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

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

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 that had divulged British secr ...

, a member of the

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

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

Early life

Friedmann was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

to Israel and Gisella Kohlman in 1910. In 1931, Kohlmann married Karl Friedmann. They separated one year later but did not divorce until Philby asked for a divorce in 1946.

Political activity

Still living in Vienna, Friedmann joined the

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (, 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 Communist party, communist parties. The KP� ...

(KPÖ) and worked for the Moscow-led European underground. She was imprisoned for several weeks in 1933 for her Communist 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 Benjámin Eisenberger; 14 May 1906 in Újfehértó – 23 January 1993 in Budapest) was a Hungarian Communism, communist politician. Between 1945 and 1952 he was chief of the State Protection Authority (''Államvédelmi Ható ...

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

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuss (alternatively Dollfuß; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Federal State of Austria, Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and ...

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 (; 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, 1973, 1978 Jerusalem ...

, later the Mayor of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, 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 Edith Tudor-Hart (''née'' Suschitzky; 28 August 1908 – 12 May 1973) was an Austrian-British photographer and spy for the Soviet Union. Brought up in a family of socialists, she trained in photography at Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, an ...

. 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 Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

and the Soviet embassy.

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

used both Friedmann and Hart as couriers to the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

'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 East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, where Honigmann became editor of the ''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (; ) 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 of Germany, reunification. It is published by Berl ...

''.

Death and legacy

Friedmann died in 1991. Her daughter, German writer Barbara Honigmann, 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 young men at the University of Cambridge who ...

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

. She is played by Lisa Dillon.

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