German journalist and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD). In 1926 she became secretary to Marie Juchacz, and then was editor in chief of the SPD women’s magazine Genossin (“Comrade”).
As Hitler rose to power, as a journalist, social democrat, and on account of her Jewish provenance, she was in danger of arrest or worse and at the beginning of 1934 she emigrated to London with her life partner. Her partner moved on to the United States, but Gotthelf remained in London for more than a decade.
After the outbreak of war in September 1939, Gotthelf was giving lectures to organisations that included the British Labour Party and trade unions. Between 1943 and 1946 she was working for the BBC. From 1942 she was a member of the exiled SPD committee in London. Between 1941 and 1944 she also belonged to the labour committee of the British group of German trade unionists.
Gotthelf returned to Germany in 1946 and she worked in the Schumacher Office set up in 1945 in order to recreate the party by the man who became its first postwar leader. Within the party executive, between 1946 and 1956, she was described as “the main voice of SPD women’s policies … as the women’s officer (Frauenbeauftragte)”.
Herta Gotthelf died at Alf (a village in the hills between Trier and Koblenz) as the result of a stroke on 13 May 1963 at age 60.
Link to Wikipedia biography