During Nazi Germany, Meysel was banned from performing from 1935 until 1945 because of her Jewish father.

She won numerous German actor awards including a lifetime achievement award from the German Television Awards, but in 1981 she refused to accept the Bundesverdienstkreuz because "Einen Orden dafür, daß man anständig gelebt hat, brauche ich nicht" ("I don't need an order of merit just for having lived decently").

From the mid-1920s until shortly before her death, Meysel was outspoken on many – often controversial – social and political issues.

Despite her decidedly leftist and feminist views, this did not harm her popularity as an actress.

She was cremated and her ashes were buried near her second husband the Austrian film producer John Olden [de] (1918–1965) at Ohlsdorf Main Cemetery, Hamburg.