ZGram - 10/28/2002 - "Lili Marleen"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

 ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

10/28/2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Of all the German World War II songs that I know, I can only think of 
one more hauntingly beautiful than "Lili Marleen."  That would be 
"Heimat, Deine Sterne" - and "Heimat" has no equivalent in English 
that I know of - certainly "Homeland" does not do it justice, 
especially now that the term has been perverted by post 9/11.  And 
"Deine Sterne" means simply, "your stars."  Unforgettable in its 
simplicity, as is "Lily Marleen".

Iheard "Lili Marleen" first when I was seven years old, sung by the 
German troops in Russia - and I heard it later intermittently - most 
memorably in the last days of April, 1945 when Third Reich Germany 
was dying.

I have described a scene in "The Wanderers" where wounded German 
soldiers sang it - moments before they were executed, assembly-line 
fashion, by the Red Armists behind a farm house where we had sought 
shelter from the onslaught of the Soviets.

That song has a quiet, poignant place in my heart.

Now I learn that yet another witness to the times has died - the man 
who conceived of the song.  The report below is spin-doctored - but 
then, what isn't spin-doctored these days?

[START]

Composer Norbert Schultze dies, wrote WWII's 'Lili Marleen'

Associated Press

Published Oct 22, 2002 / LILI23

FRANKFURT, Germany -- German composer Norbert Schultze, whose song 
"Lili Marleen'' struck a chord with World War II soldiers fighting on 
fronts from Europe to Asia, has died, his publisher said Tuesday. He 
was 91.

Schultze died on Oct. 14 in Bad Toelz, near Munich, said Nicola 
Gilles, a spokeswoman for Schott music publishers. The cause of death 
was not known.

Throughout World War II, Schultze composed scores for Nazi films, 
which discredited him in his homeland for several years after the end 
of the war and left him able to find work only as a gardener. He 
later apologized for supporting Hitler's regime.

Born in Braunschweig in 1911, Schultze studied music theory and 
theater in Cologne and Munich before beginning his career as a 
theater music director in the university city of Heidelberg.

He began writing songs and several children's musicals in the 1930s 
which were successful, but never wildly popular.

In 1938, he set to music the words of a World War I-era poem by Hans 
Leip about a soldier who is called to the front, leaving behind his 
sweetheart who waits for him in the lamplight. It sold only several 
hundred copies.

Three years later, a version of the song, recorded by Lale Anderson, 
was broadcast from a German radio station in occupied Belgrade, 
Yugoslavia to forces in North Africa. It was an instant hit with the 
soldiers.

Although the Nazis banned the song, it spread like wildfire through 
barracks, hospitals and bunkers on both sides of the front - where 
ever there were lonely soldiers longing for their left-behind lovers.

British commanders reportedly hated hearing their troops singing the 
German version of the song and hired a lyricist to compose an English 
version of ``Lili Marleen,'' that first aired on the BBC in 1944.

The song was translated into about 30 languages and was performed by 
countless singers, including Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf and Greta 
Garbo.

Yet Schultze, who wrote a book in 1996 titled, ``With you, Lili 
Marleen'' never considered the song his greatest work and was often 
plagued by its enormous success.

"When I hear it today, I don't have the feeling that it is from me,'' 
the Monday edition of Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily quoted him as 
saying in 1996.  "Musically, I had bad luck.''

Throughout World War II, Schultze composed scores for Nazi films, 
which discredited him in his homeland for several years after the end 
of the war and left him able to find work only as a gardener. He 
later apologized for supporting Hitler's regime.

By 1950, he was again composing musicals for children, such as "The 
Snow Queen'' and operettas including "The Rain in Paris,'' as well as 
music for nearly 50 films.

Schultze is survived by his wife, Iwa Wanja, and five children.

[END]

(Source:  http://startribune.com/stories/484/3381487.html )