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Although Zarah Leander studied piano and violin already as a small child, and sung on stage for the first time at the age of 6 years, she did a serious attempt for an ordinary life. As a teenager she lived two years 1922– 1924 in Riga, learned the then most important international language, German, took up work as a secretary, married Nils Leander ( 1926), and got two children ( 1927 & 1929). However, in 1929 she was engaged, as amateur, in a touring cabaret by Ernst Rolf and sung for the first time the tune Vill ni se en stjärna, that soon would become her signature.

In 19301930 is the common year starting on Wednesday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 6 The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed ( Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City). January 27 Miguel Primo de Rivera resigns January 30 G, she participated in four cabarets in the capital, Stockholm, made her first records, including a cover of Marlene DietrichMarie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich ( December 27, 1901 May 6, 1992) was a German actress and singer. Born in Schoneberg, Berlin, Dietrich played the violin before joining an acting school in 1921, making her film debut the following year. After playing in's Falling in love again, and played a part in a film. It was however as operettaOperetta (literally, "little opera") is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. Often some of the libretto is spoken rather than sung (but this is true of some operas as well). Instead of moving from on artist, as Anna Glavari in Franz LehárFranz Lehar ( 30 April 1870 24 October 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer, mainly known for his operettas. Lehar was born in Komarno (now in Slovakia) as the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied violin and composition bu's The Merry WidowThe Merry Widow is a musical comedy or operetta of 1905, by the Austro-Hungarian composer, Franz Lehar. The original German title is Die lustige Witwe''. Well-known music from the score includes the song "Vilja" and the "Merry Widow Waltz". The story conc, she had her definitive break-through ( 19311931 is the common year starting on Thursday. see link for calendar) Events January January 4 Female aviator Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa January 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application. January 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the). By then she'd divorsed Nils Leander. In the following years, she made a splendid career and could make a decent living as a popular artist on stage and film in ScandinaviaScandinavia is the cultural and historic region of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Scandinavian countries are Norway, Sweden and Denmark, which mutually recognize each other as parts of Scandinavia. The collective label "Scandinavia" reflects the cultural. Her fame rendered her proposals also from the European continent and from Hollywood, where a couple of Swedish actors and directors worked.

Zarah Leander opted for an international career on the European continent. As a mother of two school-age children, she ruled out a move to America. It was, in her view, most of all, too insecure. What if she brought her children with her, and then at some time she would find herself without employment. A mother couldn't divorce from her children, and she couldn't put them at such a risk. Austria and (Nazi) Germany were much closer. And she knew the language!

A second break-through, by contemporary measures her international debut, was in the world premier ( 1936) of Axel an der Himmelstür at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, directed by Max Hansen . It was a parody on Hollywood and not the least a parody of the German Marlene Dietrich, who had fled a Europe marked by Mussolini's, Stalin's and Hitler's raising stars. It was followed by the film Premiere, in which she played the role of a successful cabaret star.

At the same time, she lands a contract with UFA-film in Berlin, and gets known as an extraordinarily tough negotiator, demanding influence, high salaries and half of it paid in Swedish currency. A stupefied Propaganda Minister Goebbels dubbed her Enemy Of Germany, but as a leading film star by UFA, she participates in ten films, most of them great successes, and great contributions to the Third Reich's propaganda, as a counterweight to the international isolation and criticism that not the least Swedish news papers demonstrated. She played roles with, basically, the same personality in all her German films; some said she played herself. Her was the role of a femme fatal , independently minded, beautiful, passionate and self-confident. Many of her songs had a frivolous undertext, or could at least be interpreted that way.

Zarah Leander's last film in Nazi Germany went up at the theaters on March 3, 1943. Her villa in the fashionable Berlin suburb Grunewald was hit in an airstrike, the increasingly desperate Nazis pressured her to apply for German citizenship, and she decided to break the contract with Ufa, leave Germany, and retreat to Sweden were she'd bought the mansion at Lönö , not far from Stockholm. After the Wehrmacht's defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, Nazi-criticism and pro-Americanism came to dominate totally in Sweden. Zarah Leander had been far too much associated with the Nazi propaganda; and was shunned. Step by step she would get engagements on Swedish stages and in Swedish films, but she would never regain the popularity she'd enjoyed before and in the first years of World War II.