Shortly after fleeing to West Germany, Lili Schultz wrote her letter of resignation to her previous employer. She left her position as a professor for artistic enamelwork at the art academy in Burg Giebichenstein in Halle (Saale) after decades of loyalty to it. The academy wasn’t only her employer, but also her alma mater. And now, from a distance, Schultz declared that she would not be returning. She did not write one word of explanation about why she was leaving to the academy director, Walter Funkat. He already knew all too well. 

In a document to the West German authorities giving her reasons for fleeing, Lili Schultz described what it was that remained unsaid between her and Funkat in the letter dated 18 March 1958. Both of them were very much aware of their differing standpoints, which had led to several verbal altercations between them in the period prior to her leaving. The director had repeatedly tried to convince Lili Schultz in an insistent and threatening manner to toe the line in her teaching. In doing so, he was acting upon instructions issued by the GDR Ministry of Culture as part of the debate on formalism.

These discussions with her boss about the correct line to be taken in her art lessons were not mentioned in the slightest in her letter of resignation. Instead, she wrote that she no longer wanted to stand in the way of change at the academy. However, the conflict surrounding the realignment at the art academy did rear its head in her letter very briefly. And it appears that this new alignment was so unacceptable to Lili Schultz that she was willing to pay a very high price to follow her very own personal new direction.