SLSL: "to sing lili marlene" (entropy, 79)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

actually it's LILI MARLEEN: the song's original title is "der wachposten" (the 
sentry). the words are by hans leip, the music by norbert schulze. sung by 
lale andersen the thing was a smash hit in 1943 (the year my mother was born in 
dresden). ev-ry night the soldier-station "radio belgrad" was playing it and 
soon other stations picked it up. also on the opposite side of the front. since 
the song is not exactly the music mobilizing men to kill their brothers goebbels 
tried to forbid it yet was successful with this only for a short time because of 
the soldiers' massive protests. fassbinder made a movie (LILI MARLEEN, 1980/1) 
about the song and its context with hanna schygulla as lale andersen. for 
fassbinder who wanted to work out the connections between popular culture and 
fascism the case is "auch deshalb interessant, weil er belegt, dass die 
nazi-politik im umgang mit der populären kultur nicht so diktatorisch war, wie 
es die vorstellung von der perfekten propagandamaschine erwarten lässt", writes 
thomas elsaesser in his brilliant fassbinder study. hey dave, i know you have 
the english original ("fassbinder's germany. history, identity, subject", 
amsterdam 1996) on your shelves, so you may share with us some more stuff from 
chapter six: ... wie einst? LILI MARLEEN + 
                                                             KFL *