Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was one of the most dazzling personalities of the last century. Celebrated as a Hollywood diva and chanson singer, loved and despised for her commitment on the front lines, and finally dying alone in Paris. Whether "Lili Marleen," "Sag mir wo die Blumen sind," or "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt" – Marlene Dietrich's songs have long been cult classics. Deutsche Grammophon's release of "The Ultimate Collection" offers an impressive overview of the life and work of Germany's first international star. Artistic Beginnings in 1920s BerlinThe future show business icon was born Marie Magdalena Dietrich in Berlin-Schöneberg on December 27, 1901. Early on, she received private piano and violin lessons, later studying violin in Weimar, and initially seemed destined for a career as a concert violinist. However, when she had to abandon her studies due to tenosynovitis, Dietrich turned to theater. She received instruction from teachers at the Max Reinhardt School of Drama and soon landed her first small roles in plays and films. During the filming of "Tragedy of Love," she met Rudolf Sieber, whom she married a year later and with whom she had a daughter in 1924. It would be her only marriage – followed by numerous love affairs. Breakthrough with "The Blue Angel" and Rapid Rise to Hollywood StardomIn addition to her future husband, Marlene Dietrich also met director Josef von Sternberg in the 1920s, who discovered her for his film project "The Blue Angel" and cast the coolly seductive actress as the bar dancer "Lola Lola." A role with consequences: Marlene Dietrich became famous almost overnight, and the film's hits, including "Nimm dich in Acht vor blonden Fraun" and "Ich bin die fesche Lola," became smash successes. It marked the beginning of a legendary career and the launchpad for Dietrich's journey to Hollywood, where she lived after her emigration in 1930 and became an American citizen in 1937. As a woman in a pantsuit, tuxedo, and top hat, with high cheekbones accentuated by rouge and sensuously made-up lips, Marlene Dietrich conquered the screen with the mysteriously enigmatic charm of the unattainable. But Dietrich also made a name for herself beyond the film world. As a fierce opponent of the Nazi regime, she volunteered for American troop entertainment and repeatedly traveled to the front – cheered by American soldiers, hated by numerous German critics who saw her as a traitor to her homeland. Reinvention as a ChansonnièreWhile Marlene Dietrich captivated audiences as a Hollywood diva in the 1930s and 40s, she reinvented herself in later decades, traveling the world as a gifted entertainer and chansonnière. In legendary stage costumes, skin-tight glitter dresses, and flowing swan coats, Dietrich perfected her own myth, singing her way into the hearts of her audience with a mix of old film songs and new interpretations of works by Hollaender or Cole Porter. In her singing, she always eschewed clinical perfection, instead playing with the charm of raw audacity, which she brought to perfection with supreme stage presence and captivating charisma. The Lonely Death of an Aging DivaThroughout her life, Marlene Dietrich fiercely guarded her image, employing various methods to halt the inevitable aging process. When she fell during a stage show in Sydney in 1975, she ended her career at the age of 74 and retreated to her Parisian apartment. There, isolated and dependent on alcohol and pills, she spent the last years of her life: an aging diva who, out of pride, hid from the outside world. Finally, on May 6, 1992, Marlene Dietrich died in Paris. But her myth endures to this day.