Gertrud Pätsch

Gertrud Pätsch (born 22 January 1910 in Hannover as Gertrud Kettler; died 14 December 1994 in Jena)[1] was a German ethnologist and philologist, who rendered service in the area of Kartvelian studies.

She taught in Berlin until she moved to the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena in 1960, where she founded the Kartvelologian faculty.

Towards the end of her life, Pätsch translated many pieces of Georgian literature, such as Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin".

She worked diligently for cultural exchanges between the German Democratic Republic and Georgia.

She even had the Georgian alphabet engraved in the stairwell of her home in Jena, where she also had built a guest house for such visitors as Konstantine Gamsakhurdia.