January 2003 - Nr. 1
Berlin Film Museum Acquires Hildegard Knef Estate
TWIG - Hollywood knew her as Hildegard Neff, but to Berliners, she was "die Knef," or simply "Hilde". Following in the footsteps of film diva Marlene Dietrich, she became a symbol of the German capital when its outlook was otherwise dismal. The actress and singer died last February at age 76, leaving behind thousands of letters, photographs and other mementos of her tumultuous life in film and theatre. This week the Berlin Film Museum, which has acquired her literary estate, presented a selection of items from the collection.
"Hilde and Berlin can’t be separated," said Knef’s husband, Paul von Schell, who still lives in the apartment they shared on the city’s outskirts. Included in the collection donated by Schell are theatre programs, scrapbooks, clothing, film trophies and some 4,500 photographs, as well as correspondence with Dietrich, former chancellor Willy Brant and writers Henry Miller and Erich Maria Remarque. For Schell it’s a miracle that so many of Knef’s possessions are accessible. "My wife moved very often, almost 20 times in the 25 years we were together," he said.
Knef once said she led "a life like a roller coaster." Born in Ulm, she studied at the Babelsberg Film Institute and began appearing in theatres immediately after World War II ended. Her screen career was launched with Germany’s first postwar film, "Die Mörder sind unter uns" (The Murders Are Among Us, 1946), shot in a bombed-out Berlin by Wolfgang Staudte. Four years later, she caused a scandal with a brief nude scene in "Die Sünderin" (The Sinner). In the 1950s, Knef performed on Broadway in the Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings", and in such Hollywood films as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1952), "Unnatural" (1952) and "Svengali" (1955). In the 1960s she established herself as a chansonniere, and continued to sing and act for the next three decades.
Knef belonged to Berlin, and no other place is better suited for her legacy, suggests Film Museum curator Werner Sudendorf. "Berlin is fate," she once said. "In the end one is always there, even when one is somewhere else."
