Claudia Michelsen

Marlene - icon of film history, vamp and diva: the same legends have been associated with the name Marlene Dietrich ever since she set out from Berlin to conquer the world like a comet as a blonde Venus after her triumph as Lola in the film "The Blue Angel" in the early 1930s. This actress was more contradictory, modern and uncompromising than any other Hollywood star. But what made this woman so extraordinary only becomes apparent when she is seen in her own time.
Marlene Dietrich wore pants when women were beaten for it on the street. She took her child to Hollywood when being a mother meant the end for an erotic movie star. She resisted the lure of Hitler when many of her colleagues were falling over. And she began a second career as a diseuse at an age when others were retiring from the stage for good.

In her reading, Claudia Michelsen presents the life of a woman who systematically eluded scrutiny throughout her life and is still a mystery: How could she, whose lovers were named Erich Maria Remarque, Gary Cooper, Jean Gabin, John F. Kennedy and Yul Brynner, describe herself as not beautiful? After all, she had achieved world fame with her overpowering erotic aura. Why did she doubt her acting abilities? And how was it that this idolized diva complained of loneliness all her life? Marlene Dietrich answered these and other questions in her memoirs, giving an unsparing account of her eventful life.

Picture: Stefan Klüter