UFA Divas: Marika Rökk

I recognized that I unattended my big passion lately: old movies. So I decided to start an UFA-Diva series. 
Let´s begin with Marika Rökk. 

She was a Moulin Rouge and Broadway dancer before she signed by the Universum Film Studios in Germany. Her image was constructed by the Nazi propaganda as an Hungarian/Austrian counterpart to the Hollywood movie stars like Betty Grable. The slogans sounded like: She has the same humor and charme as the Americans, but a lot more paprika in the blood! You get it? Most of the movies that were produced in the time of the regime of Propaganda Minister Goebbels were very prude with one exception: Marika. She often wore half-naked or exotic costumes.

Let me show you some stills from the movie: "The woman of my dreams" from 1944. While the WWII was in his hard last year and the German army had high casualities, the UFA produced this revue in colour with big efforts. A little escape in a very difficult time...

Marika plays a showstar who needs a time off in the hills. The story is dull, but it contains a contemporary hit-song and the costumes are great. She was pregnant while the film was made, but you can´t see it. 

 I specially love the traditional style... 

 or this high turban with the wide shouldered silverfox fur.

The stage design is so beautiful and Art Deco. The stage costumes reaches from Balinesian dancer...

to a dangerous Spanish lady...

in a seems-like-naked dress...

or glittery floor-length evening robes with oversized hairflowers...

and even a 40s bride.

And of course everything ends up in a cheerfull happy end.

After the war, Marika was banned from the movies because of her closeness to the Nazi regime, but already in 1947 she was rehabilitated and made some more movies and TV shows. But she never reached her stardom from the 30s and 40s.Some people still remember her as a part of Nazi propaganda, others point out her talent.

So lets say goodbye to Marika Rökk with one of her Spanish dance numbers out of "Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten" from 1941:

Treptower Ehrenmal

Last weekend we had such a freezy snowy winter in Berlin, that I got into a Russian feeling in a way... so we decided to have a walk in my beloved Treptower Park and visited the 1949-built "Treptower Ehrenmal", a Soviet war memorial for 80.000 Red Army-soldiers who died fighting for a free Berlin.

Time to wear my new 40s felt hat and my 40s mink coat. The light was perfect for the cold colours. It is not reworked with Photoshop, this is real great blue winter light.

When you pass the huge gate, you will meet a statue symbolising Mother Russia.

Vis a vis started the gigantic soldier cemetary framed with red stone flags 

and a soldier on each side.

 

This figurines are always decorated with fresh flowers.

 The essential piece is the famous 30 meters high monument.

In his base is a round memorial hall with a mosaic wall. 

You can´t go in, but you can see the incredible picture with respect from a distance.

On our way back, we gave attention to all the details on the gravestones.

We will come back in spring.

 

Do you like my new hat, Santa brought me?

It always gives me a special feeling to visit historic places in fitting historic clothing.

Blitzmädel

I´m a bookworm and busy reader, so Santa brought me some nice books about the 40s and old movies last year. A speciality is this book about the Blitzmädchen, printed in the 70s.Thank you Santa for knowing my taste so well. I wanna show you some pictures and share some facts out of it:

During the entire WW II, women were involved on all sides. In Hitler's Germany, a woman should be a mother at first, staying at home and backing up her husband. But when in 1940 the occupied areas needed more stuff to administrate, the so called "Blitzmädels" filled up the ranks. In the beginning, they came voluntary, but later young women were called up. All in all  half a million women worked as Blitzmädels in the army, the marine and the air force. They were called Blitzmädels because of the Blitz signs on their uniforms. In 1940 every Blitzmädel got a uniform, later with the deprivation they just wore uprons or a brassard with civil clothes.

The boards were the same rations as the soldiers got.

Army postal service brought news and presents from home.

Most of the younger girls were looking for an adventure. But it was forbidden to have any personal contact to soldiers or civilians from occupied countries. Every Blitzmädel had to move once a year to another station to prevent deeper relationships. Even though the rules and controls were strict, a lot of romances and even marriages started here.

Most of the Blitzmädels did telecommunication for the Wehrmacht with machines like this:

 

For propaganda reasons the Nazis showed a young mother who left her two children at home with her grandmother to help the boys in the war.

In the end of the war, fire protection became more and more important

 and the girls learned how to handle a gun.

 Finally some of them died, some of them came home again  soon,

but most of them landed in war captivity.

 

 Hopefully we will never have a war again.

streetwear

trenchcoat: asos

jeans: Lady K loves

The weather gets cold and rainy here in Berlin but we enjoyed a walk trough the autumn leaves and the great arcitecture of my beloved street, the Karl-Marx-Allee, formerly named as "Stalinallee".  The KOSMOS palace behind me was a cinema once, opened in the early 60s and fully designed in the space-age chic. Still very cool.

The alley was built in the early 50s out of the WW II ruins. The first building was the "Hochhaus an der Weberwiese".

It should be a new kind of residence for simple workers in a socialistic regime - comfortable, modern, roomy with a roof garden. That was very futuristic for 1952.

The house is made out of the ruins of the destroyed Reichskanzlei and the black marble in the entrance is taken from the house of Hermann Göring, called "Carinhall" after his first wife. What a history, if stones could talk... Today it is a fully let monument with a nice little park and a fountain in front.

the black marble entrance

By the fountain is a sweet little statue from the Grimm fairytale "Hans in luck".

felt hat: 50s vintage from Vienna

cherry brooch: Vivien of Holloway

 two tone shoes: present from a friend

 bubble bag: 60s vintage present from my godmother

Vis a vis from the Hochhaus is a relief what shows the rebuilding of East Berlin in great Socialistic Realism.

On our way back I gave attention to all the details in my street, like  the lovely wall mosaics. 

This one is my favorite.

Are you proud of the street you live in? I am.

Have nice walks, friends.

1940s Twen Mag

"Die junge Dame" was a magazine for twens in the 40s. I like to collect those mags for the common people the most. It´s thin, cheap and full of helpful informations for young german ladies. First of all, which profession to choose in wartime, how to find Mr. Right and what will happen in marriage.

Here the profession of a design draftswoman is explained. And of course fashion is a big issue, especially strawhats and summerdresses with nice illustrations.

Romantic costume movies and their actors help young ladies dream, so nothing much changed until today.

The mag ends with a cross word puzzle and some funny ads for tap dancing lessons, pills to loose or put on weight and other wonder products to get long lashes and such. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Lee Miller

 source: telegraph.co.uk

Right now there's a Lee Miller exhibition shown in Berlin. You knew Lee Miller, VOGUE-model, fashion photograher, war correspondent and, all in one, a very fascinating woman. She was so beautiful, smart and courageous, but her personality had a dark side too, and she was a close friend of the most Surrealists I admire like Max Ernst and Cocteau. 

I mostly appreciate her pictures from World War II, so touching and different. She shows the cruelty of the war and the Nazi crimes in a way you will never forget.

One of the most famous pictures of herself is surely the one that shows her in Hitler's bathroom. It could be seen in the gallery:

For a better view, please visit the exhibition here:

dress: Tara Starlet, years ago
lipstick: lipink Energy Red

fishnet tights: Falke

shoes: Vagabond 

bag: etsy

 The earrings I wore are very special to me and a most-loved pair in my vintage jewellery collection. The are screw ons from the late 40s and made out of pink little mussels and pearls. I bought them on a fleamarket here in Berlin from a granny, wonder how they came the long way from the tropics? Maybe a present from a GI once? A lot of mussel are missing and destroyed, but for me that makes them even more a treasure. Things with scars and a story behind are the best vintage findings, I think.

 I photographed them on the cover of her biographie I'm currently reading, written by her son. They're lying in front of her portrait taken by her ex-lover Man Ray. 

On my way back home, moved by her pictures during the Wartime, I gave an extra attention to the golden flaggins called "Stolpersteine" in German. These stones are scatterd all over Berlin to remind us of the Nazi-victims, mostly Jewish people and members of the resistance. 

I guess that those shall remind us of a mother and her two daugthers, unbelievable that one of them was only ten years old. It's good to have those stumbling blocks. Watch out for them when you visit Berlin. And when you can´t go to the exhibition, you maybe can buy one of Lee Miller's books? You will not regret it, I promise!

source: cosmopolis.ch