Stamp of the Month: December 2025

Hildegard Knef

Germany4.12.2025

The German actress and singer Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was born on December 28, 1925, in Ulm. She died on February 1, 2002, in Berlin. December 2025 will mark the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Hildegard Knef began an apprenticeship as an animator at UFA in Berlin in 1942. After a trial audition, she received a scholarship to attend the film school in Babelsberg, where she also studied

dance and singing. In 1945, she was engaged at the “Tribüne” theater on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm. Her leading role in the first German post-war film, “Die Mörder sind unter uns” (The Murderers Are Among Us), made her known abroad as a character actress in 1946, and her fame increased further in 1951 due to the scandal surrounding a brief nude scene in the film “Die Sünderin” (The Sinner). Her leading role in the film “Entscheidung vor Morgengrauen” (Decision Before Dawn), which was also successful in the USA, led to several roles in American films, in which she also had singing parts. Her decisive breakthrough, however, came with the role of Ninotchka in the Broadway musical “Silk Stockings,” in which she performed a total of 675 times between 1954 and 1956. After releasing several jazz records in England and France, she once again attracted attention in Germany. With the song “Mack the Knife” from the film adaptation of “The Threepenny Opera,” she made it into the German charts and launched her second career as a German chanson singer in 1963 with the album “That’s Life.” She appeared several times on German television shows with her own lyrics and embarked on her first concert tour in 1966.

The song “Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen” (It Should Rain Red Roses for Me) became her signature song in 1968. Despite her smoky voice, Hildegard Knef was named Best German Singer in 1968, and Ella Fitzgerald once called her “the best singer without a voice.” In addition to further recordings, Hildegard Knef published her autobiography, “Der geschenkte Gaul” (The Gift Horse), in 1970, which became an international bestseller. After battling cancer, she made a successful stage comeback in Berlin in 1987 in the musical “Cabaret.” Besides numerous film awards and lifetime achievement accolades, Hildegard Knef also received several national and international music awards, including the 1999 award for the most successful jazz production of the year for her album “17 Millimeter.”

Germany 27.12.2002

The video shows Hildegard Knef on March 1, 1980, performing her hit song “Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen” on the German television show “Auf los geht’s los”.