Falling In Love Again

More than a decade after her death, Marlene Dietrich is being honoured by the city with which she had her longest love-hate relationship - Berlin. Bron in Berlin in 1901, Dietrich's meteoric rise in Hollywood during the 1930s led her to turn her back on Berlin. Invited many times by the Nazis to return and perform, Dietrich not only refused, but ended up renouncing her German citizenship to become an American citizen. When she returned for the first time after the war to perform she was met by a host of protestors chanting 'Marlene, Go Home!' - an event which led her to swear she would never return there, famously saying; 'The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.' However on her death, Marlene was buried in Berlin, and it seems the years have mellowed the city's attitude towards one of its most famous children. The city council decided yesterday (18 April 2002) to make Dietrich an honourary citizen, claiming that the move would 'symbolize the city of Berlin's reconciliation with her.'