Ernst Kurt Lisso, the 53-year-old husband and deputy mayor and city treasurer of Leipzig, Germany, committed suicide at his desk, as did his 50-year-old wife, Renate Stephanie, and their 20-year-old daughter, Ebert, in their office on April 18, 1945.

　　Ernst Kurt Lisso, the 53-year-old husband and deputy mayor and city treasurer of Leipzig, Germany, and his 50-year-old wife, Renate Stephanie, and their 20-year-old daughter, Ebert, committed suicide in their office on April 18th, 1945. Lisso committed suicide by taking poison (potassium cyanide) at his desk, while Renate and Ebert took it on the sofa. In order to avoid capture by American soldiers, he committed suicide by cyanide at the New City Hall in Leipzig. Lisso was wearing a German Red Cross armband. In the photo of his death, his wife, Renate Lisso, is sitting facing him, and their daughter, Regina, who was wearing a Red Cross armband, is sitting on a bench.

　　The American army broke through the Rathaus on April 18th 1945 and began their attack on the morning of April 19th. American tanks shelled the Rathaus from 7:30 to 9:10, and a German officer who had been taken prisoner brought a final ultimatum for surrender. The mayor 　　Alfred Freiberg, who had committed suicide with cyanide in another room, and his wife and daughter, as well as the former mayor and Volkssturm battalion commander Kurt Walter Denicke and several of his officers, were also found in the new town hall. The Americans captured one German major general, 175 non-commissioned officers and 13 Gestapo officers. The American flag was raised on the Rathaus at around noon. The scene of Risso's suicide was photographed extensively by Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller and the US Army Signal Corps.

  As the Soviet Red Army and the Western Allied Forces approached Berlin, the number of suicides increased. In the spring of 1945, thousands of Germans committed suicide to avoid occupation and abuse by the victors. During the Battle of Berlin, approximately 3,881 people were recorded as having committed suicide in April. The motives were not just “fear of a Russian invasion”, and suicides also occurred in areas liberated by the Allied forces. The American group withdrew from the border with the Soviet Union to the boundary of the occupied zone in July 1945. Leipzig was handed over to the Soviet Red Army. Leipzig became one of the main cities of East Germany (German Democratic Republic).