Marlene Dietrich, tailcoat and a kiss for a woman
In a tailcoat she kissed a woman, long before Hollywood was ready for it: Marlene Dietrich was born in Berlin in 1901.
On 27 December 1901, Marie Magdalene Dietrich is born in Schöneberg near Berlin, the daughter of a Prussian police lieutenant. All her life she will give 1904 as her year of birth. 2026 would have been her one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday, and hardly any film icon has remained as important to queer history as she has.
Berlin in the twenties: at the time, the city is a place where gay and lesbian life takes place surprisingly openly. It is precisely here that Dietrich begins her career. With "The Blue Angel" she achieves her breakthrough in 1930, and shortly afterwards she goes to Hollywood.
Her very first American film causes a stir. In "Morocco" she appears as a nightclub singer in a tailcoat and kisses a woman from the audience on the mouth. For American cinema audiences, this breaks a taboo. The role nevertheless earns her the only Oscar nomination of her career. The trouser suit becomes her trademark and is copied by countless women.
In private, Dietrich, although married, has relationships with men and women alike. When a gossip magazine outs her as bisexual in 1955, she simply does not react at all. Other stars go to court in such cases. She just lets the story bounce off her.
She also takes a political stand. She turns down the Nazis' offer to make films in Germany again for a lot of money. She becomes an American citizen and performs for American troops during the Second World War. In her old homeland, some still hold this against her decades later.
Marlene Dietrich dies in Paris in 1992 and is buried in Berlin-Friedenau. She remains a role model for everyone who does not take gender roles as seriously as society would like.