Lale Andersen

Lale Andersen (23 March 1905 – 29 August 1972) was a German chanson singer-songwriter born in Bremerhaven, Germany. She is best known for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen" in 1939, which became tremendously popular on both sides during the Second World War.

She was born in Lehe, now part of Bremerhaven and baptized Elisabeth Carlotta Helena Berta Bunnenberg.

In 1922, aged 17, she married Paul Ernst Wilke (1894–1971), a local painter. They had three children: Björn, Carmen-Litta, and Michael. Shortly after the birth of their last child, the marriage broke up. Leaving the children in the care of her siblings Thekla and Helmut, Lale went to Berlin in October 1929, where she reportedly studied acting at the Schauspielschule at the Deutsches Theater. In 1931, her marriage ended in divorce. Around this time, she began appearing on stage in various cabarets in Berlin. From 1933–1937, she performed at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, where she also met Rolf Liebermann, who would remain a close friend for the rest of her life. In 1938, she was in Munich at the cabaret Simpl, and soon afterwards joined the prestigious Kabarett der Komiker (Comedians Cabaret) in Berlin.

While at the Kabarett der Komiker, she met Norbert Schultze, who had composed the music for "Lili Marleen". Lale recorded the song in 1939, but it would only become a hit when the Soldatensender Belgrad (Belgrade Soldier's Radio), the radio station of the German armed forces in occupied Yugoslavia, began broadcasting it in 1941. "Lili Marleen" quickly became immensely popular with German soldiers at the front. The transmitter of the radio station at Belgrade, was powerful enough to be received all over Europe and the Mediterranean, and the song soon became popular with the Allied troops as well.

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