Gertrude Springer (geb. Hausner)

Gertrude Hausner was born in Vienna as the legitimate daughter of the worker Franz Hausner and Rosa, née Beneš. In addition to Gertrude, the social democratically-minded Ottakring working-class family had two daughters and a son.

After completing her school education, Gertrude Hausner learned the trade of seamstress. Between 1933 and 1934, she was a member of the Red Falcons in Ottakring, of which Paul Springer was also a member at the time. After the Red Falcons were banned following the socialist uprisings in February 1934, she joined a traveling group of the Volksbildungsverein in Vienna between 1935 and 1936, but this was merely a continuation of the Red Falcons in disguise.