During her time in the city council she could be outspoken. She was involved in an advertisement that insulted President Hindenburg, still widely revered by many as one of the most successful military leaders during the First World War. Citing his wartime exploits she identified him as a mass murderer. Her outspokenness resonated with the party leadership, especially after 1924 when the left-wing took control. In 1927 she was on the receiving end of a court action issued on behalf of the president. She defended her position in the following terms: "It was unthinkable for me to meet the individual who is the current state president. In my position as a local representative I believe I am entitled to voice criticism in respect of the pre-revolutionary period. I simply wanted to make an observation concerning another time." Nevertheless, despite being happy to "name the guilty men" her greater concern was with the clouds of social deprivation which had never really lifted in the years of acute economic hardship that had followed the war, and in that sense her practical approach was never entirely aligned with the more theoretical and doctrinaire concerns that underpinned the party leadership. During the internal party ructions that followed the death of Lenin, she backed the opposition line of the ultra-left at the time of the so-called "Open letter" in September 1925, but by November 1925 had already swung behind the party majority.