Anna Amalie Elisabeth "Lisel" Oppel was born at Bremen, the youngest of her parents' seven, or more children. Alwin Oppel (1849–1929), her father, was a secondary school teacher and a distinguished economist. Her mother, Amalie Oppel, born Amalie Baumann, was her father's second wife and came originally from Herisau (Appenzell) in the traditionally conservative north-east of Switzerland. While Lisel was growing up the family lived at Lübecker Straße 31, a town house in the heart of Bremen.
