Talk:Lili Marleen

Execution
The singing of "Lili Marleen" after the executions seems to be proven in the case of Kalavrita (http://www.vvn-bda.de/nuernberg/kalavrita.htm), but "used to play it during executions" generalizes a bit too much in my opinion. --Reinhard 18:19 17 Jun 2003 (UTC)

stehen or steh'n?
From the lyrics:
 * Und sollte mir ein Leids gescheh'n
 * Wer wird bei der Laterne stehen

I seem to remember this verse ending in "steh'n". Shinobu 20:07, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

(By `laws´ of prosody) it has to be steh´n - I am german and for maybe 99,99% of the time we say `steh´n´ instead of `stehen´. Even if it is written...--85.177.24.116 (talk) 13:41, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

Lyrics
I removed the lyrics to the song from the article because, first of all, in general Wikisource is probably a better place for these, and second, they were claimed to be public domain, but the author died in 1983, which is far from the required 70 year. If the lyrics are in fact public domain, some kind of source for this claim should be posted here on the talk page. --Fritz S. (Talk) 10:00, 16 December 2005 (UTC)


 * The song (I don't know whether just the text or the music, or both) are copyrighted. The rights holder is Schott Music International. They even registered a "Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE)" their copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office . Lupo 11:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Title of the article
Shouldn't the article be named 'Lili Marlene' instead of 'Lili Marleen'? The article itself says the song became popular as 'Lili Marlene'.
 * No. "Marlene" is a typical vestige of the naughty embarrasing typo fairy. Shinobu 02:03, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure that poster was correct. The original version was Lili Marlene.  In fact, it's not even pronounced as a hard 'e'.  At least not by Dietrich.  Anyway, I was just at a reunion of WWII vets and they all knew it as 'Lili Marlene' Chaleur 22:09, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * In German, "Marleen" would be pronounced "mar-layn," not with the long e that the spelling would imply in English. 140.147.236.194 (talk) 14:14, 23 October 2008 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza
 * [[Image:Wasserturm_Langeoog.jpg|thumb]]Then have a look at this photo. The title of the song is Lili Marleen. And check German pronunciation while your at it. (Marlene would be pronounced "Mahrlaynuh".) That the WII vets say otherwise doesn't mean a thing. They probably all picked up the mis-spelling from the same source anyway. Shinobu 00:10, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The spelling Marleen is correct, as shown in Image:Manuskript Lili Marlen.jpg, written in Hans Leip's own handwriting. (The name of this particular image has the word spelled wrong, and the image will probably soon be deleted from Commons as a copyvio.) If "Lili Marlene" is widespread, it's probably because of association with Marlene Dietrich. Angr 12:23, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

The song is known worldwide and universally as "Lili Marlene" titling it differently is the height of pedantic b.s. Awotter

Is it really too pedantic to get right what most people get wrong? It seems to me that the only alternative to such pedantry is unreliability (and Wikipedia has plenty of that already). 219.90.185.19 08:22, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * "worldwide" seems to exclude German, then, in any case. Marlene does not rhyme with stehen.--2001:A61:21BC:6301:75C5:F5E5:ABEE:7AF8 (talk) 18:03, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Degrees of melodicity?
"Another very melodic version was recorded in the 1960's by country music legend Hank Snow." What on Earth is meant by "very melodic"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by AxelHarvey (talk • contribs) 04:28, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Agree: "very melodic" is essentially meaningless as used here; have removed it. Ondewelle (talk) 10:31, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Leonard Cohen Song
Is this the Lili Marlene as referenced in the Leonard Cohen song, famous blue raincoat ?

Halfabeet (talk) 15:23, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Video with this music
This site [] has this music, singed by Marlene Dietrich. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agre22 (talk • contribs) 01:47, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Older lyrics?
This website http://www.jazzprofessional.com/report/Norbert%20Schultze.htm marking Norbert Schultze's death publishes what it says are older lyrics, in which it was an antiwar song. Does anyone know about this? If it is true this ought to be mentioned. Intelligent Mr Toad (talk) 04:04, 29 September 2008 (UTC)


 * There are internal cues in the jazzprofessional site text that lead me to suspect this is a 1960s version, when antiwar protest songs were much in vogue. For example, "Verweht im Wüstensand" & "Am ölverseuchten Strand", "Gone for ever in the desert sand" & "On the oil-soaked beach" have a decided WW2 flavour, while the next 2 lines, "Say, how much suffering must still happen, Until we see the madness, the insanity?" echoes other 1960s antiwar protest songs.like "Where have All the Flowers Gone". Leip's original 1915 version is said to have been just [the first] three verses; he himself published the poem with two extra verses in 1937 in his volume of poetry "Die kleine Hafenorgel", according to the site SecondHandSongs, whilst lyrics.com attributes the 1937 version sung by Marlene Dietrich et al to Mack David, Hans Leip & Norbert Schulze. We may have to wait until Warner-Chappell/Stott lift their copyright to get at the full truth! OTOH, I can't help thinking that Wikipedia could claim fair use in presenting at least redacted versions of the original lyrics as part of a discussion of the song's origin. Food for later historical research.... D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 08:12, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Lili Marleen
why noone didn't write down what does Lili Marleen mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.162.140.35 (talk) 11:46, 15 May 2009 (UTC) Quote from the article: "Leip reportedly combined the names of his girlfriend and another female friend" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Srelu (talk • contribs) 23:24, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Public Domain
It's in public domain now, let's put a link to or player of it somewhere. http://www.archive.org/details/LaleAnderson-91-100 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.103.63.216 (talk) 13:56, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The PPL (UK music royalties agency) seem to think a 1940 version (ISRC number DEF060001090) is NOT in the public domain. As of 2012, their database says EMI own the rights to DEF060001090. The link is here :PPLuk.com.Just search for Lale Andersen. Obviously, if your copy is not marked DEF060001090 you're OK... Mongoosander (talk) 02:21, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Spanish and Italian versions
Does anybody have the lyrics to the Spanish and Italian versions of this song? I think that they should be added to show in what other countries this song became popular. Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 19:20, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Marleen or Marlene is a misspelling, whatever the other people are writing here
The real title is the one given by the composer of the song. In the article you have the picture of the original disk, please DO READ what's written on it. Despite what everybody is thinking, the real name is MARLEN.

Dietrich version as propaganda?
Came here by accident, but it would seem (according to the CIA) that they had a bit of involvement in the subversive usage of the song: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2008-featured-story-archive/marlene-dietrich.html "A Look Back...Marlene Dietrich: Singing for a Cause." Must be a CIA thing as the link can only be copied and pasted.

This would explain why Goebbels tried to ban the song, something which is conspicuous in the article. Davoloid (talk) 19:30, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Lale Anderson
Does anybody know what eventually happened to Lale Anderson especially after her song became famous?AT Kunene (talk) 10:02, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Steinbeck - Once There Was a War
John Steinbeck's collection of his war journalism includes a piece on this song which is strangely at variance with much that is written here. Perhaps he didn't know the complete story; his article may have been merely propaganda. Steinbeck's interpretation if the lyrics make one wonder if he understood German at all. 121.44.145.247 (talk) 07:46, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

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Telegraph article about song
Haven't time to do it atm but this could provide a few citations JRPG (talk) 22:41, 31 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Pay wall. Mr.Slade (talk) 01:51, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

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