Lili Marlene
The darkest periods of history paradoxically have also given rise to some of the brightest and most uplifting moments of humanity. This was certainly the case with the Second World War, which directly or indirectly affected the entire globe and, amongst the major events that happened in its course, was also the stage for innumerable, small-scale dramas of far-reaching dimensions. When you come right down to it, it is always the little sun-rays of life that affect us more vividly than any grandiose concepts of ideology.
During the difficult days of the war, music played a central role in boosting the morale of both the general population and the armed personnel on both sides. Some of the songs gained popularity for their overtly jingoistic tunes – defiantly cocking a snook at the enemy at the gate – while others captivated audiences with their emotionally evocative content, bringing to mind happier, innocent times when there were no clouds of death and destruction on the horizon, no partings and losses to be endured forever. Since such emotions are universal, these latter kind of songs transcended the enmity and hatred and proved to be equally popular with the Germans as well as the Allies.
Lili Marlene, the romantically wistful song about a soldier and his girl who waits for him 'underneath the lantern, by the barrack gate', was undoubtedly one of the most favorite and most-played songs on both sides. Translated from the original German into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Chilean, Hebrew, and even Latin, it became 'The' theme song of the Infantry Units. For all its extraordinary appeal though, Lili Marlene had a surprisingly plodding journey to fame.
It was based on a German poem 'The Song of a Young Sentry', written by a First World War Infantry Soldier, Hans Leip, in 1915 and not published until 22 years later, in 1937, in his collected poems volume 'Die Hafenorgel'. Hans Liep (born, 22 September 1893, Hamburg; died, 6 June 1983, Switzerland), had written the poem prior to being shipped off to the Russian Front and the 'Lili Marlene' of the title was in fact the combination of two girls that he knew – his girlfriend Lili, who worked at the Green-grocer's and Marlene, a young nurse, who had waved to him while he was on Sentry duty and she, just leaving work, was heading forth into the foggy evening. Despite this explanation, hundreds of women, claiming to have had a romantic relation with Leip, were to each insist that they and they alone had been the inspiration for the song!
However that was yet to come. In 1935, two years prior to publication, 'Lili Marlene' was set to tune by a composer called Rudolf Zink and sung in Simplizissimus, a Munich restaurant, by a Danish Cabaret Singer known as Liselott Wilke. She was to record the song four years later under her real name, Lale Andersen, and it was this version 'The Girl under the Lantern', set to a brand new tune by Norbert Schultze, that first caught the public imagination. Not quite instantly though.
Norbert Schultze (born, 1911, Braunschweig; died 17 October 2002) was already a wealthy, renowned composer of Operas, Film Scores and tunes for Political Songs before Leip's poem caught his attention and he decided to provide a more fitting tune for it. Which was all and well, but his melancholy tune was not liked by the Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, whose approval was needed by then for all Cultural matters in the Reich; he would have preferred something of a more martial nature. And then there was Lale Andersen (born, 1910, near Bremen; died, 29 August 1972, Vienna) who was a confirmed Anti-Nazi and did not want to record the new version at all. The Radio Moderator, who was supposed to air the song, was not encouraging either - he thought it was too lyrical to catch on with the public. Merely 700 records were sold, after which the song was more or less forgotten. Until 18 August 1941 that is, when a German Officer, Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the Director of the Military Radio Station in Belgrade, stumbled upon the record in a dusty crate and decided to broadcast it in honor of a friend of his in the Afrika Corps who had always rather liked it.
After that broadcast there was just no holding the song back. Nearly everyone who had heard it, soldiers on the front-lines as well as people at home, wrote to the small radio station inquiring about the husky-voiced singer and asking to hear her sing her sad song again and again and again. There was something about that voice, those lyrics, that had really struck a chord, and they couldn't get enough of it. From across Europe to Africa, the most requested song was Lili Marlene.
Goebbels was infuriated. He still didn't like 'that' tune, and Lale Andersen was getting to be a major pain too, openly associating with Jews and other subversive types when this was expressly forbidden. He had, in fact, in a fit of pique and to teach her a lesson, completely forbidden her from performing in public. It was a slap in his face now to hear her very voice pouring out from German radios, worse still also from the equally appreciative enemy radio-stations which had also by now got hold of the record. Claiming that the song was bad for morale, Goebbels immediately had it banned in Germany. It was a futile gesture and did nothing to stem the growing tide of popularity. General Feldmarschall Rommel had already asked Radio Belgrade to incorporate the song into their daily broadcasts, and it was now both their and the Afrika Corps's signature song, being aired regularly at 9.55 p.m. prior to signing-off. Given the importance of the Afrika Corps in the German War Effort, Goebbels could not make an issue over one song and was forced by public demand to lift the sanctions on Lale Andersen and allow her to perform it all over Germany.
Different versions of Lili Marlene soon appeared. The English version by Tommy Connor and J. J. Philips - composed after the latter took exception to a group of soldiers singing it in German and they retaliated by demanding he write it in English then – came out in 1944, sung by Anne Shelton, and was an instant hit. Later Vera Lynn sang it over the BBC and other singers soon followed - Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Amanda Lear, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Jean Claude Pascal, and many others. The version most in demand though was the one sung by Marlene Dietrich. Another ardent Anti-Nazi, this German-born actress and singer adopted the song in 1943 and then tirelessly sang it through 'three long years in North-Africa, Sicily, Italy,in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, in England'. The Germans, just like the Allies had with their original version, appropriated the English one, and soon both sides were airing both the versions.
Lili Marlene, from being the sole property of the Afrika Corps, now went on to become the favorite of the entire British Eighth Army and the American First Army. Soon it spread to the Australians and the other Allies, getting new words attached to it in the process and getting its tune altered somewhat too. On both sides, the song began to be heard in barracks, in canteens, in hospitals, over portable Phonographs in the war zones, was whistled by marching soldiers and, during propaganda rounds, was boomed over truck-top loud-speakers to inspire 'our' men and distract 'theirs'.
After the war, the song became the lynch-pin of every NAAFI concert. Over the years it kept making its presence felt in World Music Charts, from the U.S. to Japan, and in 1981 was included in the hilarious war-spoof film 'Riddle of the Six Boobs'. It has still not quite outlived its appeal. Hans Leip and Norbert Schultze certainly hadn't foreseen that their song, which publisher after publisher had rejected at the start, would gain such universal stature.
Schultze's other compositions like 'Bombs for England', 'Tanks roll into Africa', 'Kolhberg' and such sundry other works did not escape notice either. During the war he was lauded by the Germans, after the war the Allies didn't thank him for Lili Marlene. He was branded a Nazi Sympathizer and told to desist from any more composing. For three years, until this ban was lifted, he was forced to earn his living as a menial worker. His later works included 'The Girls from Immenhof' and 'Captain Bay-bay'. In 1996, on his 85th birthday, his autobiography was issued by Atlantis Verlag. In recognition of his most famous composition, it was called 'Mit Dir, Lili Marleen'.
During the difficult days of the war, music played a central role in boosting the morale of both the general population and the armed personnel on both sides. Some of the songs gained popularity for their overtly jingoistic tunes – defiantly cocking a snook at the enemy at the gate – while others captivated audiences with their emotionally evocative content, bringing to mind happier, innocent times when there were no clouds of death and destruction on the horizon, no partings and losses to be endured forever. Since such emotions are universal, these latter kind of songs transcended the enmity and hatred and proved to be equally popular with the Germans as well as the Allies.
Lili Marlene, the romantically wistful song about a soldier and his girl who waits for him 'underneath the lantern, by the barrack gate', was undoubtedly one of the most favorite and most-played songs on both sides. Translated from the original German into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Chilean, Hebrew, and even Latin, it became 'The' theme song of the Infantry Units. For all its extraordinary appeal though, Lili Marlene had a surprisingly plodding journey to fame.
It was based on a German poem 'The Song of a Young Sentry', written by a First World War Infantry Soldier, Hans Leip, in 1915 and not published until 22 years later, in 1937, in his collected poems volume 'Die Hafenorgel'. Hans Liep (born, 22 September 1893, Hamburg; died, 6 June 1983, Switzerland), had written the poem prior to being shipped off to the Russian Front and the 'Lili Marlene' of the title was in fact the combination of two girls that he knew – his girlfriend Lili, who worked at the Green-grocer's and Marlene, a young nurse, who had waved to him while he was on Sentry duty and she, just leaving work, was heading forth into the foggy evening. Despite this explanation, hundreds of women, claiming to have had a romantic relation with Leip, were to each insist that they and they alone had been the inspiration for the song!
However that was yet to come. In 1935, two years prior to publication, 'Lili Marlene' was set to tune by a composer called Rudolf Zink and sung in Simplizissimus, a Munich restaurant, by a Danish Cabaret Singer known as Liselott Wilke. She was to record the song four years later under her real name, Lale Andersen, and it was this version 'The Girl under the Lantern', set to a brand new tune by Norbert Schultze, that first caught the public imagination. Not quite instantly though.
Norbert Schultze (born, 1911, Braunschweig; died 17 October 2002) was already a wealthy, renowned composer of Operas, Film Scores and tunes for Political Songs before Leip's poem caught his attention and he decided to provide a more fitting tune for it. Which was all and well, but his melancholy tune was not liked by the Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, whose approval was needed by then for all Cultural matters in the Reich; he would have preferred something of a more martial nature. And then there was Lale Andersen (born, 1910, near Bremen; died, 29 August 1972, Vienna) who was a confirmed Anti-Nazi and did not want to record the new version at all. The Radio Moderator, who was supposed to air the song, was not encouraging either - he thought it was too lyrical to catch on with the public. Merely 700 records were sold, after which the song was more or less forgotten. Until 18 August 1941 that is, when a German Officer, Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the Director of the Military Radio Station in Belgrade, stumbled upon the record in a dusty crate and decided to broadcast it in honor of a friend of his in the Afrika Corps who had always rather liked it.
After that broadcast there was just no holding the song back. Nearly everyone who had heard it, soldiers on the front-lines as well as people at home, wrote to the small radio station inquiring about the husky-voiced singer and asking to hear her sing her sad song again and again and again. There was something about that voice, those lyrics, that had really struck a chord, and they couldn't get enough of it. From across Europe to Africa, the most requested song was Lili Marlene.
Goebbels was infuriated. He still didn't like 'that' tune, and Lale Andersen was getting to be a major pain too, openly associating with Jews and other subversive types when this was expressly forbidden. He had, in fact, in a fit of pique and to teach her a lesson, completely forbidden her from performing in public. It was a slap in his face now to hear her very voice pouring out from German radios, worse still also from the equally appreciative enemy radio-stations which had also by now got hold of the record. Claiming that the song was bad for morale, Goebbels immediately had it banned in Germany. It was a futile gesture and did nothing to stem the growing tide of popularity. General Feldmarschall Rommel had already asked Radio Belgrade to incorporate the song into their daily broadcasts, and it was now both their and the Afrika Corps's signature song, being aired regularly at 9.55 p.m. prior to signing-off. Given the importance of the Afrika Corps in the German War Effort, Goebbels could not make an issue over one song and was forced by public demand to lift the sanctions on Lale Andersen and allow her to perform it all over Germany.
Different versions of Lili Marlene soon appeared. The English version by Tommy Connor and J. J. Philips - composed after the latter took exception to a group of soldiers singing it in German and they retaliated by demanding he write it in English then – came out in 1944, sung by Anne Shelton, and was an instant hit. Later Vera Lynn sang it over the BBC and other singers soon followed - Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Amanda Lear, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Jean Claude Pascal, and many others. The version most in demand though was the one sung by Marlene Dietrich. Another ardent Anti-Nazi, this German-born actress and singer adopted the song in 1943 and then tirelessly sang it through 'three long years in North-Africa, Sicily, Italy,in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, in England'. The Germans, just like the Allies had with their original version, appropriated the English one, and soon both sides were airing both the versions.
Lili Marlene, from being the sole property of the Afrika Corps, now went on to become the favorite of the entire British Eighth Army and the American First Army. Soon it spread to the Australians and the other Allies, getting new words attached to it in the process and getting its tune altered somewhat too. On both sides, the song began to be heard in barracks, in canteens, in hospitals, over portable Phonographs in the war zones, was whistled by marching soldiers and, during propaganda rounds, was boomed over truck-top loud-speakers to inspire 'our' men and distract 'theirs'.
After the war, the song became the lynch-pin of every NAAFI concert. Over the years it kept making its presence felt in World Music Charts, from the U.S. to Japan, and in 1981 was included in the hilarious war-spoof film 'Riddle of the Six Boobs'. It has still not quite outlived its appeal. Hans Leip and Norbert Schultze certainly hadn't foreseen that their song, which publisher after publisher had rejected at the start, would gain such universal stature.
Schultze's other compositions like 'Bombs for England', 'Tanks roll into Africa', 'Kolhberg' and such sundry other works did not escape notice either. During the war he was lauded by the Germans, after the war the Allies didn't thank him for Lili Marlene. He was branded a Nazi Sympathizer and told to desist from any more composing. For three years, until this ban was lifted, he was forced to earn his living as a menial worker. His later works included 'The Girls from Immenhof' and 'Captain Bay-bay'. In 1996, on his 85th birthday, his autobiography was issued by Atlantis Verlag. In recognition of his most famous composition, it was called 'Mit Dir, Lili Marleen'.
Use the feedback form below to submit your comments.
Use the form below to email this article to your friends.
