Hildegard Knef: Chronology of her life 1980 – 1989
The author is not responsible for the correctness of the following information.
1980
February 1980:
The German and foreign press report
– most of them dismissively – on Hildegard Knef’s face-lifting (one paper
wrote: “That is not our Knef anymore”); however, well-known plastic surgeon
Dr. Edmund Kozlowski welcomes the coverage, saying, “I appreciate Frau Knef’s
frankness about her surgery. She does pioneering work for many people who
haven’t yet had the courage to do it.”
February 2, 1980:
In an interview with “Bunte”
magazine, she revises her opinion on the medical profession: “I have attacked
many doctors in my book Das Urteil. But
now I feel indebted to them. I acknowledge that [conventional] medicine can
indeed be helpful. A face-lift is much better than taking valium. (…) I also
think that it should be covered by health insurance.”
March 1, 1980:
First public appearance after her
surgery, on the TV show Auf
los geht’s los; two weeks later, TV magazine “Hör zu” writes in a review:
“The appearance of freshly lifted Knef came close of being an embarrassment.
Hilde was indeed right – she came back much too early into the spotlight.”
August 1980:
The LP Da ist eine
Zeit... is released – her last studio album until 1999.
September 1980:
The German yellow press reports on
slow ticket sales for her upcoming concert tour: 14 days before her Hamburg
concert, only about 100 tickets have been sold, in Kassel just 15; the demand
abroad is said to be particularly poor; the ticket price of DM 54 is
considered much too high; the press speculates on the cancellation of the
tour.
September 15, 1980:
Her last concert tour, Tournee, Tournee,
starts off at Berlin’s Philharmonie; musical director: Kai Rautenberg; the
tour was planned as a “world tour” (including concerts in the US, Canada,
South America, Australia and Japan) but eventually takes place only in Germany,
Austria and the Netherlands; the press reviews are bad, prompting Knef to
comment, “I cannot talk to German critics on the subject of my concerts. I
don’t talk to eunuchs about love, either”; the 70-cities tour – often in
front of half-empty halls – is accompanied by a book of the
same name, featuring an extensive Knef interview, a discography and a
filmography.
• Receives the “Golden Tulip”, a
Dutch music award.
• Her friendship with Marlene
Dietrich is seriously tarnished after she refuses Knef’s request to contact
couturier Yves Saint-Laurent: “Your idea to have a world-famous man travel to
Germany in order to study your ‘movements’ is sheer megalomania”; they stop
writing letters to each other; however, Dietrich continues to collect every
newspaper clipping on Knef right until her death in 1992.
• While attending a circus show at
November 1980:
Titled Tournee,
Tournee..., a double album of her concert tour is released, selling
relatively well; the record includes self-written songs for a musical based
on her book Der
geschenkte Gaul (composed by Harald Faltermeier, later Harold
Faltermeyer); the – revised – musical sees its posthumous première in
November 1980:
On the occasion of the 200-year
anniversary of the city of
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1981
February 26, 1981:
A live recording of her tour
concert in
April 1981:
Summer 1981:
Ex-husband Kurt Hirsch organises a
villa for her, at
1422
• A
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1982
February 1982:
Hildegard Knef collapses due to her
morphine addiction, but, she says to the press, a “sleeping cure” helped her
to get well again.
May 6, 1982:
Starring role in the TV version of
Georg Kaiser’s play Der
Gärtner von Toulouse (The Gardener of Toulouse).
May 1982:
Her former publisher Fritz Molden
files for bankruptcy.
August 1982:
The third part of her literary
autobiography, So
nicht, is published after Knef presented it at the Frankfurt book fair;
its sales are disappointing, though, and the book is only translated into
Dutch (Niet
zo).
October 7, 1982:
“Bunte” magazine publishes a
10-part series on the life of recently deceased actress Romy Schneider,
“Weißt du noch, Romy?” (“Do You Remember, Romy?”), that Knef wrote within 2 months
in Hollywood; on October 13, Schneider’s mother, Magda, protests
publicly via “Bild” newspaper, accusing her of lies and denounces her for
claiming wrongly to have been a good friend of Romy Schneider; as a result,
Knef is accused by the yellow press of trying to profit from her death.
October 20, 1982:
Personal appearance on a talk show
at
November 6, 1982:
Yellow press magazine “Neue Revue”
publishes an interview with her, headlined, “First cashing up millions, then abusing
her fans: The true face of Hildegard Knef”; Knef criticises the lack of
recognition of cultural achievements in Germany – as evidence, she names the
fact that she has written an “opera” that “gets appreciated only in America.
The German theatres show no interest at all”; a few days later “Bild”
newspaper, referring to that interview, screams the headline “Knef: I hate
all Germans!”
December 1982:
Knef and her family – especially 14
year old Christina – suffer from the huge uproar in the German press; they
decide to relocate to Hollywood; hardly arrived, Knef has do undergo several
critical operations on her jaw-bone.
• Her contract with record company
Philips expires but is not renewed.
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1983
• Hildegard Knef once again resumes
painting, leading to an exhibition in 1988.
• Her last book, Romy – Betrachtung eines
Lebens, is published – a biography of Romy Schneider, based on her 1982
series in “Bunte” magazine.
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1984
January 1984:
Shooting begins in
May 7, 1984:
Guest appearance in an episode of
the American TV series Scarecrow
& Mrs. King.
June 1984:
Critical intestinal surgery in a
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1985
February 1985:
Flügel und Fesseln is shown at the Berlin film
festival; after the screening, the director, Helma Sanders-Brahms, is greeted
with catcalls – Knef herself is not present and is told they were only meant
for the director, not for her; on May 31st, the film hits
Germany’s cinemas.
June 14, 1985:
Recurring to a concert evening in
October 1980, TV magazine “Hör zu” accuses Knef of having said to the
audience in a “half-empty” hall: “This [German] people doesn’t exist as far
as I’m concerned!”
November 1985:
Knef returns to
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1986
January 19, 1986:
In
February 1986:
Her doctor demands her to quit
smoking (“Marlboro” being her favourite brand) – to no avail.
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1987
October 3, 1987:
Successful come-back on stage, as
Fraulein Schneider in the musical Cabaret,
at
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1988
Winter 1988:
In
February 1988:
Several yellow press magazines
report that her daughter Christina decided for an abortion – Knef vehemently
denies the story.
March 6, 1988:
Christina marries Peter R. Gardiner,
an American film studio executive (Warner Bros.), a son of British actor
Reginald Gardiner, and who is 19 years her senior; the wedding takes place in
a Presbyterian church in Beverly Hills, CA. (The couple moved to Santa Fe, NM, in 2005 and divorced
in 2009; Gardiner died, at age 61, on 13 January 2011 of a heart attack;
Christina operates a delivery service for self-made European-style bakery
goods).
August 1988:
Concert, a live recording from her 1986 tour, is released on
CD and later, posthumously, on DVD (“Stationen”).
December 3, 1988:
Guest appearance on the hugely
popular TV show Wetten,
dass...
December 4, 1988:
An exhibition of 40 Knef paintings
opens in a Berlin hotel, called “Los Angeles – Eindrücke zwischen Armut und
Reichtum” (“L.A. – Impressions of poverty and affluence”); shown later in
Munich and Zurich, too; the paintings were done in the 3 years before, with
one of them not quite ready at the time – Knef tells “Stern” magazine, “it
was flown over by Lufthansa while still wet”.
December 15, 1988:
In an interview with “Stern”, Knef
is asked on her thoughts about the film La casa 4: Witchcraft, just released in
December 25, 1988:
At the 75 birthday
party of “Stern” founder/editor Henri Nannen, Knef suffers from heavy
morphine withdrawal symptoms.
•
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1989
Autumn/Winter 1989:
In
April 28, 1989:
A gallery in the provincial town of
November 9, 1989:
While still working in France,
Hildegard Knef watches the fall of the Berlin Wall on TV; shortly afterwards,
she and her husband decide to leave Hollywood (where she was threatened with
eviction) for Germany; they move into a penthouse in Munich-Bogenhausen,
Maria-Theresia-Straße; the removal cost is subsidised with DM 15,000 by the
Paul Klinger Sozialwerk, a welfare organisation (Knef’s bank accounts were
frozen due to high debts).
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