Soon after her successful escape from the German Democratic Republic, Lili Schultz faced a new challenge. The artist and art lecturer fought for recognition in West Germany as a refugee from the Soviet zone. In support of her claim, Schultz submitted a written “justification for escape”. This reveals a lot about Schultz's individual situation, but also about the arts policies of the GDR at that time.

In her escape justification, Schultz described the reprisals of the winter of 1957-58. The professor for enamel was pressured, both by her superiors and by the ministry, to toe the party line more closely in her work. This paternalism spread quickly to apply to her students and their work. These attempts by the state to exert its power coincided in those months with a general narrowing of East German art policy. The demands that Schultz would have to fulfil in order to remain at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle as a professor was clearly demonstrated to her by her supervisor Walter Funkat. He demanded from her an admission of guilt and a reorientation of her work to comply with party doctrine.

Lili Schultz could not and did not want to square these demands with her conscience. On 15 March, 1958, she left the GDR illegally. Only after the success of her escape did she communicate her farewell to her employer and her students by post.