FEATURED EXHIBIT · GERMANY / WARTIME BROADCASTING
One song. Many histories.
The words, the music, the recording
- 1915 · The poem
- Hans Leip writes the poem that becomes the basis of the song.
- 1938 · The musical setting
- Norbert Schultze sets the poem to music.
- August 1939 · Lale Andersen's recording
- The Berlin recording connects the song with the voice that would become widely known through wartime broadcasting.
These are different events, not interchangeable release dates. [1] [2]
The people behind it
Words: Hans Leip. Music: Norbert Schultze. Singer: Lale Andersen. Ensemble direction: Bruno Seidler-Winkler, as credited in the Lale-Andersen-Archiv recording entry. [2]
Broadcasting and political context
In 1941, the German military station in Belgrade began broadcasting the song nightly. German and Allied soldiers listened to it; translations and propaganda adaptations followed. Schultze also composed propaganda songs for Nazi Germany. These connections are part of the historical account. [1]
The artwork through time
The label shown here is one wartime variant, not a verified image of the earliest pressing. Its scan's description explicitly notes changes between label versions. [4]
A different visual document survives at the Smithsonian: a 1943 sheet-music cover with a yellow lamppost, a rose and a photograph of Hildegarde. Its date and purpose belong to that printed edition. [5]
An unresolved detail
The Lale-Andersen-Archiv lists 2 August 1939 as the recording date. Bear Family instead describes recording on 1 August and mixing on 2 August. This exhibit uses August 1939 while that discrepancy remains unresolved. [2] [3]
Explore the recording page
View the individual-recording concept →
No audio file has yet been attached to this example. The exhibit does not establish the provenance of a download offered for sale.
Related historical images
Explore the people and objects connected with this recording. Select an image to open it at full size; follow its source link to examine the archival description.
Electrola EG 6993, a wartime label variant; exact pressing date unconfirmed. Scan: Mediatus / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image reproduced without alteration.
Lale Andersen, the singer of the 1939 recording discussed here. This photograph does not document that recording session.
Date uncertain: the current Commons description gives circa 1961; the original upload note gives circa 1951. Location not established in the entry.
Source described as a private photograph by Artur Beul; contributor/author field: Adrian Michael. Wikimedia Commons file record and history. CC BY-SA 3.0; reproduced without alteration.
Marlene Dietrich entertaining Third Army soldiers, 1944. Reproduced in The Lorraine Campaign, page 291; U.S. Army Center of Military History, via Wikimedia Commons. Identified there as public domain in the United States. Photographer, exact day and venue are not identified in the cited file record. Reproduced without alteration.
Connection: Dietrich also performed “Lili Marlene,” as documented by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (exhibition booklet, page 6). This image documents her wartime entertainment work; it does not establish which song she was performing at this moment.
This gallery will grow as further images can be identified and their connections documented. Where an image shows a performance, the caption identifies whether the song being performed is known.
In the press
Contemporary coverage helps show how a song and its creators were discussed during their own time.
25 September 1944 · “Songs of the Services”
Publication: Korero (AEWS), volume 2, issue 19, article beginning on page 11. Source type: wartime service journal; commentary on music and morale.
The archive’s indexed text mentions “Lili Marlene” and names Norbert Schultze and Hans Leip. This is evidence of contemporary discussion, not independent confirmation of every claim in the article.
Read the archival article at Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand →
Research status: bibliographic details and the song reference located in the archive’s indexed text. The original page scan has not yet been checked; the precise page of the song passage within this multi-page article remains to be verified. No clipping is reproduced here.