Hildegard Knef

Although Hildegard Knef—also credited as Hildegard Neff and widely referred to simply as “Die Knef”—earned lasting renown throughout her native Germany as one of the most significant screen performers to appear in the years immediately following World War II, she simultaneously built a substantial body of work as a singer and songwriter. Concentrating chiefly on the German chanson style, a form of sophisticated vocal pop that flourished in the country during the middle decades of the twentieth century, she issued more than twenty albums and committed well over three hundred songs to tape, personally authoring or sharing credit for nearly half of that catalog. Her recording activity commenced officially in 1951 with the split single pairing “Ein Herz Ist Zu Verschenken” and “Jeden Abend Stehe Ich am Hafen (Jonny).” A steady stream of additional singles and EPs appeared across the remainder of the fifties and into the early sixties, yet it was not until the following decade that she established herself decisively as a leading chansonette through such successes as the hit “Für Mich Soll’s Rote Rosen Regnen” (“It Shall Rain Red Roses for Me”) and “Ich Hab Noch Einen Koffer in Berlin” (“I’ve Got a Suitcase Left in Berlin”). The latter title proved so pervasive that the phrase itself entered everyday German parlance. Her commercial appeal remained strong throughout the seventies; only afterward did Knef turn the greater part of her attention to literary pursuits. She nevertheless kept returning to the studio until the close of her life and experienced one final chart triumph in 1994 when Extrabreit’s updated version of “Für Mich Soll’s Rote Rosen Regnen” reached the top position, bolstered by her own guest vocal appearance.