Lilli Hornig was born in Ústí nad Labem in March 1922. Her father, Erwin Schwenk, was born in Prague but grew up in Vienna. Her mother, Racha, was originally from Lithuania but spent her childhood in Łódź, Warsaw and Lviv.
The couple moved to Ústí from Vienna during World War I, due to a lucrative job offer from the Austrian Chemical and Metallurgical Association. After the formation of Czechoslovakia, a major political, national and financial struggle broke out over the assets of the company (today's Spolchemie) associated with the old monarchy. The Schwenks preferred to go to Berlin for the security of a decent job.
For the Schering-Kahlbaum company, Erwin Schwenk was the first in the world to artificially produce the female hormone estrogen, and later he devoted himself to researching steroids. After Hitler came to power, he was labeled a Jew and was about to be arrested, but the family managed to escape to the USA with the help of American scientists.
A period postcard depicts the former main building of the Austrian Chemical and Metallurgical Association (right), as well as its modern successor (left), which Erwin Schenk never saw.