born as the daughter of the pastor of bözen, marie vögtlin benefited from a private education in the romandie and in zürich. in 1867, her fiancé, a student of medicine, broke off the engagement. he married nadezhda suslova, europe's first female physician, instead. in response and with the reluctant support of her father, vögtlin applied for admission herself to the study of medicine at the university of zürich, which had been the first medical faculty in europe to admit women. this caused a national scandal, as previously only a few "impudent" foreign women such as suslova had been matriculated there.