Isa Vermehren was born in Lübeck where she spent childhood, youth and school time. Because she refused to greet the flag of the German Reich, she was expelled from grammar school in May 1933. Her mother, the journalist Petra Vermehren, moved then to Berlin, taking Isa with her. While Petra Vermehren was hired in April 1934 as the first woman in the foreign policy editorship of the Berliner Tageblatt, the editor of Der Querschnitt, Hermann von Wedderkop, recommended Isa Vermehren to the political-literary cabaret of Werner Finck, Die Katakombe in Berlin, to perform. There she quickly became well-known.
