Eva-Maria Hagen first made a career in the GDR, but after Wolf Biermann's expatriation, she had to leave the country and from then on performed in West Germany. Now she is dying at the age of 87.
Singer and actress Eva-Maria Hagen is dead. Hagen died on Tuesday at the age of 87, according to the management of her daughter Nina Hagen. Hagen became known in the GDR as a theater and film actress before she was banned from working because of her protest against the expatriation of singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann and went to the West.
A statement written on behalf of Nina Hagen, her daughter, actress Cosma Shiva Hagen, and son Otis Hagen said Eva-Maria Hagen had "left this earthly world" and "preceded us to eternal home." "We mourn with longing, with love and gratitude."
Hagen made her theatrical debut in 1953 with the famous Berliner Ensemble, directed by Bertold Brecht in the play Katzgraben. She gained wide popularity in 1957 with the title role in the DEFA film comedy "Don't forget my Traudel". In the years that followed, she became one of the most successful actresses in the GDR and, in addition to her stage engagements, played roles in around 50 television films.
Because of her relationship with the critical singer-songwriter Biermann, her job opportunities were curtailed by the GDR regime. Hagen was publicly discriminated against, threatened by state security and charged with state defamation. When she publicly protested against Biermann's expatriation in 1976, she was dismissed without notice from the German television broadcaster in the GDR and banned from working.
In 1977 Hagen followed her former partner to West Germany together with her daughter Nina, who came from her previous marriage to the writer Hans Oliva-Hagen. There she built up a second career as a chanson singer in addition to film and theater and released two long-playing records.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hagen again shot films in the Babelsberg studio with "Herzsprung" and "Novalis - The Blue Flower" and was on stage as "Medea" in 1994. In 1995 she played Brecht's "Mother Courage" in Hamburg. She produced several CDs and in 1997 published a novel entitled "Eva und der Wolf", which, based on letters and diary entries, gives an insight into the years together with Biermann.
Hagen triggered quarrels in her own family in 2000 with her book "Eva's Brave New World". Daughter Nina Hagen, on the other hand, obtained a court injunction because she felt her personal rights had been violated.
Eva-Maria Hagen continued to act in films, starring in the 2004 Snow White farce Seven Dwarfs - Men Alone in the Forest alongside her daughter Nina and granddaughter Cosma Shiva. Hagen returned to the stage at the age of 72 and took on the role of Miss Schneider in "Cabaret - Das Musical" in Berlin in 2006. Hagen wrote two more books and painted. She lived in Hamburg and in the Uckermark.
