Richard Wiener was an insurance assessor and lived in Berlin with his non-Jewish wife Vally. They were forced to divorce in 1939. He was taken into “protective custody” but released before 1943. His wife was also arrested on several occasions for “family ties to Jews;” possibly because she continued to meet up with her husband despite a contact ban imposed by the Gestapo.
At the start of 1943, the Wieners met Elisabeth and Walter Bussian through the Jewish lawyer Anita Eisner, with whom they had been friends since 1931. The Bussians tried to help their Jewish neighbors and friends. Anita Eisner spent her evenings in their apartment in Charlottenburg, while Richard Wiener stayed there during the day. It is not known whether Wiener slept in his wife’s home despite the Gestapo ban.
When the Bussians’ apartment was destroyed by bombing in November 1943, Elisabeth Bussian and her daughter moved to the Spreewald region. Her husband was posted to the eastern front as a soldier in 1944. Nonetheless, Elisabeth Bussian managed to obtain food or arrange accommodation for Richard Wiener. Vally Wiener presumably also played a significant role in rescuing her husband.