a lot of time was Weimar where, with friends, they were closely involved in the creation of a new cultural centre. They met or corresponded regularly with leading figures of the time, such as the artist Max Liebermann, the architect Henry van de Velde, the publisher Harry Kessler and the poets Detlev von Liliencron, Alfred Mombert and Paul Scheerbart. In 1911 Richard and Ida Dehmel asked the Hamburg architect Walther Baedeker to design what became known as the "Dehmel House" at Westerstraße 5 (later Richard-Dehmel-Straße 1). Ida Dehmel quickly made the new home a centre of activity for the leading lights of the Hamburg artists' set. She encouraged young artists to fulfill the dream of becoming a "self-supporting element in a much larger movement". Ida Dehmel also remained in close contact with her sister, Alice, six years her senior. Alice, based in Mannheim, was a leading proponent of women's education and by now was also increasingly involving herself in other aspects of the feminist agenda. In Hamburg Ida joined the struggle, founding the "Hamburg Women's Club" in 1906 and becoming, in 1911, chair of the "North German League for Women's Suffrage" ("Norddeutsche Verband für Frauenstimmrecht"). In 1913 she founded the "League of North German Women Artists" ("Bund Niederdeutscher Künstlerinnen"). She also returned to a childhood interest in beads, and in craftwork more generally, joining the National Craftwork Association and herself producing bags, belts and lampshades. War and death War broke out in July 1914. Richard Dehmel, by now aged 50, volunteered to join the army. Her son, Heinz-Lux Auerbach was conscripted and died in France in the slaughter of 1917. Her husband suffered a serious leg wound which caused a thrombosis in 1919 and led to his death on 8 February 1920. During the war years her own social involvement intensified. She became deputy chair of the "Deutscher Frauendank", described in translation as "a women's wartime trust" and became "corresponding secretary" of the (reflecting wartime pressures, now ever more "conservative") Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht. She was also an active member of the National Liberal Party and chair of the newly founded "Women's League for the promotion of German Visual Arts" ("Frauenbund zur Förderung deutscher bildender Kunst") which she set up with Rosa Schapire. After her son died, however, and even more following the death of her husband in 1920, she devoted much of her time and abundant energy to conserving