The German actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen, a figure from the former GDR whom she had ended up leaving for political reasons, has died this Tuesday at the age of 87, a family spokesperson announced this Friday.
“Our beloved Eva-Maria Hagen left the underworld to join her eternal homeland on August 16, 2022,” her daughter’s agent, German punk icon Nina Hagen, told AFP.
Beginnings in the theater and then in the cinema
Born in Kolczyn in 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.
She becomes 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 war orphan who falls in love with a policeman.
In addition to theater, often nicknamed “Brigitte Bardot of the GDR”, she has starred in more than 50 films.
singing career
Married for five years to the author Hans Olivia-Hagen, she has a daughter, Nina, born in 1955 before her divorce, and later joins the composer who was critical of the Eastern regime Wolf Biermann.
When the GDR authorities stripped him of his East German citizenship, 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 singing as well, which continued until after the fall of the Wall in reunified Germany in the early 1990s.
His daughter Nina, with extravagant and provocative stage appearances, has become one of the great figures of the German punk scene. Her career mixes scandals, militancy, spirituality and esotericism.
Nina Hagen’s daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, who often appeared in public alongside her mother and grandmother, has also embarked on an acting career.
Source: BFM TV
