Dr. Alexandra Maria Catharina von Dyhrn (8 September 1873 – 9 April 1945) was a German genealogist, author and the first woman in the province of Silesia to earn a doctorate. Family Alexandra von Dyhrn was born in 1873 at her family's estate of Reesewitz in the district of Oels, now Oleśnica, in the province of Silesia and was by birth a countess of Dyhrn and a baroness of Schoenau. Her Lutheran family was one of the most prominent noble houses of Prussia, dating back to the 13th century. The estate of Reesewitz, which had been in the possession of the Dyhrn family since the 17th century, was enormous, but was administered from a modest house in the middle of the estate, where the family lived. Alexandra's father, Count Conrad Johannes von Dyhrn, was a lieutenant colonel and a hereditary member of the Prussian House of Lords. He was a friend and a distant relative of Gustav Freytag, who often visited the family at Reesewitz. In 1872 Heinrich married Alexandra's mother, a Dutch Baroness, Cornelia Tilanus van der Hoop, who was a member of the famous and very rich Hoop or Hope family, originally from Scotland. The marriage of Alexandra's parents was therefore very beneficial in particular for the Dyhrn family. Alexandra inherited a strong love for history and homeland from her father, and the love for arts from her mother, whose family in Netherlands had an outstanding art collection, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Steen and Ruisdael. She had two younger sisters, Countesses Freda and Edith von Dyhrn, who were both born with physical disabilities and never married. Alexandra von Dyhrn was a second cousin of the poet Valeska von Bethusy-Huc and a grand-niece of the notorious Prussian politician Conrad Adolf von Dyhrn (1803–1869). Life After her primary education at home and at several evening schools in order to get the Abitur Alexandra was determined to study at a university. In 1896 her father unexpectedly died of a heart attack, being only 52 years old. Because of such a shock her mother was in deepest depression and had serious psychological problems. Alexandra had to take care of her, as both her sisters were unable to do that, and postpone her plans for future. Two years later (1898) Alexandra and her mother, incapable to manage and maintain such a property, sold the old family estate Reesewitz to the Prussian