On 17 December 1937, the King of Sweden, Gustaf V, signed a document appointing Nanna Svartz (1890–1986) as full professor of medicine at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. This was a remarkable event at the time. No woman had previously been trusted with a chair in any of the three universities in Sweden. She had seven male competitors, and critical voices claimed that a woman in menopause age would be unable to master such a demanding post. There existed only four chairs of medicine in Sweden. Full professorships were highly sought after and almost a requirement for survival in academic medicine. In her autobiography,1 Dr Svartz mentions that she was persuaded by her peers to apply and that she did not believe that she could be chosen. Her mentor, the retiring professor Israel Holmgren (1871–1961), was a feminist politician. After a turbulent meeting, the dean of the faculty chairing the meeting, Hans Christian Jacobaeus (1879–1937), phoned her and reported that she had been elected with 18 against 3 votes. Hours later, Jacobaeus was found by a janitor collapsed in the meeting room. Nanna was informed and rushed to the hospital where Jacobaeus in the emergency was dying of myocardial infarct. On 17 December, the King of Sweden, Gustav V, signed the historic authorisation. Filled with ambition, Dr Svartz would become a dominating and often feared figure in Swedish and international medicine for nearly half a century.

Nanna was born in the industrial city of Västerås, 100 km east of Stockholm. Her loving mother was the daughter of a priest, and her father was an accomplished but fearful teacher of Latin. She was the happy fifth child in the family and full of fun and games. But tragedy hit the family. Her three elder brothers died in childhood from tuberculosis. Her …