The physical chemist Erika Cremer, whose name is inseparably linked to the development of gas chromatography, is one of the most significant research personalities at the University of Innsbruck. Although she grew up in a privileged personal and scientific environment, Erika Cremer had to overcome many discriminatory barriers as a woman before she could establish herself in the competitive academic society. In her rather apolitical, always self-focused, and reduced bourgeois position, she was nonetheless directly confronted with the political developments of this century. It is precisely this tension, in which her persistent and successful pursuit of exact scientific knowledge remains evident, that gives her life story its special appeal.