Dear all,
Here are some interesting pictures of Marlene Dietrich and a little bit about her story.
She was born German but was anti-Nazi and became a US citizen in 1939, I wonder if any of you know what the Germans thought of her?
www
.life.com/image/50694654/in-gallery/23026/wwii-marlene-dietrich-and-the-boys
She was considered something like a traitor in Germany, with some of her actions she did not oppose Hitler or the NS system in general but harmed the common German soldier in the field. These were the allegations…She was spat at during her Germany tour in 1960(!).
Thank you for the feedback.
To be fair I can understand why Germans would view her as a traitor.
From - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dietrich
Dietrich’s return to Germany in 1960 for a concert tour elicited a mixed response. Many Germans felt she had betrayed her homeland by her actions during World War II. During her performances at Berlin’s Titania Palast theatre, protesters chanted, “Marlene Go Home!” On the other hand, Dietrich was warmly welcomed by other Germans, including Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. The tour was an artistic triumph, but a financial failure.
From - www
chuckallan.com/history/LiliMarlene.html
Maria Magdalene Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901, the second child of Lieutenant Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine Felsing.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler demanded that the famous German actress return to the Fatherland. Dietrich, an ardent anti-Nazi, refused, resulting in all her films being banned from Germany. Dietrich became a naturalized United States citizen and devoted most of her energy during World War II to entertaining Allied troops.
Her major claim to fame during World War II was her work with the USO. There is no doubt that she made a major contribution to the morale of the troops. During the Africa & Italy campaigns, she withstood much privation in order to stay with the troops at the front, where she not only entertained but helped coordinate hospital and mess details. In the French & German campaigns, she often rode with Patton at the front.
Her vehement denouncement of the Nazi regime, and her participation in Radio broadcasts aimed at Germany got the desired result - she got under the skin of the Nazis. For her work, the U.S., French and (eventually) Israeli governments awarded her medals.
i heard there were the another one reason not to allow her to return back in NS germany.She was prominent scandal lesbian. Plus her produser was jewish.
As we know the NS regime didn’t welcome both of things…
Oh no sir, she definitely wasn’t a lesbian. Bisexual perhaps (many actresses, and some actors, dabbled in bisexuality in that day), yet Dietrich may have “hurt the German soldier in the field,” but she was noted for–shall we say–helping the American soldier in the field. She had numerous affairs with U.S. servicemen including a long term one with a LTC…
Perhaps she posed herself as bisexual( hiding it’s lesbian nature, as point out all her female lovers), but again it wasn’t welcomed in NS germany.Plus her affairs with US high officers didn’t make the germ public to burn by desire to see her back in Germany.
She was also warmly welcomed by parts of the population when she followed the US troops in 1944/45 in my home area, she was even offered cake by the local women.
Marlene Dietrich was bisexual, no doubt about it. Before Nazi rise to power, Berlin offer a very gay-friendly ambient, and Marlene was a well-know attend of it and here she has love affairs with different woman. Marlene said in his memories that he doesn’t like Hollywood because while offers a lot of entertaiment, including sex and drugs, doesn’t offers a truly open-minded ambient like Berlino in '20. Regarding tollerance to his sexuality, also Nazist close his eyes when the homosexual are well-know or high-officier.
Regarding offer to stay in German during war, he was approached from not high ranking members of Nazi, Hitler never appreciate she in public. Perhaps it was an attempt from Ministry for propaganda not approved by Hitler himself. After his refusal, the same Ministry can instilled in german population the idea that she was a traitor of Germany.
Check this article about his status of gay-icon.
And perhaps sausage by the local men? 
When I was 15 in 1965 I worked in a souvenir shop in Melbourne and held Marlene’s feet in my callow hands when fitting her for a pair of genuine kangaroo skin moccasins.
She had a shocking hacking cough and looked considerably older than her publicity photos.
I don’t recall much more than that, but I think she was pleasant to me, which was more than I got from some of the famous turds who graced the shop I worked in at our city’s then most modern and best hotel where the Beatles and such stayed.
Do you really think it was somehow less of a social stigma to be an unmarried (heterosexual) promiscuous female in Hollywood that it was to be a lesbian? I think in many ways, being a lesbian would have been easier for her since social awareness of such things by the general public was probably low and she could have been just passed off her lack of marriage or boyfriends as the typical “spinster” or “old maid” archetype. The press rarely discussed such things beyond the occasional tabloid or subtle reference. She was almost certainly bisexual and seemed to form relationships with men more so than with women. Although she was pretty promiscuous with both sexes from what I gathered from a documentary I saw but whose title I have since forgotten. It might have been Ken Burns PBS series on the War. I may have been something on the History Channel such as “WWII In Color”.
Plus her affairs with US high officers didn’t make the germ public to burn by desire to see her back in Germany.
No question. But perhaps they understood her dalliances with enlisted men. Though she would be far from the only German female that had a relationship with and Allied serviceman.
I seriously doubt much of this was public information and she had a carefully crafted image. But she was almost certainly a one-woman USO show for U.S. troops. And God bless her for it!
Haha undoubtedly
Australians and their kangaroo skin. On a visit to Brisbane I bought a novelty bottle opener which has a pair of kangaroo testicles as the handle (well the furry scrotum around some man made balls in fact) as a tacky novelty to disgust all who visited me. It only lasted a few minutes until the dog ate it.
That is a great anecdote though about her.
I don’t recall those. The shop I worked in was probably too refined for that, or more likely it was too risque for the era.
We did, however, have charming kangaroo paw bottle openers, which consisted of the ‘forearm’ and paw of a kangaroo with a chrome bottle bottle opener screwed into the elbow end of the forearm.
And who said Australians lacked class?
Maria Riva’s biography of her mother is a good read. Marlene treated her only child pretty much as a servant girl and Maria is scathingly honest of her parents. Her father’s (downtrodden) mistress lived with both Marlene and her husband. It was, after Maria was born, a marriage in name only. Although the biography was candidly honest, Maria comes across as loving her parents.
Some time back I worked with a guy who was in the USAAF during the war, stationed in Greenland. His stories confirm that she was not a Lesbian - he said her promiscuity with Enlisted men caused her problems with some Officers.
The “Lilli Marlene” was beloved by the german soldiers
Presumably the officers who were jealous they weren’t banging her.
One of her main lovers was a U.S. Army (male) colonel IIRC. But Marlene wasn’t exactly the one-man type of girl…
Ha, I just put my book, War As I knew It, down for the night and opened the forum to this thread. The last sentence I read was;
“I heard from Marlene Dietrich, who was in Germany during the first world war, that the Germans used tetanus antitoxin or serum, as a treatment for trenchfoot, so we started trying it on a few volunteers in the hospital; it had no results.”