Helene Overlach's work at the heart of the party bureaucracy meant that she came to know leading party members, several of whom appear to have been impressed by her. One particularly memorable encounter involved Klara Zetkin, already by this time an iconic figure for many on the German left. During 1923 Helene Overlach was sent to meet Zetkin at Hamm railway station, a short distance to the north-east of Essen. The entire region was under French military occupation at the time. Evidently the military authorities somehow found out about the presence of two high level German communists at the station. Klara Zetkin and Helene Overlach were both arrested by a French soldier and detained for several hours. It was an unusual first meeting.