She is known for the murder of Marius Plateau, an editor for the Action Française journal and a leader in the royalist organisation Camelots du Roi, in January 1923.

[1] Following the death of her father, Germaine Berton began working in an American equipment factory located in Tours, France.

She was later recruited to work in Tours' railway workshops where Berton came in contact with Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire (CGT) and joined the Trade Unionist Defense Committee.

[1][2] In 1920, Germaine became assistant secretary of the Revolutionary Trade Union Committee of Tours, briefly served as a member of the French Communist Party (PFC), and wrote articles calling for violence in the newspaper Le Réveil d'Indre-et-Loire.

Germaine then joined the Anarchist Union of Paris where she continued to write about antimilitarist ideals and encouraged revolutionary action.

An article written in Le Réveil d'Indre-et-Loire garnered police scrutiny when Berton called for soldiers to desert, specifically stating:[1][3] France, this ignoble stepmother who sends her sons to die on the fields of carnage, is at present the most militarized country in the whole world.

The republic, this bitch with a muthafucker smeared with rotten blood, is afraid that the French will hear the revolutionary clamors of the Russian people (...) Desert and do not obey.

The police had initially stated the papers were previously brought to the station and were waiting for her to collect but were found to be missing when she arrived.

Following this, Berton slapped the police commissioner's secretary and subsequently was sentenced to 3 months in prison and a 25 franc fine.

[1] Berton was incarcerated at Saint Lazare Prison and held in the same cell that once occupied Madame Bermain de Ravisi.

Berton fell in love with an anarchist named Armand who later committed suicide when drafted to the military, further inflaming her anti-militaristic ideals and inspiring her to prepare a coup against Action Française, an organization Léon Daudet was influential in.

Berton blamed Action Française and The Camelots du roi for the rise of fascism in France and aimed to assassinate Daudet.

On 22 January 1923, Berton assassinated secretary of Action Française and leader of The Camelots du roi Marius Plateau with five revolver shots at the organization's headquarters.

[4][5][6] When police arrived, Berton declared she was avenging the assassination of Jean Jaurès, Miguel Almereyda's mysterious death, and France's occupation of the Ruhr.

Historical analysis has found that Marius Plateau was proponent of structure in his party and Action Française became more radical in its beliefs following his death.

[13] On 22 May 1924, she was arrested following a number of fights that were attributed to her lectures in Bordeaux, resulting in a 100 franc fine and 4 months in prison at Fort du Hâ.

It is surrounded by the male surrealists, including Louis Aragon and André Breton, and other "inspirational figures" (Sigmund Freud, Pablo Picasso).