Overview
- The centenary is anchored by the documentary “Hildegard Knef – So oder so ist das Leben,” now available in the ARD Mediathek.
- Knef’s breakthrough came with the 1946 rubble film “Die Mörder sind unter uns,” which made her a face of Germany’s cultural reconstruction.
- An early‑1950s storm around “Die Sünderin,” including a brief nude scene and its themes of prostitution and suicide, cemented her notoriety.
- Pursuing a transatlantic career, she signed with David O. Selznick, appeared in Hollywood titles such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” and received a Broadway offer for Cole Porter’s “Silk Stockings.”
- She later reinvented herself as a German‑language chanson artist and bestselling author; her song “Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen” became emblematic, earning praise like Ella Fitzgerald’s “the greatest singer without a voice.”