[1] However, after she married, in 1928, she was "released" from her employment with "Vorwärts", spending the next few years unemployed apart from periodic assignments as a casual worker at the jute mill in Bremen's Walle quarter.
[3] She was not quite 12 when war ended in military defeat for Germany, followed by a wave of revolutions across the country and a new political structure which was in many ways far more democratic than the previous one.
In 1922 Käthe Fürst joined the Young Socialist Workers ("Sozialistische Arbeiter-Jugend" / SAJ) and the Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD).
[1] Working at the jute mill she was influenced by Hannes Koschnick, at that time secretary of the Revolutionary trades union opposition ("Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition" / RGO) movement and editor of the "Workers' Newspaper" The RGO was for most purposes a communist trades union confederation, although it frequently found itself in vigorous disagreement with the (increasingly Moscow-influenced) Communist Party over practical matters.
It was also during this period that, increasingly, she was influenced by Robert Stamm, district leader for Northwest Bremen of the Communist Party.
[1] Her membership of the "Bremische Bürgerschaft" lasted only till 20 March 1931 because, according to one source, the party instructed her to relocate away from Bremen.
In 1931 the two of them relocated to Düsseldorf, where she worked with the Lower Rhineland regional party leadership team ("Bezirksleitung Niederrhein") of the RGO.
In the autumn of 1932, she travelled with her husband to Moscow, but according to one source her wish to study at the "Lenin" Party Academy there came to nothing because she failed the entrance exam.
Other party comrades arrested at the same time included Adolf Rembte, Robert Stamm and Max Maddalena.
The trial process lasted two years, during which time Hans Lübeck, who was himself in prison between 1934 and 1936, divorced her, which hurt her terribly.
As early as 23 July 1945 the British military authorities installed Käthe Popall as Bremen's first ever female senator.
In 1946 she joined with Agnes Heineken, Anna Stiegler, Anna Klara Fischer and Irmgard Enderle to become a founding member of the Bremen Women's Committee ("Bremer Frauenausschuss"), widely recognised as a non-party non-denominational umbrella organisation for women's organisations from all parts of society in the city-state.
Popall remained a member of the Bremen Bürgerschaft (regional parliament), representing the Communist Party until 1956 when, in the context of wider Cold War tensions, the Communist Party was itself banned in the German Federal Republic (West Germany) (of which the British occupation zone had become a part in May 1949).
By 1956 Käthe Popall had already become politically isolated and relatively inactive on the wider stage, reflecting increasingly bitter internal conflicts within the party.
[1] Following the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49 the three western occupation zones were relaunched, in May 1949, as the German Federal Republic (West Germany).
There was no immediate acceptance in Moscow that the opportunity to create a Soviet sponsored German state including the western occupation zones had been closed off for good.
Inside East Germany the ruling party became increasingly uncompromising in its interpretation and application of Stalinist communism, especially after the quickly suppressed 1953 uprising.