Charlotte von Kirschbaum (1899-1975) was born in Ingolstadt in Bavaria and was educated in Munich. She was serving as a Red Cross nurse when, in 1924, she was introduced to Karl Barth, a radical young university lecturer who was to transform the theology of the twentieth century. In 1929, after she had trained as a secretary, she began a partnership with Barth that lasted until her health gave way in 1964. She encouraged Barth to write his monumental Church Dogmatics, herself providing the footnotes, detached notes, and exegesis for the work.
