„Mit Dir, Lili Marleen“ – eine Hommage zum 120. Geburstag von Lale Andersen

In the organizer's words:

Bremerhaven's most famous singer, Lale Andersen, born Liese-Lotte Helene Berta Bunnenberg, would have been 120 years old this year. She once became famous above all for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen", which went around the world.

In her honour, the Bremerhaven Cultural Office has invited singer Anne Haentjens to perform her Lale Andersen program at the Theater im Fischereihafen on 27 March 2025 at 20:00.

Lale Andersen was born on March 23, 1905 in what is now Bremerhaven-Lehe. While still very young, she married the Bremerhaven painter Paul Ernst Wilke, whom she then left, along with their three children, to pursue a career as an actress in Berlin. She soon made guest appearances as Liselotte Wilke in the Berlin "Kabarett der Komiker" and on other cabaret stages in Berlin with harbor songs and chansons based on texts by Walter Mehring, Joachim Ringelnatz and Kurt Tucholsky, among others. Her interpretations of songs from Bertolt Brecht's and Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera" received great acclaim in the press. Superficial, subtle, passionate, cheeky, frivolous and sophisticated - these were the characteristics of Lale Andersen's early chanson programs.

After the Second World War, Lale Andersen settled on the North Sea island of Langeoog and experienced a sensational comeback with her interpretation of the German version of the song "Ein Schiff wird kommen". In 1961, she produced a long-playing record with Low German folk songs based on texts by Klaus Groth and Theodor Storm, among others, with titles such as "Mien Jehann", "Lütt Matten de Haas", "Över de stillen Straten", "Dat du mien Leevsten büst".

Lale Andersen died in Vienna on August 29, 1972 and was buried on Langeoog in accordance with her wishes.

Accompanied on the piano by Sven Selle, Anna Haentjens gives an insight into the singer's life in her tribute with songs and biographical texts, including the history of the song "Lili Marleen".

Norbert Schultze, the composer of the song "Lili Marleen", says of Anna Haentjens: "The lanky, smiling, blonde Lale Andersen's unmistakably personal style of interpretation has been masterfully appropriated by the small, lively, wily Anna Haentjens, who has skillfully avoided the danger of copying - precisely because she is so different and has her own charisma."