Elsa Ackermann worked as a teacher at various schools in Berlin from 1911 until her retirement in 1940. She and her brother Hans, both devout Protestants, rejected National Socialism.
In November 1943, she moved in with her brother in Berlin-Tempelhof, where he had been harboring Johanna (Hanne) Putzrath for several months. Elsa Ackermann helped her brother to obtain food for persecuted people. When air raids became increasingly frequent, Putzrath sought protection in the building’s basement, although she did not have forged identity papers. A neighbor became suspicious and threatened to inform the police. Fortunately, however, this danger was averted and Hanne Putzrath was liberated at the end of April 1945 in Hans and Elsa Ackermann’s home. She emigrated to the United States in 1947.