Zarah Leander (1907-1981)
The actress Zarah Leander was emblematic of the commercial strategy pursued by the Nazis in the 1930s. They wanted actresses able to compete with Hollywood stars, such as Marlene Dietrich or Swedish actress Greta Garbo. Zarah Leander was born in 1907 in Sweden. She started her artistic career at the end of the 1920s, first in theatre and musical revues and then in cinema.
At the same time, she signed a recording contract in 1930 and recorded dozens of songs, all of which were commercial successes. At the beginning of the 1930s, her fame increased in Europe. Newspapers and artistic critics quickly compared Zarah Leander to Greta Garbo thanks to her deep voice, her unapologetic “vamp” look, and her play. In 1936, after her role in Austria in the operetta Axel an der Himmelstür, Zarah Leander signed a contract with U.F.A., the major German studio.
This profitable contract gave her a guarantee on her important salary, her choice in roles and scripts. Between 1937 and 1943, the year of her return to Sweden because of bombarding of her house and disagreements with her studio, she played in a dozen successful films such as Die Grosse Liebe (1942, Rolf Hansen), a big success with 27 million tickets sold.
After the war, Zarah Leander gradually resumed her career and regained popularity in the German-speaking world, despite the persistent association of her image with Nazi cinema. Over the decades, she has also become a major icon of LGBT+ culture.
Zarah Leander died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1981 at 74 years old.
Photo 27 : Archives cinématographiques de l’Est – Zarah Leander on the cover of Illustrierte Film-Kurier no.2750 for the film La Habanera (1937).
It was the German director Detlev Sierck – who would become Douglas Sirk after fleeing in 1937, a master of melodrama – who, in two successive films, Zu neuen Ufern and La Habanera, moulded the actress from scratch, turning her into a veritable Madonna, a femme fatale, a lascivious lover, often sacrificed.
The regime’s new star was born.
Photo 28 : National Archives of Netherlands – Zarah Leander and Willy Birgel in Blaufuchs (1938, Viktor Tourjansky).
Photo 29 : National Archives of Netherlands – Zarah Leander in Zu neuen Ufern (1937).