courses offered were family problems, pedagogy, population analysis and change, psychology, social health organization, social work as a profession, youth services, among others. Some of the teachers of the courses, besides Salomon, included Käthe Bonikowsky, Margarethe Freiin von Erffa, Elly Heuss-Knapp, Hilde Lion, Elisabeth Nietzsche, and Helene Weber, among others. It admitted only women applicants until 1945. It was renamed the Alice Salomon School in 1932 in commemoration of Salomon's 60th birthday. In 1933, the Nazi Party came to power and Alice Salomon was banned from the school and a large number of instructors of Jewish descent were fired. In 1937, Alice Salomon was expelled from Germany and emigrated to the United States. It was not until 1954 that the school reinstated the name "Alice Salomon School".