Maria Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Film goddess and tarnished angel

“The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.”
— Marlene Dietrich in 1960 after a sometimes stormy reception in her native
Germany. (Quoted in Blue Angel by Donald Spoto.)

Starting with her breakthrough role as the sultry, unfaithful cabaret singer Lola Lola in The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel) in 1930, Marlene Dietrich, the “Kraut” (as Ernest Hemingway called his pal), went on to make film history with her alluring looks in films such as Blonde Venus (1932), Destry Rides Again (1939), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). In a varied career of acting, singing, and dancing, Dietrich conquered Las Vegas and Broadway in the 1960s, and went on a world tour in the 1970s. Over a period of several decades Marlene Dietrich was the ultimate Hollywood woman of mystery and a symbol of erotic allure for several generations of moviegoers.

She was born on 27 December 1901 in Schöneberg (now part of Berlin) as the second daughter of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine Felsing. (Most people never knew that Marlene had an older sister, Elisabeth, and they were unlikely to ever learn about it from Marlene.) Herr Dietrich was a police lieutenant, and his newest daughter was born in their modest apartment at Sedanstraße 53 (now Leberstraße 65). The future film star, who would later declare, “When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it,” was given the angelic name Maria Magdalene. Her family called her Lene (LAY-nuh) or Leni and this may have influenced her when at the age of only thirteen she cut out the center part of “Maria Magdalene” to form the unique name Marlene. She would later use this childhood creation to identify the budding film star who was to be known around the world as Marlene Dietrich.

In 1907 Marlene’s father died when she was only five. She and her sister were raised by her mother. Wilhelmina was later married briefly to Eduard von Losch, giving rise to biographic confusion over Marlene’s surname, which was always Dietrich.

From the beginning, Dietrich was a rebel, running counter to what people expected and social mores. Later she was a married woman (until husband Rudi Sieber’s death in 1976) who spent little time with her husband and had numerous affairs with both men and women throughout her film career. Thanks to her daughter Maria (Sieber) Riva – who gives Dietrich a low rating as a mother – Dietrich became a grandmother in 1948, with her still-alluring picture adorning the August 9th cover of Life magazine. She often dressed as a man and sang in films and on stage in a style that could be interpreted as lesbian or bisexual at a time when such things were just not done. (This was no doubt influenced by her life in the wild and woolly Berlin of the 1920s.) But Dietrich, even as a child, had a certain aura and strength of character that often made people overlook her flaws and excesses.

*Dietrich’s Gravestone Quotation
The inscription on Dietrich’s headstone is adapted from “Abschied vom Leben” (“Farewell to Life”) by Carl Theodor Körner (1791-1813), a sonnet written during the night of June 17-18, 1813 as the poet lay wounded in war and expecting to die.

First verse in German and English: Die Wunde brennt, die bleichen Lippen beben, Ich fühl’s an meines Herzens mattem Schlage, Ich stehe an den Marken meiner Tage! Gott, wie Du willst! Dir hab ich mich ergeben. My deep wound burns; my pale lips quake in death I feel my fainting heart resign its strife, And reaching now the limit of my life, Lord, to thy will I yield my parting breath!

Dietrich’s cemetery: 3. Städtischer Friedhof (Waldfriedhof in Friedenau), Stubenrauchstr. 43-45, 12161 Berlin (Also see this GW page: Famous Graves: Dietrich.)

Dietrich in Hollywood

After her arrival in Hollywood with Blue Angel director Josef von Sternberg, the two made a series of pictures together, some more successful than others. Dietrich starred in such notable films as Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), and The Devil is a Woman (1935). (See a Dietrich filmography below.) After the two went their separate ways, Dietrich had a rough patch before regaining her footing once again as “Frenchy” in the Western comedy Destry Rides Again (1939) opposite Jimmy Stewart (with whom she had a brief fling).

Dietrich became a US citizen in 1939. As a USO entertainer during World War II, often in uniform and near the front, Marlene displayed her devotion to her adopted country. She seemed to thrive on entertaining the troops and running about in uniform as an honorary captain. (See the photo above.) But she worked hard, often under primitive conditions, in locations from Iceland to North Africa. She did two separate USO tours, the first with comedian Danny Thomas, who helped her learn the tricks of the trade on the road. This patriotic act was perceived by many in her native land as treason, ignoring the fact that Dietrich was anti-Nazi, not anti-German. In 1947 Marlene Dietrich was awarded the US Medal of Freedom for her war efforts.

In 1960, for the first time since leaving Germany 30 years before, she performed on stage in her hometown of Berlin. She drew a mixed reaction of adulation and “Marlene Go Home!” As a result, she firmly refused to return to Germany until after her death. (“The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.”) But she enjoyed performing live on stage, and that later led to her appearances in Las Vegas showrooms and other venues in the 1960s and early 1970s, as her Hollywood film opportunities diminished.

All this colored several attempts to honor the exiled actress by naming a Berlin street for her in the late 1990s. Even her home district of Schöneberg refused to rename a street for her! That only became possible with the construction of the new Potsdamer Platz complex, where a small square (rather than a street) was officially dubbed Marlene-Dietrich-Platz in February 1998. (See photo.) On the occasion of Dietrich’s 100th birthday in 2001, the Berlin government officially apologized for its past snubs, but amazingly there were still protests when the Berlin-born star was posthumously made an honorary citizen of Berlin on 16 May 2002.

In her seventies, problems with those famous Dietrich legs, other health concerns, and obsessive vanity led her to withdraw from public view. Her last stage appearance was in Sydney, Australia in September 1975 when she fell and broke her left leg. Dietrich made her last film appearance in Just a Gigolo (1979) at the age of 77 — lured back into a studio by $250,000 for two half-days work. Thirteen years later, a sad recluse, alcoholic, and a prisoner of her own legend, Marlene Dietrich died in Paris at her Avenue Montaigne apartment in 1992. She chose to be buried in her native Berlin. Her vast memorabilia collection was acquired by the city-state of Berlin in 1993 for 8 million marks ($5 million). Many objects from the collection are now housed in a special exhibit at the Film Museum (Deutsche Kinemathek) in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in the German capital city.

Marlene Dietrich and Berlin

Marlene Dietrich and Berlin did not always get along well together. She was born in Schöneberg when it was still a separate town, not a part of Berlin as it is today. For many years after that she grew up and worked in Berlin. Things went relatively well – until Adolf Hitler and his Nazis took over in Germany in 1933.

Dietrich had recently had her first great film success starring as Lola Lola in the German production The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel, 1930), filmed in both German and English versions. She and director Josef von Sternberg had gone to Hollywood, where they were enjoying even more success as the Nazis came to power in Germany. Dietrich became a US citizen in 1939, the year that World War II began. Even though the Nazi government tried to get her to return to Germany, Dietrich adamantly refused to have anything to do with the Third Reich. And that was the beginning of her falling out with many of her fellow Germans.

Over the years, Dietrich’s hometown and the Germans have come to terms with the German-American actress. It only took 65 years (since the end of WWII), but finally in 2010 Berlin had reached the point where the city (and the Deutsche Kinemathek film museum) could bestow the honor upon Marlene Dietrich of giving her the very first star on Berlin’s new Boulevard of Stars.

See a Dietrich filmography of her most notable Hollywood pictures below.

Next | Germans (and Others) in Hollywood

Selected Hollywood Films

Der blaue Engel | The Blue Angel (1930)
Directed by Josef von Sternberg in Germany, this film made Dietrich world famous. Like many early sound films, it was filmed in two versions: German and English. (The German one is superior.) Her next film, Morocco, would be made in Hollywood — also with von Sternberg.
Blu-ray AMAZON.COM > Der blaue Engel / The Blue Angel (2 Blu-ray discs with the English and German versions) – Kino Classics

Morocco (1930)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. Dietrich’s first Hollywood film, with Gary Cooper.
This film is included in the box set DIETRICH & VON STERNBERG IN HOLLYWOOD (Blu-ray from Amazon.com)

Dishonored (1931)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. Dietrich as Marie Kolverer/Agent X-27 in this pre-Code romantic spy film about a female spy for Austria-Hungary during World War I. Also features Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Warner Oland (also in Shanghai Express with Dietrich, below).

Shanghai Express (1932)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. A group of (mostly) European and American first-class travelers on a train are held hostage by a warlord during the Chinese Civil War. The film stars Dietrich (as Shanghai Lily), Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Warner Oland (a Swedish-American actor who also played Charlie Chan).

Blonde Venus (1932)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. This pre-Code drama starring Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, and Cary Grant was based on an original story (“Mother Love”) written by Dietrich herself. It features three musical numbers by Dietrich. Met with mixed reviews after its release, the film today is something of cult film with themes of adultery, white slavery, and other aspects that prevented the film’s rerelease in 1934.

The Song of Songs (1933)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian. A Paramount pre-Code romantic drama starring Dietrich as a naive German peasant named Lily who moves to Berlin to stay with her aunt and suffers from a considerable amount of heartache. Also features Brian Aherne and Lionel Atwill. The film was neither a critical nor a box-office success.

The Scarlett Empress (1934)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. A historical drama about the life of Catherine the Great. It features Dietrich (as Catherine), John Lodge and Sam Jaffe. Dietrich’s daughter Maria (Sieber) Riva plays Catherine as a child.

The Devil is a Woman (1935)
Director: Josef von Sternberg. With Cesar Romero. Devil was not a big hit, but a 1975 Italian remake was a true disaster. Dietrich’s last film with von Sternberg.
DVD set: Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (5 films, including The Devil is a Woman)

Desire (1936)
Director: Frank Borzage. A romantic comedy-drama set in France and Spain that stars Dietrich (as the elegant con-artist Madeleine de Beaupre) and Gary Cooper (as American auto engineer Tom Bradley). Produced by Borzage and Ernst Lubitsch, the picture is a remake of the 1933 German film Happy Days in Aranjuez.

The Garden of Allah (1936)
Director: Richard Boleslawski. A Technicolor adventure-drama-romance produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Dietrich, Charles Boyer, and Basil Rathbone. The film score is by Austrian-born Max Steiner. The Algodones sand dunes in the California desert near Yuma, Arizona stand in for the film’s North Africa setting.

Knight without Armour (1937)
Director: Jacques Feyder. Dietrich and Robert Donat star in this historical drama about the Russian revolution. Produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Bíró adapted by Frances Marion from the 1933 novel by James Hilton.

Angel (1937)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch. This Paramount Pictures comedy-drama stars Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, and Melvyn Douglas. Maria/”Angel” (Dietrich) and her husband Sir Frederick Barker (Marshall) take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man.

Destry Rides Again (1939)
Director: George Marshall. Dietrich stars as the feisty saloon girl “Frenchy” along with James Stewart. A good comeback for Dietrich, highlighted by the now-classic catfight with Una Merkel.
Blu-ray from AMAZON.COM > Destry Rides Again – Criterion Collection

Seven Sinners (1940)
Director: Tay Garnett. With Dietrich (as torch singer Bijou Blanche), John Wayne, and Broderick Crawford in the South Seas. Contains the iconic Dietrich line: “I’m a b-a-a-d influence.” This is the first of three films that Wayne and Dietrich made together.

The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
Director: René Clair. A comedy, set in 19th century New Orleans, starring Dietrich (as Countess Claire “Lili” Ledoux) and Bruce Cabot in his first comedy role. The supporting cast features Roland Young, Andy Devine and Franklin Pangborn.

Manpower (1941)
Director: Raoul Walsh. A film noir starring Edward G. Robinson, Dietrich, and George Raft. Robinson plays Hank McHenry, a Los Angeles power line worker. Dietrich plays Hank’s love interest, Fay Duval.

The Spoilers (1942)
Director: Ray Enright. An Alaska gold miners tale with Dietrich, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne. Based on a 1906 novel by Rex Beach, this is the third version of The Spoilers. The first two were released in 1914 and 1923.

Pittsburgh (1942)
Director: Lewis Seiler. Dietrich again teams up with Randolph Scott and John Wayne. The film is about an ambitious coal miner (Charles “Pittsburgh” Markham, played by John Wayne) who values wealth and power in the Pittsburgh steel industry over his friends, lovers, and ideals, only to find himself deserted and alone at the top. Film critic Caro Ness wrote that the film was “like a Western taken out of context, replacing the cowboys and Indians with coal miners and steel impresarios.”

Kismet (1944)
Director: William Dieterle. A Technicolor musical starring Ronald Colman, Dietrich, Joy Page, and Florence Bates. Dieterle had directed Dietrich two decades before in the German silent film Man by the Wayside (1923). The story takes place “when old Baghdad was new and shiny,” in an Arabian Nights atmosphere.

Golden Earrings (1947)
Director: Mitchell Leisen. With Ray Milland. Some claim Dietrich actually pulled off the dark-faced gypsy role in this romantic spy film. The title song, “Golden Earrings,” was sung in the movie by Murvyn Vye. It was a hit recording in 1947-1948 by Peggy Lee.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
Director: Billy Wilder. Filmed on location in post-war Berlin, starring Jean Arthur and Dietrich. A forgotten Wilder classic that deserves more respect.
Blu-ray from AMAZON.COM > A Foreign Affair – also a DVD option

Stage Fright (1950)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock (also producer). A British black comedy starring Jane Wyman, Dietrich, Michael Wilding, and Richard Todd. Hitchcock had lived and worked in Hollywood since 1939, but this mystery/thriller mixed with Hitchcockian humor was filmed in London. The only members of the cast who are not British are the two top-billed stars: Wyman and Dietrich. Dietrich’s costumes were designed by Christian Dior.

No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Director: Henry Koster. Dietrich is teamed with James Stewart again in this British black-and-white aviation film from 20th Century Fox that also features Glynis Johns, Niall MacGinnis, Janette Scott, and Jack Hawkins. The film is based on the 1948 novel No Highway by Nevil Shute, and was one of the first films to depict a potential aviation disaster involving metal fatigue.
Blu-ray from AMAZON.COM > No Highway in the Sky – also on Prime Video and DVD

Rancho Notorious (1952)
Director: Fritz Lang. A Technicolor Western starring Marlene Dietrich as the matron of a criminal hideout called Chuck-a-Luck. Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer play rivals for her attention in this tale of frontier revenge set in Wyoming.

Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Director: Michael Anderson. Along with Frank Sinatra, Dietrich had a cameo role as a saloon girl in the wild West in this wide-screen epic.

Touch of Evil (1958)
Director: Orson Welles. A modern film noir set on the US-Mexico border (but actually shot in Venice, California in 1957). The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel Badge of Evil (1956). The cast includes Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Dietrich (as Tanya).

Witness for the Prosecution (1958)
Director: Billy Wilder. Stars Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton. A mystery with a surprise ending. A true success for both Dietrich and Wilder.
Blu-ray from AMAZON.COM > Witness for the Prosecution

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Director: Stanley Kramer. Dietrich (as Frau Bertholt) has a key role opposite judge Spencer Tracey. Set in Nuremberg, Germany in 1948, the film depicts a fictionalized version of the Judges’ Trial of 1947, one of the 12 U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals conducted before the U.S. military. The cast includes: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift.

Just a Gigolo (1978, German title: Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo)
Director: David Hemmings. A West German drama starring David Bowie as a Prussian officer. Set in post-World War I Berlin, it also features Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, and Marlene Dietrich in her final film role. The film was panned by critics and audiences, which led Bowie to quip that it was “my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one.”

MORE DIETRICH FILMS on Blu-ray:
Blu-ray from AMAZON.COM > Marlene Dietrich Movies on Blu-ray

FILMS ABOUT DIETRICH

Marlene Dietrich: Shadow and Light (1996, TV)
Director: Chris Hunt. This documentary about Dietrich was originally produced for the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel. It features archival footage and interviews with people who knew her, including her daughter Maria Riva and director Billy Wilder.

Marlene (1984)
Director: Maximilian Schell. This documentary about Dietrich was filmed in Paris using only her voice, under the condition that she would not be seen on camera.

Marlene (2000)
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier. This German biopic starred the well-known German actress Katja Flint as Dietrich.

Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001)
Director: David Riva (Dietrich’s grandson). “The films, affairs and struggles of the iconic star … as told by Rosemary Clooney, Roger Corman, Deanna Durbin and many more.” – from IMDb

AT PARAMOUNT 1930-1935 – BLU-RAY BOX SET
Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood – Box Set Blu-ray – 6 Films
The Paramount years: DIETRICH & VON STERNBERG IN HOLLYWOOD – CRITERION COLLECTION Box Set (6 Films): Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, The Devil Is a Woman.
AMAZON.COM: BLU-RAY: DIETRICH & VON STERNBERG IN HOLLYWOOD

Next | Germans (and Others) in Hollywood

Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY

• Featured Biographies – More full bios of notable people from the German-speaking world
• Berlin’s “Boulevard of Stars” is similar to Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame.” Dietrich was honored with the first star in 2010.
• Marlene Dietrich stars in Berlin is a GW Expat Blog post about Dietrich’s star on Berlin’s Boulevard der Stars.
• Berlin City Guide – The sights and history of the German capital
• Germans (and Others) in Hollywood – About the three main waves of Germanic immigration to Hollywood
• Mini Bios A-Z – Brief biographies of people from the German-speaking world
• Notable Women from Austria, Germany, Switzerland
• Famous Graves in Germany – Where are they buried?

ON THE WEB

• Deutsche Kinemathek: Digital Archives – Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin in English
• The Permanent Exhibition (in English) – The Deutsche Kinemathek Film Museum’s permanent exhibition focuses on its two defining media – film and television – from their origins to the present. The Museum is located at the Sony Center in Berlin. Get tickets online (in German only).

Legal Notice: We are not responsible for the content of external links.