 In 1920 she embarked on a traineeship with a printing business, and she was employed in the book printing sector as a type-setter till 1932.She joined a trades union when she was 18 and in 1927, when she was 24, at the prompting of a friend Magda Kelm joined the Communist Party.She quickly took on jobs within the party apparatus, and in 1931/32 attended the Communist Party Academy in Moscow, although the purpose and nature of her studies are no longer easy to determine.