Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber were a couple for forty years. They met in Thuringia after the First World War, where both were on the road (Tetzner as a storyteller, Kläber as a travelling salesman). Kläber, who introduced himself to his future wife at their first encounter as a “professional revolutionary”, earned a living at that time as a miner, among other things, and also wrote poems and journalistic articles. In 1925, a year after they married, he became a member of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) and worked during the years until Hitler came to power for various left-wing magazines and publishers.

Following the Reichstag fire, Kläber was arrested but released again two days later thanks to his wife’s connections. He fled via Prague to Switzerland where the couple had a summer house. Lisa Tetzner followed him only a few days later and their house became a meeting place for émigrés. From 1933 until 1935, when he left the KPD, Kläber commuted between Paris and Carona and was involved in Comintern activities.

Because of her husband’s political and her life in Swiss exile, Tetzner was expelled from the Reich Literature Chamber (Reichsschrifttumskammer). Her husband did not receive a work permit for Switzerland meaning that Tetzner had to earn a living for both of them by giving lessons. She also made efforts to have her books translated and to find a Swiss publisher.