Werner, Ilse (1918—)

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Werner, Ilse (1918—)

German actress who personified the ideal "Aryan girl" in Third Reich propaganda films during World War II . Born on July 11, 1918, in Batavia (later Jakarta), Java, Indonesia; daughter of O.E.G. Still (a Dutch exporter) and Lilly Werner (a German national); attended school in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from age ten; studied with Max Reinhardt at Vienna's Theater-Akademie, 1936 and 1937; married John de Forest (an American journalist), in 1948 (divorced 1953); married Josef Niessen (an orchestra conductor), in 1954 (divorced).

Made stage debut in Max Dauthendey's Glück (1937); invited to Berlin; achieved popularity with film Wunschkonzert (1940); published memoirs (1941); moved to California with husband (1948); returned to Germany (1953); had hit song with "Baciare" throughout Europe (1960); starred in television series "Eine Frau mit Pfiff" (1967); appeared as Anna in German version of The King and I (1970); toured Germany and Switzerland in play directed by Marie Becker (1973); worked on television as moderator and host (1970s); published second volume of memoirs (1981).

Ilse Werner was born in 1918 in Java, Indonesia, the daughter of a Dutch exporter and his German wife. She returned to her mother's hometown of Frankfurt am Main in Germany at age ten and attended a local school prior to enrolling in Max Reinhardt's Theater-Akademie in Vienna. Her two years of study there concluded with her stage debut in Glück (Happiness) with the Josefstädter Bühne in Vienna in 1937. Although she was less than 20 years old, her performance so impressed Nazi officials that she was immediately called to Berlin to personify the ideal Aryan German girl in propaganda films. She made Die unruhigen Mädchen (The Restless Girls) in 1938, but it was Wunschkonzert (Request Concert), released in 1940, that brought her fame as the faithful German heroine. Werner portrayed a woman who is waiting for the return of a childhood friend and her true love from the war, both of whom are in love with her; the film was intended to encourage German women with loved ones fighting in the war.

The following year Werner starred in Die schwedische Nachtigall (The Swedish Nightingale), loosely based on the life of Jenny Lind . This time her two suitors are writer Hans Christian Andersen and a count, both of whom she rejects in order to pursue her singing career, thereby demonstrating the supremacy of the eternal qualities of art over the temporal nature of love. Werner had the chance to show off her considerable whistling and singing talents in the 1942 movie Wir machen Musik (We Make Music), and the following year she starred in Münchhausen (The Adventures of Baron Münchhausen), which proved highly popular. Werner balanced her film career with appearances in theater, cabaret, and radio, in addition to her bestselling recordings of modern German songs.

After the war, Werner's marriage to an American journalist in 1948 took her to California, although she continued making German films, such as Die gestörte Hochzeitsnacht (The Troubled Wedding Night), in her homeland. Werner's permanent return to Germany following her divorce in 1953 also brought a change in the direction of her career, as she turned to the emerging medium of television. She frequently appeared as a celebrity guest on a variety of German programs and showcased her whistling abilities as the star of her own show "Eine Frau mit Pfiff" (A Woman with a Whistle) in 1967. She also continued to record music, with her song "Baciare" (To Kiss) making its mark on Europe in 1960. Her second husband Josef Niessen was the conductor of the dance orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk, the Bavarian Radio network.

Throughout the 1970s, Werner worked as a moderator and hosted a Cologne-based talk show in 1982. As the 1980s came to a close, she appeared in two television series, "Rivalen der Rennbahn" (Rivals of the Racetrack) and "Forstinspektor Buchholz." Her television appearances became more infrequent as the century came to a close, with roles in "Die Hallo-Sisters" in 1991 and "Alles wegen Robert De Niro" in 1996.

In 1970, Werner returned to the stage in the realization of her long-held dream to act in a Broadway musical when she portrayed Anna Leonowens in the German version of The King and I. Three years later, she went on tour in Germany and Switzerland in a play directed by Marie Becker . Werner published her memoirs 40 years apart; the first volume, Ich über mich (I on Myself), appeared in 1941; the second, So wird's nie wieder sein (It Will Never Again be the Same), was published in 1981.