GERMANY: BERLIN BESTOWES HONORARY CITIZENSHIP ON SCREEN GODDESS MARLENE DIETRICH WHO WAS ONCE SCORNED AS A TRAITOR

Record ID: 858798

  • Title: GERMANY: BERLIN BESTOWES HONORARY CITIZENSHIP ON SCREEN GODDESS MARLENE DIETRICH WHO WAS ONCE SCORNED AS A TRAITOR
  • Date: 16th May 2002
  • Summary: SV KLAUS WOWEREIT, BERLIN MAYOR, SPEAKING TO PETER RIVA, MARLENE DIETRICH'S GRANDSON AS ORCHESTRA PLAYING
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAE5O4SDYVEGENFMIGV1NEAXLF7
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  • Story Text: Ten years to the day after she was buried, film diva Marlene Dietrich has won the acclaim of Berlin when the city bestowed honorary citizenship on the screen goddess once scorned by her hometown as a traitor.
    Dietrich, who was born in Berlin but avoided it for decades because of resentment over her support of the Allies during World War Two, now joins a list of 111 dignitaries that includes Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.
    "Marlene is an absolute world star and a Berliner at heart, despite all the difficulties she had here," said Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who bent rules requiring recipients to be alive.
    "There were unpleasant scenes over the way Berlin treated Marlene," Wowereit added after a ceremony at City Hall. "Yet, she still always said she was a Berliner and this was her city."
    The honorary title includes a lifetime ticket to ride Berlin's underground trains free of charge, a subscription to the city governments public announcements gazette and financial aid in the event of impoverishment.
    An attempt to give Dietrich the award in 1989 failed because she was a recluse living in Paris and declined to return to Berlin. Dietrich told the Berlin mayor then, Eberhard Diepgen, to simply send it to her -- a plan he resentfully rejected.
    "Marlene was always very angry with Berlin, as only a real lover can be," said Peter Riva, her grandson who accepted the award. "This would be a particular honour for her because it would be a recognition of a lifetime, being a Berliner."
    Born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on December 27, 1901, the actress who became the quintessential blonde bombshell took her stage name at 20. She struggled through the roaring 1920s in local theatres as a singer and small-time actress before her breakthrough as a vamp in The Blue Angel in 1930.
    That role as tantalising Berlin cabaret singer Lola-Lola in Josef von Sternberg's film launched her career and paved the way for her move to Hollywood. Her husky voice, high cheekbones and long legs electrified cinema audiences for decades.
    She rebuffed attempts by Hitler's Nazis to return to Germany and later dressed in an American uniform for performances for the troops on the front lines.
    Hitler, ironically, was also once an honorary citizen of Berlin -- from 1933 until the title was stripped in 1948.
    Her wartime performances for Allied soldiers led to lingering resentment in Berlin. When she returned for a concert in 1960, she was greeted by protests. Some spat at her, called her an "American slut" and waved banners reading "Go Home". Dietrich was deeply hurt and vowed never to go to Germany again.
    Dietrich nonetheless picked Berlin as a final resting place after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. She died in Paris in 1992.
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