During the 1930s and 1940s, Zarah Leander (March 15, 1907 – June 23, 1981) was the most prominent and highest-paid film star in Nazi Germany, known for her deep, dark contralto voice and dramatic persona. Despite her Swedish origin, she became a massive commercial success for the state-owned Universum Film AG (UFA) between 1936 and 1943.
Leander began her career in Swedish theater in 1929 before moving to larger stages in Stockholm and Vienna. She signed a lucrative contract with Berlin-based UFA in 1936, choosing Germany over Hollywood primarily due to family considerations and the high salary offered. She quickly became a superstar with films like Premiere (1937) and To New Shores (Zu neuen Ufern, 1937), directed by Douglas Sirk.
Marketed as a tragic lover and glamorous diva, she was often compared to Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Her 1942 film Die große Liebe (The Great Love) became the single biggest box office success in the history of the Nazi film industry, seen by approximately 27 million people. While she never joined the Nazi party, she performed in “request concerts” for soldiers and her work was heavily used for propaganda, making her a highly controversial figure after the war.
After her Berlin villa was bombed in 1942 and she faced pressure to take German citizenship, Leander broke her contract and returned to Sweden in 1943. Initially shunned by the Swedish public and artistic community for her ties to the Third Reich, she was even banned from performing in Germany and Austria until 1948.
She eventually made a successful comeback across Europe in the late 1940s and 1950s, remaining a sentimental favorite in Germany until her death in 1981.
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