By Mike Walsh
Lili Marlene,
the soldiers’ song, crossed the trenches and won the hearts of both Allied and
Axis servicemen during World War Two. The ballad’s wistful lyrics were composed
in 1918 by Hans Leip (1893~1983). The 25-year old was a German infantryman
during The Great War.
Hans Leip
The ballad started life as a poignant poem. It was inspired by the
infantryman’s desire to record the angst of barracks life and a soldier’s pain
of his being separated from his loved one. The poem’s words were penned shortly
before Leip and his comrades left for the Russian front. Lili Marlene is not a
single young lady but two. Lili, daughter of a local greengrocer, was Hans
Leip’s sweetheart. Marlene, a comrade’s girlfriend, was a nurse.
Lili Marlene was first published in 1937 in a collection of poetry under
the title “The Song of a Young Sentry” by Hans Leip. Its evocative pathos had
caught the imagination of Norbert Schultze. The popular musician was the
composer of a number of operas, musicals and songs. Norbert Schultze was a
prolific composer of the backing music to period films and battle songs of the
Reich such as “Bombs for England” (Bomben auf Engeland) and “Tanks Roll
into Africa” (Panzer Rollen in Afrika). It was in 1938 that he set the words of
“Lili Marlene” to music.
The ballad was no more than mildly popular and had sold just 700 copies by
the time German Forces Radio began broadcasting it to the Afrika Korps in 1941.
The chanteuse was Lale Anderson. Such was the song’s popularity that
Field-Marshall Erwin Rommel requested Radio Belgrade to incorporate the song
into their broadcasts.
Following Germany’s defeat, the occupying forces classified Schultze as a
sympathiser. The composer’s music was forbidden to be performed and he was
forbidden to work as a musician. The composer, who epitomised World War Two in
music for both the Reich and the Allied Armies, now turned to earning his
living as a labourer in heavy construction. Schultze afterwards worked as a
gardener before eventually resuming life in the song writing disciplines.
British troops serving in North Africa were roundly condemned when the song
first caught their imagination. There being the German version, they sang it.
The BBC, when it wasn’t eulogising Joe Stalin’s Red Army, sneeringly dismissed
Lili Marlene as a German prostitute. It was a failed attempt to deflect the
song’s growing popularity, but the libel hardly dented enthusiasm for the two
young German ladies.
J. J. Phillips, a British song publisher, berated the British soldiers for
singing the German version. ‘Then why don’t you write us some English words,’
challenged one mutinous soldier. Soon after both Phillips and songwriter Tommy
Connors came up with an English language version. Armed forces’ favourite
singer Anne Shelton was to bring popularity to the German poem. Vera Lynne, the
forces’ favourite, sang it over the BBC and the British Eighth Army adopted it
as their ballad.
“Lili Marlene” was a global chart buster. An anonymous chorus brought it to
No.13 in 1944. It hit the US charts again in 1968 and the Japanese charts in
1986. There are a number of versions of Lili Marlene in a wide diversity of
languages. The poem-song has been translated into 48 languages including
French, Russian, Italian, and surprisingly, Hebrew. This poignant off-the-cuff
poem penned in a wistful moment by a twenty-five year old sentry pulled
heartstrings across the world and is the most popular wartime song ever
recorded.
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