Ursula Hirschmann

Ursula Hirschmann (1913–1991) was a German anti-fascist activist and advocate for European federalism. Born into a Jewish family in Berlin, she joined the Social Democratic Party's youth organization in 1932 to resist Nazi advancement. After moving to Paris with her brother Albert, who later became a Nobel Prize candidate, she met Eugenio Colorni, an Italian philosopher and socialist. They married in Trieste in 1935 and had three daughters: Silvia, Renata, and Eva.

In 1939, Colorni was arrested and sent to Ventotene island, where Hirschmann joined him but was not confined. There, she met Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli, who co-authored the Ventotene Manifesto advocating for a united Europe. Hirschmann helped distribute this manifesto and participated in founding the European Federalist Movement in 1943.

Colorni was murdered by fascists in 1944, after which Hirschmann married Spinelli, adopting his three daughters. The couple moved to Switzerland before settling in Rome post-war. In 1975, Hirschmann founded Association Femmes pour l'Europe in Brussels but suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that year, leading to aphasia from which she never fully recovered. She passed away in 1991.