Ilse Werner

Ilse Werner, real name Ilse Charlotte Still, born on July 11, 1921 in Batavia/Jakarta, Netherlands Indies, died on August 8, 2005 in Lübeck, was a German actress, pop singerof German-Dutch descent, who celebrated her greatest successes with films from the Third Reich era.

Ilse Werner: From Ufa star to tragic figure – A life between success and blows of fate

Ilse Werner was born Ilse Charlotte Still on Java in what was then the Dutch East Indies. Her father Otto Still (1877-1956) was a Dutch plantation owner and wealthy export merchant. Her mother Lilli (née Werner) came from Offenbach am Main, where her parents had married in 1913. After the economic loss of the plantation, the family moved relatively impoverished to Frankfurt am Main in 1931, where Ilse attended the Schiller School. In 1936, shortly after starting lower secondary school, she left grammar school and moved to Vienna with her family. There she attended the drama school at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and from then on went by the stage name “Ilse Werner”.

In 1947, Ilse Werner married the American journalist John de Forest in Vienna, with whom she subsequently moved to Munich. In the fall of 1949, she went to the USA with him and lived first in New York and later in Danville (California). The couple separated in spring 1952 and Werner returned to Germany. On August 13, 1954, Ilse Werner married the composer Josef Niessen in Bad Wiessee, who separated from her in 1966.

Ilse Werner spent the last years of her life withdrawn and impoverished in a retirement home in Lübeck. She was supported by prominent friends, including Karl Dall and Wolfgang Völz. On August 8, 2005, she died at the age of 84 as a result of pneumonia. At her own request, the former Ufa star Ilse Werner was buried on August 24, 2005 at the Goethestraße cemetery in Potsdam-Babelsberg.

Between fame and a new beginning: Ilse Werner’s career in film and theater

Ilse Werner made her debut at Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt in 1937 with the play Glück and a year later received her first film role in the Austrian film Die unruhigen Mädchen, which premiered in Vienna on February 11, 1938. She was then signed by the UFA. Her breakthrough came with the film Wunschkonzert (1940) and she was quickly celebrated as an up-and-coming star.

During the war years, movies offered a welcome distraction from everyday life and Werner gained popularity thanks to her convincing performances. She was particularly successful in the films Die schwedische Nachtigall (1941), Wir machen Musik (1942) and Münchhausen (with Hans Albers 1943). She played her most artistically demanding role in Helmut Käutner’s Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (1944). During the war, she also hosted the popular television program Wir senden Frohsinn – wir spenden Freude, which was broadcast live from the Reichssportfeld in Berlin. In 1944, she was added to the list of those who had been pardoned by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.

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After the end of the war, Werner was temporarily banned from working because of her involvement in the National Socialist film industry, her radio work for Reichssender Berlin and her appearances in troop support. During this time, she worked as a dubbing artist and lent her voice to well-known actresses such as Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard and Maureen O’Hara.

Her comeback attempt with the film Mysterious Depths (1948), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, was not very successful artistically or commercially. She was also unable to build on her earlier successes in later films, as the type of woman she portrayed was no longer in demand in the post-war period. Die Herrin vom Sölderhof (1955) was her last feature film before she became a German citizen in the same year.

Ilse first presented a program on Radio Luxembourg in 1960. In the decades that followed, she presented many musical evenings, sometimes alone, sometimes with colleagues.

In the following years, Werner mainly returned to the theater stage. She particularly shone in 1969/70 in her signature role as Anna in the musical “Der König und ich” at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven. She also appeared in musical programs on smaller stages and in numerous television shows and series.

In 1989, she played the role of Aunt Ella in the ZDF series Rivalen der Rennbahn. After further appearances in television productions, she made her last feature film Die Hallo-Sisters with Harald Juhnke and Gisela May in 1990, although it was only shown on television. In 2000, she appeared in Tatort: Bitter Almonds as the grandmother of detective Freddy Schenk.

Ilse Werner was also a talented whistler, a skill that the composer Werner Bochmann discovered early on. In the 1940s, she established herself as a pop singer and also used her talent in musicals. Her best-known titles include Die kleine Stadt will schlafen geh’n, Wir machen Musik and Mein Herz hat heut’ Premiere. In 1960, she celebrated a comeback with the hit Baciare. When she wanted to record the song Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson, the composer Martin Böttcher rearranged the title within 56 hours, as the original sheet music was not available.

She later performed a whistle solo in a recording of Ohne Dich der Ärzte and worked with Max Raabe on the recording of Es war einmal ein Musikus. In 2004, she recorded a new interpretation of Wir machen Musik with the Lisa Bassenge Trio. In September 2002, she appeared at the Schwerter Operettenbühne in a stage version of Es leuchten die Sterne, where she both sang and whistled.

Movies with Ilse Werner

• 1938 The Restless Girls (Finale)
• 1938 Mrs. Sixta
• 1938 Life can be so beautiful
• 1939 Bel Ami
• 1939 Three fathers around Anna
• 1939 Miss
• 1939 Your first experience
• 1940 Bal paré
• 1940 Request concert
• 1941 Submarines westwards!
• 1941 The Swedish Nightingale
• 1942 We make music
• 1942 Wedding at Bärenhof
• 1943 Munchausen
• 1944 Große Freiheit No. 7
• 1945 The Strange Miss Sylvia
• 1945 A great day
• 1948 Tidbits (documentary film with
• 1949 Mysterious depths
• 1950 Epilogue – The secret of the Orplid
• 1950 Good night, Mary
• 1951 Queen of one night
• 1951 Being a mother, on the other hand, very much so!
• 1953 The Bird Trader
• 1954 Ännchen von Tharau
• 1955 Reaching for the stars
• 1955 The mistress of the Sölderhof
• 1990 The Hello Sisters

TV movies with Ilse Werner

• 1942 We give joy (entertainment – television station Paul Nipkow, until 1944)
• 1952 A nice present
• 1955 You can be seen
• 1965 The brides of my sons (13 episodes)
• 1966 A small theory of harmony
• 1968 Musici family
• 1971 Lucky devil
• 1979 Another opera
• 1983 House Vaterland
• 1987 A tricky case (series episode: The Showcase)
• 1989 Rivals of the racetrack (11 episodes)
• 1989 Forest inspector Buchholz
• 1990 Roda Roda (1 episode)
• 1991 Practice Bülowbogen (guest appearance)
• 1994 Secrecy of correspondence
• 1996 News from the Süderhof (guest appearance)
• 1996 All because of Robert de Niro
• 1997 Großstadtrevier – The G-Man
• 1998 Hello, Uncle Doc! – Albert (guest appearance in episode 56)
• 1998 A woman with a difference
• 2000 Crime Scene – Bitter Almonds
• 2001 For all cases Stefanie (1 episode)
• 2003 Alfredissimo! (1 episode)

Studio albums by Ilse Werner

• 1965 We make music
• 1976 Ilse Werner
• 1984 Whistled it sounds like this
• 1999 Ilse Werner
• 2011 Ilse Werner – I have to whistle