Harriet Ellen Siderowna von Rathlef-Keilmann, (3 January 1887 – 1 May 1933), was a Latvian-born sculptor and writer of children's books who escaped to Germany from the Baltic provinces following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Von Rathlef was born to a prominent Jewish family in Latvia, then a province of the Russian Empire. She later converted to Catholicism and married Harald von Rathlef, a lieutenant in the Czarist Regiment of the Alexander Hussars. The couple had four children. The family escaped revolutionary Russia from Riga to Berlin on Dec. 28, 1918. She divorced her husband in 1922 and supported her children with the income from her illustrations.[1]
Von Rathlef became a major proponent of Anna Anderson's claim to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. She befriended the claimant and wrote a series of articles about her.[2]
Von Rathlef, who was involved in artistic circles and social causes in Berlin, was forced to resign from the Society of Berlin Women Artists when Adolf Hitler rose to power. Alarmed by the political developments in Nazi Germany, Von Rathlef hoped to leave the country. Before she could make definite plans, Von Rathlef died in Berlin on 1 May 1933 of a burst appendix.[3] [4]