D i e t r i c h ’ s   S t r e e t

n mid-1997 Marlene was probably turning over in her Berlin grave. The city’s effort to rename a small, insignificant Berlin street in the Schöneberg district for hometown girl Dietrich ran into a roadblock. Because of objections from a few mostly older Germans who considered her a traitor, Tempelhofer Weg (Tempelhof Way), which bears the name of the key Berlin Airlift airport and a district of Berlin, would keep that name — instead of the proposed Marlene-Dietrich-Straße.

	Marlene-Dietrich-Platz in Berlin.

After the failure of Schöneberg, Dietrich’s home district in Berlin, to come through, the district of Tiergarten offered to name a new square in the new Potsdamer Platz complex, then taking shape in that former postwar wasteland. In February 1998, the new square was dedicated in Dietrich’s name. As luck would have it, the new Marlene-Dietrich-Platz is a very appropriate location: the new Film Museum Berlin, with its special Dietrich exhibition, faces the square named for Germany’s most famous film actress.

Many Germans were shaking their heads about all this. Dietrich was no traitor, say those who realize her efforts on behalf of the U.S. and against Hitler were anything but treason for Germany. Sadly, some Germans still just don’t get it. More than 50 years after the war, some old and neo-Nazis are still making waves. It’s one more sad example of Germany struggling with the past.

Dietrich can take some consolation in the fact that her face graces a German postage stamp that went on sale Aug. 14, 1997.

A Dietrich Memorial?

In August 1997 a group of artists and other prominent people signed a petition supporting the construction of a memorial to Marlene Dietrich in Berlin. Former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, ex-president Richard von Weizsaecker, director Milos Forman, Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer and German media mogul Leo Kirch were among those advocating a memorial first proposed by Berlin film producer Artur Brauner. Two possible sites have been discussed:

   • The proposed Marlene-Dietrich-Platz
   • A site near the Brandenburg Gate

It remains to be seen if such a memorial to Berlin’s famous daughter will actually be erected. So far, Berlin’s only memorial to its native daughter is a small commemorative plaque placed in 1992 on the front of the apartment house at Leberstraße 65 in Berlin-Schöneberg where Dietrich was born.

3 > Dietrich Filmography and Links