Marlene Dietrich was one of the most famous women in the world in her time, but in her last few years, when she lived in Paris, almost no one saw her. The film icon who died exactly 30 years ago, on May 6, 1992, kept her closest friends at a distance.
Why is one of the few world stars from Germany so special to this day? And why did she avoid the public towards the end of her life?
"We were constantly calling each other," the singer once told Hildegard Knef. Once she signaled to Dietrich to stand in front of her apartment. Marlene greeted her with a wave of the drawn curtain.
The name "Marlene Dietrich" carries with it many legends to this day. For some, she is a sex symbol, actress and singer ("From head to toe I am made of love."). Not everyone knows that in the Second World War, she falconed American soldiers with her performances. On the day she died, she had almost a century behind her.
What Marlene Dietrich was, everyone has to discover for themselves, says the cultural researcher Zilke Roneburg which leads her legacy to the German Cinematheque in Berlin. "For example, it struck me that people who don't know her film history see her as a fashion model." And because of the pants "Marlen" - wide, straight cut.
But Dietrich was also recognized as a star in men's clothing, adds Roneburgova - in Berlin in the twenties it was no longer a taboo, but it was she who pushed the trend in the world.
At a premiere in Paris in 1933, she wore a tweed suit with a tie and a beret. French women were forbidden to wear trousers outside, unless they were riding or cycling. "It was a scandal."
She was a very nuanced personality, says Roneburg.
"Honestly, she didn't sing very well, and as an actress she had some limitations. But everything she did, she brought to perfection."
She had this tendency towards perfection, discipline, and she also knew how to control vices. "She was actually afraid to come to the studio for photo shoots. And when she did, she would immediately hand out instructions."
Until the end, she tried to keep things under control in her voluntary exile in her Paris apartment. "Because she worked so hard on her image and built the 'Marlen' brand, she didn't want to diminish it in her old age," Roneburg said. And the image was built by numerous performances.
Marlene Dietrich, who was born in Berlin, in today's part of the city of Schöneberg, became famous after the film "The Blue Angel" ("Der blaue Engel") in 1930. In tights and a top hat, she played a singer who flirts with a professor.
The documentary "Marlene Dietrich - her own song" ("Marlene Dietrich - Her own Song") made by her grandson J. David Riva talks about moving to America.
The arrival of the National Socialists in power complicated its relationship with Germany. During the war, she performed for American soldiers, and that chapter followed her when peace came. On the Internet you can see great videos of him singing the anti-war song "Tell me where the flowers are" ("Sag' mir, wo die Blumen sind").
Later she performed with Billy Wilder i David Bowie.
When you say "Dietrich" - you knew who it was and that name was a symbol of an era. With today's divas, that doesn't really work. "Kardashian?" You cannot know exactly who is meant.
After decades of public life, Marlene Dietrich retired, even after a car accident in Australia. 12 Avenue Montaigne, that was her last address in the lovely XNUMXth arrondissement of Paris.
Dietrich loved Paris and her hiding place. She left the world on the fourth floor of a luxury building. Between 1977 and 1992, she rarely left the apartment, as her former secretary wrote in her book "Marlene Dietrich: les derniers secrets" Norma Bosque.
Radio journalist Louis Bozon he was among the few whom Dietrich allowed to visit her. He had a key to the apartment and finished various everyday things for her.
Bozon (87) was her friend for more than 30 years and in 2012 wrote the book "Hello, my angel, Marlene here" ("Allô mon ange, c'est Marlène"), according to the words she used to greet him on the phone.
The apartment, as he described, consisted of one large living room with two pianos, then a small but well-equipped kitchen. Dietrich, before she retired from the world, loved to cook, especially for her friends. Hildegard Knef said of her friend that she was very caring - she took care of her like a mother never did.
She arranged the bedroom so that she could live in it. Under the side table were drinks, like whiskey, and she would drink a whole bottle a day, as a former secretary once said. The legacy also includes a tongs and hundreds of books.
Next to the bed are a stroller, a television and a telephone - the most important thing near the end of Dietrich's life and her only connection to the outside world. "She was on the phone endlessly and the bills ended up being astronomical," Roneburg said.
Dietrich, the secretary thinks, took her own life with a large amount of sleeping pills. Boske said in an interview with AFP that she had suffered a stroke two days earlier. But Roneburg doubts it. Death for Dietrich, as her daughter once said Marija, she was nothing and maybe she wanted to hide her too, like she hid her old age.
In her diary from the beginning of May 1992, she wrote that she had caught a cold, but she showed no signs of being tired of life. Although her movement was limited, Dietrich made phone calls, read and wrote. According to Roneburg, this does not fit into the thesis about suicide.
"What is more important is what remains of her, how we talk about her 30 years after her death and what she will be for the next generations."
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