Elisabeth was interested in social contexts. She taught Sunday school at an early age "Being able to explain and tell the Bible stories was such a wonderful task that I realized that teaching must be the most beautiful art" and passed her teacher's examination in 1899. She founded an "advanced training school" for girls in Strasbourg, which later became a real female commercial school.

In her circle of friends at home, she became acquainted with Friedrich Naumann and Albert Schweitzer. As she was interested in "civic education" and the economic opportunities of her female pupils, she decided to study economics in Freiburg in 1905. She went to Berlin in 1906, but did not find the answers she was looking for in her studies because the colleges "contained nothing about social work". She found the answers in Alice Salomon's "so-called girls' and women's groups". Instead of attending the colleges, she worked on the German Homework Exhibition in 1906, which was produced by the trade unions on behalf of the Bureau for Social Policy in Berlin and focused on the plight and exploitation of homeworkers, especially women. Käthe Kollwitz had created the advertising poster.

In 1908, she married the journalist Theodor Heuss and began giving lectures at the Lette-Verein Berlin. In 1910, the year in which her son Ernst was born, her book "Bürgerkunde und Volkswirtschaftslehre für Frauen" (Civics and Economics for Women) was published, which was repeatedly revised and supplemented in eight editions. She wrote fairy tales, took part in a large exhibition entitled "Women at home and at work" in 1912 and became acquainted with the women's movement through Gertrud Bäumer, although she did not join it.

From 1911, she taught at Alice Salomon's Social Women's School on the grounds of the Pestalozzi-Fröbel House and also worked as a voluntary welfare worker.

Elly Heuss-Knapp, as she called herself, continued her lecture activities aimed at educating women when the family moved to Heidelberg. She took a different kind of initiative there when, from 1914 onwards, she took a very practical approach to the wives of soldiers whose family income had been lost due to the men's military service. Together with many volunteers, she set up a tailoring workshop that provided work and income for around 900 women. She personally procured orders, fabrics and knitting wool from the military, thus saving the women from working in the munitions factories where they could not keep their children with them.

"We stood in a humble place among the simple women who worked to give their children bread and to replace their fathers in a bad way."

Another important form of care for the women arose incidentally:
"If a woman looked particularly bad, ... (we) advised her to go to the lung care center or some other welfare institution. But from our not inconsiderable surpluses ... we secretly provided those agencies with the necessary funds and thus obtained a vacation for many women ... That was the most gratifying war work."

From 1918, she lived in Berlin again and campaigned for women to exercise their newly won right to vote. "I was not one of those who had fought for it or had great illusions about its importance. But once it was given ... you had to make sure that everyone went to the ballot box."

She organized the production of leaflets and sent out telegraphic announcements to all cities, "Vote and campaign for the election". She joined the German Democratic Party and, like her husband, stood for election to the National Assembly.

She returned to teaching civics and German at the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus, where she was able to pass on her love of language, literature and stories. She began to campaign for denominational schools and became involved in the Heilbronn church, the Protestant congregation of Pastor Dibelius.

Impressed by the "derailments" she saw among young people in the post-war and inflationary period, she now focused on the protection and promotion of youth and family. Many of her lectures, for which she continued to receive many requests, read almost like sermons today. Until the summer of 1933, she also taught at the newly founded seminar for church women's ministry.

Elly Heuss-Knapp experienced 1933 as "a turning point that also shook our lives". Her husband, who was a member of the Reichstag from 1924, was banned from his profession and she herself was also banned from giving lectures. She was now faced with the challenge of securing the family's income. In 1934, she published her autobiography "Ausblick vom Münsterturm" and then began to design advertising for a cousin's company. Today, she is regarded as the inventor of the "acoustic trademark" and had this invention patented.

She revolutionized radio advertising and later also worked for other well-known companies. Her husband Theodor Heuss was sometimes able to help her during this time. Those who knew her personally know that the period of professional standstill and commercial challenges was also characterized by excessive demands. "In the difficult time after 1933, her health dwindled due to the excessive demands of work and housework" (Hans Bott).

Elly Heuss-Knapp became politically active immediately after the end of the regime. She also began lecturing again almost immediately. "Throughout the last period, the question of guilt has been discussed in speeches and writings. It is often overlooked that the words guilt and repentance, conversion, remorse only have meaning when they are understood in religious terms ... After we have long been shown the terrible overemphasis on communal life with all its propaganda measures, we should now remember that the individual personality must have the opportunity to develop freely." (1946)

From 1946 to 1949, like her husband, she was a member of the Württemberg-Baden state parliament (later for the Free Democratic Party FDP). She remained true to her stance by working on the social policy committee. "Women should certainly get involved in public life. She will always be most successful if she does not constantly base her demands on the concept of 'we women', but if she focuses on the protection of the family." (1947)

Looking ahead, she took part in the founding of the German Council of the European Movement in Wiesbaden in 1949 and became its Vice-President.

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• Elly Heuss-Knapp: View from the Minster Tower/Memoirs, 7th edition Tübingen
• Elly Heuss-Knapp: Rat und Tat/Nachklang eines Lebens, Tübingen 1964 wikipedia.org/wiki/Elly_Heuss-Knapp