Death of Eva-Maria Hagen, the “Brigitte Bardot of the GDR” – Le Figaro

One of the GDR’s most popular actresses, Eva-Maria Hagen, died on Tuesday August 16 at the age of 87. German actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen, a figure in the former GDR that she ended up leaving for political reasons, died on Tuesday August 16 at the age of 87, a family spokesperson announced on Friday August 19. “Our beloved Eva-Maria Hagen left the earthly world to join her eternal homeland on August 16, 2022,” the agent for her daughter, German punk icon Nina Hagen, told AFP. Born in Kolczyn, Poland on October 19, 1934, Eva-Maria Hagen made her debut in 1953 in the play Katzgraben, written and directed by the playwright Bertolt Brecht at the prestigious Berliner Ensemble, later adapted for the cinema. In addition to the theatre, the one often nicknamed “Brigitte Bardot of the GDR”, has distinguished herself in more than 50 films. She became one of the most popular actresses in East Germany, especially after the success of the romantic comedy Vergesst mir meine Traudel nicht (Don’t forget my little Traudel), produced in 1957 by the state company DEFA, about a young a war orphan who falls in love with a policeman. Married for five years to the author Hans Olivia-Hagen, she has a daughter, Nina, born in 1955, before her divorce, and subsequently binds to the composer critical of the regime from the east Wolf Biermann. When the GDR authorities stripped him of his East German nationality, Eva-Maria Hagen and her daughter also fell into disgrace and were banned from practicing their profession. The family left the GDR in 1977 to settle in West Berlin. Eva-Maria Hagen then embarked on a second career, mixing theater and now also singing, which she pursued until after the fall of the Wall in reunited Germany in the early 1990s. extravagant and provocative stage sets, has become one of the great figures of the German punk scene. His career mixes scandals, militancy, spirituality and esotericism. Nina Hagen’s daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, often appeared in public alongside her mother and grandmother, has also embarked on an acting career.