Elsbeth Schragmüller Elsbeth Schragmüller ( also known as Mademoiselle Docteur , Fräulein Doktor , Fair Lady , La Baronne , Mlle Schwartz ; 7 August 1887 , Schlüsselburg , Kingdom of Prussia , German Empire — 24 February 1940 , Munich , Bavaria ) was a German spy during World War I . For many years she was invariably known as " Mademoiselle Docteur " or " Fräulein Doktor " , her actual name being revealed only in 1945 from German intelligence documents captured by the Allies after World War II , by which time she had already died of miliary tuberculosis ( in 1940 ) . Her nickname acknowledges the fact that she had a doctoral degree in political science ( and not psychology as some fictional portrayals have claimed ) from the University of Freiburg , being one of the first generation of German women to gain an academic degree . Life . Schragmüller was the eldest of four children born to Prussian Army officer and bailiff Carl Anton Schragmüller and his wife Valesca Cramer von Clausbruch . Her younger brother was the future SA police chief of Magdeburg , Konrad Schragmüller . Schragmüller spent her childhood , first in Schlüsselburg and then with her grandmother in Münster , from here she was educated by her grandmother . From 1909 - 1914 , she studied political science at Albert - Ludwigs - Universität in Freiburg . She finished her studies in 1913 and was one of the first women in Germany to acquire a university degree . After her studies she worked for the Berlin Lette - Verein as a lecturer in civic education . After the outbreak of the First World War , Schragmüller moved to occupied Belgium , where the German Governor General , Colmar von der Goltz , assigned her to Section VII , where she opened and intercepted letters . She later switched to intelligence collection and worked , after a short training period , in Lille for the General Staff ' s intelligence wing , or Abteilung IIIb . In 1915 , Colonel Walter Nicolai , the head of Abteilung IIIb , assigned her as the chief of the " Kriegsnachrichten Antwerpen " . By the war ' s end , Schragmüller held the rank of Lieutenant and had been awarded the Iron Cross First Class . After armistice in 1918 , Schragmüller resumed her academic career and became the first female assistant chair at Freiburg University . A few years later she moved with her family to Munich . Soon after her father and her brother Konrad , a senior SA officer , were shot during the Night of the Long Knives . Soon after , Elspeth also ended her career abruptly for unknown reasons . One reason may have been lack of money . Schragmüller died in 1940 at the age of 52 years of bone tuberculosis in her Munich apartment . Urban legends . The activities of " Fräulein Doktor " were the subject of various urban legends during World War I but , as she was neither captured nor unmasked during her lifetime , much of her life story remains obscure and speculative , and it is unclear to what extent the various fictional treatments of her life story are accurate . Her death early in World War II makes it unlikely that she contributed materially to the war effort even if , as some have claimed , she was again engaged in espionage activities .