Ingeborg Euler was born in Breslau (as Wrocław was known at that time), her parents' only child. Her upbringing was a secure one apart from the impact on the entire family of her father's traumatic wartime experiences. By the time she enrolled at school, in 1934, they were living in Dresden. In 1937, after only three years at primary school, she moved on to secondary school in the Steglitz quarter of Berlin, then in 1942 passing her school final exams (abitur) as a pupil at the secondary school in Zossen, just outside Berlin. At school she participated in drama, playing a lead male role – that of Ferdinand in Schiller's play, Kabale und Liebe ("Intrigue and Love") in a wartime production by the school's drama society.
