[2] As a child she was subject to abject poverty that coloured her whole existence, resulting in her developing a human condition which she described as "hypersensitivity and a longing for art" ("Überempfindsamkeit und Sehnsucht nach Kunst").

[3] From 1929 to 1934 she studied gymnastics modern dance in Berlin along with Jonny Ahemm, Vera Skoronel, Gertrud Wienecke and Mary Wigman in Dresden.

[3] By 1936, she was a sworn anti-Nazi and this was confirmed when she wrote articles using the pseudonym "The Stage Artist" titled: "Dance in the Stadium" ("Tanz im Stadion") and "About German dance and its real content" ("Über den deutschen Tanz und seine realen Inhalte") for the Swiss theatre magazine Der Bühnenkünstler, where she attacked Nazi cultural policy.

[12] Among other things, it states: On 11 October 1937, she made her evening debut as a choreographer and dancer as part of an eleven-part solo at the Berlin Bach-Saal.

[2] On the 18 October 1937, the solo dance was reviewed by Dietrich Dibelius in the Frankfurter Zeitung (Number 531) in a piece titled: "Kritik zum Debüt-Abend von Hanna Berger anlässlich einer Aufführung des Tanzsolos Krieger op.

[2] The dance was reviewed by an editor in conversation with Berger, in Workers-Weekly (Arbeiter-Woche) newspaper stating that everybody present must have developed disgust for war.

[2] Dance critic and author Andrea Amort stated that: In 1938, shortly before the annexation of Austria by Germany on 13 March 1938, she followed Fritz Cremer to Rome.

[2] From 1937, both Berger and Cremer were involved in anti-nazi communist resistance in Berlin, in a group that later became known as the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle").

[2] However, Berger's dancing was interrupted when she was arrested on 24 October 1942 in Poznań "on suspicion of preparing high treason" and spent several months in prison in Berlin from November 1942 to August 1943.

[21] Also found was a manuscript written by Berger titled: "About German dance and its real contents" (Über den deutschen Tanz und seine realen Inhalte) in which she criticised the Nazi cultural appropriation of dance in Germany along with its attendant rules and offered suggestions in how it should be changed.

Berger managed to survive her trial due to her skillful defence, presenting herself as politically completely inexperienced.

On the 16 May 1945, Berger re-founded the anti-authoritarian Vienna Children's Theatre of which Christine Ostermayer, Klaus Löwitsch and Gerhard Senft had been known, a position she held until 1950.

[17] In 1946, Berger discovered that Fritz Cremer was still imprisoned, in Yugoslavia and managed to get help from the Communist Party of Austria to free him.

[2] In 1950, Cremer moved to the German Democratic Republic and took over the master class at the Academy of the Arts[22] which effectively ended their relationship.

[17] During this period she danced solo performances in a number of cities in Europe in Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, Paris and Rome, as well as different places in the countries of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary.

In the next two years, due to a black list, Berger was unable to find work in Austria in any US backed production.

[2] In 1956 Berger took over the position of movement director of Janáček's opera "The Cunning Little Vixen", directed by Walter Felsenstein in the GDR.

[17] Until her ultimate death, she commuted between Vienna, Paris, Italy, the GDR and other socialist countries with no permanent home or residence.

[16] Hanna Berger died on 15 January 1962 at the East Berlin Charité Hospital, while being operated on for a second brain tumour.

[25] As part of the production "Dances of outlaws" of Esther Linley, in 1995 this solo was a central role at the Linzer Posthof [de].

The exhibition program "Dance in exile" was curated by Andrea Amort at the Vienna Academy Theatre during the festival tanz2000.at & ImPulsTanz.

Esther Koller danced "L'Inconnue de la Seine" in the 2011 opening of an exhibition for the achievements of women teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.

In 2010, Andrea Amort, a historian and professor at the Vienna Conservatory, published Hanna Berger, Spuren einer Tonzerin im Widerstand,[10] after extensive research that led to the discovery of several previously unknown archive documents.

[21] Esther Koller danced L'Unknown de la Seine in 2011 for the opening of an exhibition at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.

Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne at the Vienna Theatre Museum, Eva-Maria Schaller presents a long version of the Unknown of the Seine.