Gertrud Spiess

[1] She studied philology, German and history in Basel and Kiel.

Then she made Islamic studies in Basel and Cairo, Egypt[1] and earned a doctor's degree in 1946 with her thesis Maḥmūd von Ġazna bei Farīdu’d-dīn ʿAṭṭār which was first published in print in 1959.

Spiess was a high school teacher of Latin and Ancient Greek.

She sat in the Citizens' Council of Basel, campaigned for women's suffrage in Switzerland, and joined the Grand Council of Basel in 1968.

[4] Her fields of interest included social and education policy.