Alice Friedmann (née Kohlmann; 1910–1991), known as Litzi Friedmann, was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Communist who was the first wife of

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...

, a member of the

Cambridge Five The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted ...

. Records identify her as the Soviet agent with the code name Mary.

Early life

Friedmann was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to Israel and Gisella Kohlman in 1910. In 1931, Kohlmann married Karl Friedmann. They divorced one year later.

Political activity

Still living in Vienna, Friedmann joined the

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (german: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of Republic of German-Austria, German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest ...

(KPÖ) and worked for the Moscow-led European underground. She was imprisoned for several weeks in 1933 for her Community Party affiliation; in this year, the KPÖ became an underground organisation. Friedmann had a wide network of Communist connections across Europe, including to Soviet intelligence. She was also in a romantic relationship with

Gábor Péter Gábor Péter (born as Benjámin Eisenberger in Újfehértó, 14 May 1906 – Budapest, 23 January 1993) was a Hungarian Communist politician. Between 1945 and 1952 he was the absolute leader of the State Protection Authority (''Államvédelmi H ...

(Benjámin Eisenberger), who was then married to another woman. In February 1934, the government of

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: ''Dolfuss'', ; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian clerical fascist politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ...

began a further crackdown on known leftists. Working with

, Friedmann smuggled activists out of Vienna through the sewer system. The couple married in Vienna on 24 February, partly so Philby's British citizenship could protect Friedmann from the Austrian police. An account stated that the marriage was pushed by Friedmann's father for this purpose. According to some sources,

Teddy Kollek Theodor "Teddy" Kollek ( he, טדי קולק; 27 May 1911 – 2 January 2007) was an Israeli politician who served as the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 19 ...

, later the Mayor of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, was present at the wedding. In 1934, the Socialist movement collapsed, and the couple left Vienna for London in April to live with Philby's mother. Friedmann had a friend in London who was working for Soviet intelligence, the photographer and fellow Viennese Edith Tudor-Hart. Due to her work, Hart had extensive contacts in British society and was involved in the Soviet recruitment while helping facilitate the relations between the

Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...

and the Soviet embassy. Burgess used both Friedmann and Hart as couriers to the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

's Paris station. One biographer of Philby, Genrikh Borovik, who had access to the Soviet archives, says that Tudor-Hart recommended Friedmann and Philby as suitable candidates for NKVD recruitment. Friedmann and Philby split up in the 1930s – some sources claim that Philby had to distance himself from known communists to penetrate the British establishment. However, they remained in contact for years afterwards and divorced only in 1946. In 1946, after the war, Friedmann and the German-Jewish refugee Georg Honigmann lived in East Berlin, where Honigmann became editor of the ''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...

''.

Death and legacy

Friedmann died in 1991. Her daughter, German writer

Barbara Honigmann Barbara Honigmann (born 12 February 1949 in East Berlin) is a German author, artist and theater director. Honigmann is the daughter of Jewish emigrant parents, who returned to East Berlin in 1947 after a period of exile in Great Britain. Her pa ...

, wrote a biography of her mother. Friedmann appears as a character in ''

Cambridge Spies ''Cambridge Spies'' is a four-part British drama miniseries written by Peter Moffat and directed by Tim Fywell, that was first broadcast on BBC Two in May 2003 and is based on the true story of four brilliant young men at the University of C ...

'', a 2003 BBC drama based on the story of the

. She is played by

Lisa Dillon Lisa Dillon (née Stawiarski; born 1979) is an English actress. Life and career Early life Dillon attended Bournemouth School for Girls and left in 1997. She began a degree in English Literature and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of Londo ...

References

External links

An English-language review of Honigmann's biography of her mother
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedmann, Lirzi 1910 births 1991 deaths Austrian Jews Austrian communists Austrian prisoners and detainees Austrian spies for the Soviet Union People from East Berlin Austrian emigrants to East Germany Austrian emigrants to England Jewish socialists Women spies People from Vienna