Margit Eugenia (Gitta) Mallasz was born in 1907 in Ljubljana (Laibach) into an Austro-Hungarian family. Her father was an officer in the Hungarian army, her mother was Austrian. In her adolescence in Hungary she became friends with Hanna Dallos at the Academy of Graphic Arts. She was a talented swimmer and in the early thirties, became a national free style and backstroke champion. She won the bronze medal of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1931 European Aquatics Championships in Paris. She also made the acquaintance of Lili Strausz, a professor of calisthenics who was also a massage therapist. Soon Gitta Mallasz resumed working in graphic art and joined Hanna Dallos in the atelier which she ran with her husband Joseph Kreutzer. Once antisemitism gained political power in Budapest, the aristocratic Gitta Mallasz took over the commercial management of the atelier from Hanna and Joseph, who were Jewish just like Lili Strausz.