Hede Massing

Hede Massing, ne Hedwig Tune , was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground. She came to prominence by testifying in the second case of Alger Hiss in 1949 later, she published accounts about the underground.

Vienna Massing was born in 1900 to a Polish father and Austrian mother in Vienna. Her parents unhappy marriage alienated her from her family. She had a brother, Walter, seven years younger and sister, Elli, nine years younger. After finishing high school, she apprenticed unhappily and unsuccessfully in a millinery shop. Attendance of summer public lectures by Karl Kraus rekindled her interest in literature. She applied for and received a scholarship for dramatic literature at the Burgtheater that eventually led to her external career as an actress. Entering the cafe, literary scene , she met Peter Altenberg, Elizabeth Bergner, Franz Werfel, Albert Ehrensteinand her first husband, Gerhart Eisler. Eisler invited her to join his Communistcommitted life by leaving her family and coming to live with him at his parents home in a party marriage. In 1920, when Eisler received an invitation to work in Berlin, the two got a civil marriage in December 1920.

Source: Wikipedia