Look up linden in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Linden is one of three English names for the tree genus Tilia (also known as lime and basswood). Several of the common names for species within the Tilia genus have Linden in their names. They include:

• American Linden, a common name for Tilia americana
• Large-leaved Linden, a common name for Tilia platyphyllos
• Little-leaf Linden, a common name for Tilia cordata
• Silver Linden, a common name for Tilia tomentosa

Other trees include:

• The Viburnum Linden common name for Viburnum dilatatum.
• Linden Oak, a white oak in Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Linden may also refer to:

Places[link]

Linden is widely used as a place name, very often being a place where linden trees grow:

in Australia

• Linden, New South Wales, a village in the Blue Mountains
  • Linden railway station, New South Wales
• Linden, Western Australia, a ghost town in the goldfields of Western Australia

In Belgium

• Linden, Belgium, a town in the municipality of Lubbeek, Flemish Brabant

In Canada

• Linden, Alberta
• Linden, Nova Scotia

In England

• Linden Hall, a listed hotel in Northumberland

In Germany

• Bochum-Linden, a district of the city of Bochum
• Fohren-Linden, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate
• Linden, Hessen, a town in the district of Gießen, Hessen
• Linden, Kaiserslautern, a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate
• Linden, Schleswig-Holstein, a municipality in the district Dithmarschen, Schleswig-Holstein
• Linden, Westerwaldkreis, a municipality in the district Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate
• Linden-Limmer, a district of Hanover
• Märkisch Linden, a municipality in Brandenburg
• Staatsoper Unter den Linden, a common name for the Berlin State Opera
• Unter den Linden (literally, "Under the Linden Trees"), a famous boulevard in Berlin

In Guyana

• Linden, Guyana
• Soesdyke-Linden Highway

In the Netherlands;

• Linden, Netherlands

In New Zealand

• Linden Railway Station

In South Africa

• Linden, Gauteng, a suburb of Johannesburg

In Switzerland

• Linden, Switzerland, a municipality in the canton of Bern

In the United States

• Linden, Alabama
• Linden, Arizona
• Linden, California
• Linden (CTA), rapid transit station in Wilmette, Illinois
• Linden, Indiana
  • Linden Depot, railroad station museum in Indiana
• Linden, Iowa
• Linden Square, historic place in Brookline, Massachusetts
• Linden, Michigan
• Lake Linden, Michigan
• Linden (Glen Allan, Mississippi), listed on the NRHP in Washington County, Mississippi
• Linden (Natchez, Mississippi), listed on the NRHP in Adams County, Mississippi
• Linden, New Jersey
  • Linden Airport, small general aviation airport
  • Linden Assembly, former factory site
  • Linden Circle, a traffic circle
  • Linden (NJT station), commuter rail station
• Linden Boulevard, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City, New York
• Linden, North Carolina
• Linden, Columbus, Ohio
• Linden, Lycoming, Pennsylvania
• Linden Place, an historic house museum in Bristol, Rhode Island
• Linden, Tennessee
• Linden, Texas
• Linden, Virginia
• Linden (Champlain, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Essex County, Virginia
• Linden, West Virginia
• Linden, Wisconsin

Ships[link]

• USS Linden (1860), American naval vessel
• ST Linden, Kenyan tugboat

People[link]

• Linden (surname)
• Linden (given name)

Other uses[link]

• Linden Lab, creators of Second Life
• Linden Dollar, the virtual currency used in Second Life

See also[link]

Look up linden in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The Lindens (disambiguation)
• Linden House (disambiguation)
• Linden High School (disambiguation)
• Linden Park (disambiguation), several places
• Lynden (disambiguation)
• Lindon (disambiguation)
• Lyndon (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Trevor Linden
Linden warming up with Vancouver during his final NHL season
Born	(1970-04-11) April 11, 1970 (age 42) Medicine Hat, AB, CAN
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	220 lb (100 kg; 15 st 10 lb)
Position	Centre/right wing
Shot	Right
Played for	Vancouver Canucks New York Islanders Montreal Canadiens Washington Capitals
National team	Canada
NHL Draft	2nd overall, 1988 Vancouver Canucks
Playing career	1988–2008
Website	http://www.trevorlinden.com

Trevor John Linden, C.M., O.B.C. (born April 11, 1970) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player who spent 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1988 to 2008. He played centre and right wing with four teams: the Vancouver Canucks (in two stints), New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals. Before joining the NHL in 1988, Linden helped the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League (WHL) win consecutive Memorial Cup championships.^[1] In addition to appearing in two NHL All-Star Games, Linden was a member of the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and participated in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Throughout his career, Linden was recognized as a respected leader on and off the ice.^[2][3] He was named captain of the Canucks at the age of 21, making him one of the youngest captains in league history. While captaining the Canucks, Linden led the team to within a game of winning the Stanley Cup in 1994. It was during this time that he began to be called Captain Canuck. In 1998 he was elected President of the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), a position he held for eight years.^[4] As President, he played an instrumental role in the 2004–05 NHL lockout, including negotiations with league owners.^[5] Off the ice, Linden has taken an active role in charities, and was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership on the ice and humanitarian contributions off the ice in 1997,^[6] as well as the NHL Foundation Player Award in 2008. Linden retired on June 11, 2008, twenty years to the day after he was drafted into the NHL.^[7] Linden's jersey number 16 was retired by the Canucks on December 17, 2008, the second number retired by the team.

Early life[link]

Trevor Linden's grandfather, Nick van der Linden, emigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1929.^[8] He ran a construction company until his son Lane, Trevor's father, replaced him in 1979.^[9] Trevor was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta to Lane and Edna Linden. Linden was a skilled athlete; despite hockey being his top priority, he also participated in baseball, golf, volleyball, basketball, and speed skating.^[10] An excellent student in school, he was offered a scholarship to Princeton University to play for their hockey team; instead, Linden chose to stay in Medicine Hat and play with the local major junior team, the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL.^[11] Linden grew up watching the Tigers and idolized Lanny McDonald, who played in Medicine Hat before he joined the NHL.^[12]

After one season playing with the Medicine Hat Midget Tigers of the Alberta Midget Hockey League (AMHL), Linden joined the WHL Tigers for the final five games of the 1985–86 regular season, where he scored two goals; he also appeared in six playoff games, scoring one goal. The next season, at the age of 16, he made the team full-time. In his first full season in the WHL, Linden had 36 points in 72 games, and then had nine points in 20 playoff games, including two goals in the championship game, helping Medicine Hat win their first Memorial Cup as Canadian junior champions.^[13] The next year, Linden had 110 points in 67 games, and led the Tigers to their second consecutive Memorial Cup title.^[14] During the 1988 WHL playoffs, Linden set a WHL playoff record by scoring the fastest goal from the start of a game, scoring seven seconds into a 6–5 Tigers win over the Saskatoon Blades on April 15, 1988.^[15] At the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, the Vancouver Canucks selected Linden second overall, after the Minnesota North Stars selected Mike Modano.^[16]

NHL career[link]

Vancouver Canucks (1988–1998)[link]

Linden made his NHL debut on October 6, 1988 against the Winnipeg Jets, aged 18.^[17] He scored his first goal on October 18, 1988, against Kelly Hrudey of the New York Islanders and later, on November 17, he scored his first hat trick against the Minnesota North Stars.^[18][19] Linden finished the season tied for the team lead in goals (30) and second for points (59). He was the first Canucks rookie to score 30 goals^[13][20] and came within one point of tying Ivan Hlinka's team record of 60 points as a first-year player, set in 1981–82 (the record was later tied by Pavel Bure in 1991–92).^[21] Linden also became the first rookie to win the Cyclone Taylor Award, given to the Canucks' most valuable player.^[20] He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team, and finished second to Brian Leetch, of the New York Rangers, in voting for the Calder Trophy, given to the rookie of the year.^[22] Fans voted him as the winner of The Hockey News' rookie of the year award.^[23] The Canucks made the playoffs in the 1988–89 season, for the first time in three years, and Linden scored seven points in the Canucks' seven-game series loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames.^[16]

In his sophomore NHL season, Linden finished second on the team in goals, with 21, and points, 51, and finished third in assists with 30. The following year, he was one of three Canucks to share a rotating captaincy (the others being Doug Lidster and Dan Quinn).^[1] Linden led the team with 37 assists and 70 points, and made his first appearance in an NHL All-Star Game, where he was the youngest player.^[24] At the age of 21, he was made sole captain of the team,^[25] becoming the youngest Canucks captain.^[26] That season, Linden led the Canucks in scoring for a second straight year with 75 points (31 goals and 44 assists), leading the Canucks to their first division title since the 1974–75 season.^[20]

A natural winger early in his career, Linden began learning to play at the center position during the Canucks training camp in October 1992. Canucks head coach Pat Quinn initiated the switch in response to the losses of centers Anatoli Semenov and Petr Nedved during the off-season.^[27] The Canucks repeated as Smythe Division champions that year, setting franchise records for wins and points with 46 and 101, respectively.^{[notes 1]} For the third straight season, Linden surpassed 30 goals and 70 points, finishing with totals of 33 goals and 72 points.^[16]

In the 1993–94 season, Linden scored 32 goals, the fifth time in six seasons he had scored at least 30, but his points total fell to 61 as the Canucks finished 12 points behind the division leader. Although they were the seventh seed in the playoffs, the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 12 years and second time in team history. Considered the underdogs against the first place New York Rangers captained by Mark Messier, the Canucks initially fell behind three games to one but pushed the series to seven games. In game seven, Linden scored twice (the next player to get two goals in a game seven was Alex Tanguay in 2001) but the Canucks lost, 3–2.^[29] Linden finished second on the team in playoff scoring, with 12 goals and 25 points.^[20] It was revealed afterwards that Linden had played through the finals with broken ribs and torn rib cartilage.^[30]

In the 1995–96 season, Linden had 33 goals, 47 assists and 80 points, the most he has ever collected in all three statistical categories.^[31] On February 27, 1996, he played in his 437th consecutive game, breaking the team record previously held by Don Lever.^[23] The following season marked the end of Linden's ironman streak; between October 4, 1990 and December 3, 1996, he appeared in 482 consecutive games, the longest in the league at the time.^[32] His team record was later broken in 2007 by Brendan Morrison.^[33] In his 49 games that season, he scored nine goals and 31 assists. At the conclusion of the season, the NHL recognized Linden's contributions to the Vancouver community and awarded him the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.^[32]

At the start of the 1997–98 season, the Canucks added free agent Mark Messier, a six-time Stanley Cup winner, and manager/coach Mike Keenan, who were, respectively, captain and coach, of the New York Rangers when they defeated Vancouver in the 1994 Stanley Cup finals. Keenan's hiring was as a result of Pat Quinn being dismissed as general manager, and Keenan also assumed the title of bench boss by firing head coach Tom Renney early in the season. According to some accounts, Linden initially gave up the team captaincy to Messier out of respect, but later regretted the move as he felt that Messier's invasion of the dressing room was hostile.^[34] Friction developed between Linden and Keenan early in the season.^[35] As the relationship worsened, Keenan claimed that it was evident that Linden would be traded.^[4] After a 5–1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Keenan openly blamed Linden for the loss, a moment Linden refers to as his "darkest time".^[36] Playing in 42 games with the Canucks before the February Olympic break, Linden had seven goals and 21 points.

New York, Montreal and Washington (1998–2001)[link]

Linden was traded to the New York Islanders on February 6, 1998, for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan McCabe, and the Islanders' third round choice (used to select Jarkko Ruutu) in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. After the conclusion of the Olympics, in which he participated, Linden joined the Islanders and played 25 games with the team. He scored 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points to finish the season, with a combined 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points in 67 games. The following year, his first full season in three years, Linden was second on the team with 47 points, and third with 18 goals; however, on May 29, 1999, the Islanders traded Linden to the Montreal Canadiens for a first round draft pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft (Branislav Mezei), for mostly financial reasons.^[37] The thrill of playing in Montreal, the "centre of hockey," was an exciting prospect to Linden after his time spent with the Islanders, where the arena was usually half-filled when he played there.^[38]

With Montreal, Linden was often injured, and only appeared in 50 games during his first season with the Canadiens, scoring 30 points, while the next year he appeared in 57 games, scoring 33 points. While with the Canadiens, he signed a four-year contract worth $15 million;^[1] however, he was traded for the third time in his career, this time to the Washington Capitals, going with Dainius Zubrus, and New Jersey's 2nd round choice in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft (later traded to Tampa Bay who picked Andreas Holmqvist) in exchange for Richard Zednik, Jan Bulis, and Washington's 1st round choice in the 2001 Draft (Alexander Perezhogin). With Washington, Linden reached the playoffs for the first time in four years, in the 2000–01 season.^[39]

Return to Vancouver (2001–2008)[link]

After 28 games, over two seasons, with the Capitals, Linden had scored only four goals and three assists. On November 10, 2001, the Capitals traded Linden with a second round draft pick in either 2002 or 2003 (Denis Grot) to the Canucks for their first round pick in 2002 (Boyd Gordon) and a third round pick in 2003. He scored 34 points with Vancouver in 64 games, which included his 1,000th regular season game on March 26, 2002, against the Los Angeles Kings.^[40] In his first playoff series with Vancouver in six years, he scored a goal and four assists in six games.

The 2002–03 season was Linden's first full season with the Canucks since 1996–97, though Linden sprained his knee in the season opener and had to miss two weeks.^[41] He returned in time to be honoured for his 1,000th career game, which he achieved the season before. As he did not want to distract the team from the playoff race, Linden asked for the ceremony to be delayed.^[42] On November 25, 2002, against the Minnesota Wild, Linden scored his 263rd goal with the Canucks, breaking former captain Stan Smyl's team record for most goals.^[43] He finished the year with 19 goals and 22 assists for 41 points, his highest goal total in seven seasons, and his highest points total since 1998–99.

The following season, Linden broke several more Canucks records. In a February 16, 2004, game against the Colorado Avalanche, he played in his 897th game as a Canuck, passing Smyl.^[45] On March 8, once again playing the Avalanche, Linden had two points, including his team-record 674th point with the Canucks, a mark also previously held by Smyl.^[1] For the first time in five years, he played in all 82 games, recording 36 points. After a year-long break from hockey during the 2004–05 NHL lockout, in which he actively participated in new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations, Linden again appeared in all 82 games during the 2005–06 season, scoring seven goals and 16 points. Linden became the first player to play 1,000 games with the Canucks on April 13, 2006, when they faced the San Jose Sharks.^[20]

In the 2006–07 season opener, on October 5, 2006, Linden scored the game winner against the Detroit Red Wings to become the first Canuck to score 300 goals with the team.^[46] After notching 25 points in 80 games, he helped the Canucks reach the second round of the playoffs. He scored two game-winning goals in the first round, including the series winning goal against the Dallas Stars in game seven of their first-round matchup, which was Linden's sixth game-seven goal of his playoff career.^[47] He finished the playoffs with a team-leading seven points in 12 games. This made Linden the Canucks' all-time leader in playoff goals (34), assists (61) and points (95).^[48]

Trevor Linden's number 16, along with Stan Smyl's number 12 and Markus Näslund's number 19, are the only three retired jersey numbers in Vancouver Canucks history.

After taking the summer to decide if he would return for another season, Linden signed a one-year contract with the Canucks in August 2007.^[48] The season was not ideal for Linden, who was a healthy scratch 23 times.^[49] In the 59 games he played, he scored seven goals and five assists, by far the lowest totals in his career. Against the Calgary Flames on November 8, 2007, he earned his 412th assist with the Canucks, surpassing Smyl, once again.^[50] He finished his career with 415 assists as a Canuck, which stood as the all-time mark until Henrik Sedin surpassed him on March 14, 2010.^[51] Linden played in the final game of his NHL career on April 5, 2008 against the Calgary Flames. Despite Vancouver losing 7-1, Linden was named the game's first star and skated a lap around GM Place to a standing ovation and received handshakes from the Calgary players.^[49]

On June 11, 2008, after 19 seasons in the NHL and 20 years to the day of being drafted into the NHL by the Canucks, Linden announced his retirement, leaving as the franchise leader in games played with the Canucks (1140) and assists (415, since surpassed by Henrik Sedin), and second in goals to later captain Markus Näslund.^[7] Shortly after, Vancouver City Council stated that they would honour Linden by declaring the date of his jersey retirement to be Trevor Linden Day in Vancouver.^[53]

The Canucks retired Linden's jersey number, 16, from circulation in a pre-game ceremony December 17, 2008, prior to playing the Edmonton Oilers.^[54] Linden became the second Canuck to have his jersey retired, joining former captain Stan Smyl, whose jersey number, 12, was retired in 1991.^[20] Earlier in the day, the Canucks changed the number of the entrance gate for players and VIPs from Gate 5 to Gate 16 in honour of Linden.^[54]

Off the ice[link]

Personal[link]

In 1995, Linden married Cristina Giusti,^[35] who is the owner of Basquiat, a Vancouver boutique.^[55] In 2004 Linden was baptized as a Roman Catholic.^[56] Linden's younger brother, Jamie Linden, also played ice hockey. After a lengthy junior career in the Western Hockey League (WHL), Jamie played four games with the Florida Panthers in the 1994–95 season, before finishing his hockey career in the minor leagues. Together with Trevor, Jamie is now a property developer, something they developed an interest in while growing up in Medicine Hat.^[9] Trevor had indicated that after his playing career was finished, he would like to become more involved in real estate.^[9][57] Linden is also an avid and competitive cyclist, frequenting the local Squamish and Whistler area to mountain bike, in addition to participating in various races.^[58] Most significantly, in the summer of 2007, Linden competed in the Trans Alp bike race, a 600 km race across the European Alps. Linden and racing teammate John Ramsden finished 48th out of the 122 competing two-man teams over the eight-day competition.^[59]

Linden being interviewed in Vancouver

Linden was involved in the creation and recent launch of Club 16 – Trevor Linden Fitness. Linden has also partnered with Vancouver developer Howard Airey, principal of Airey Development Group, to build two residential/commercial development projects. And recently, Linden has become spokesperson for ClearlyContacts.ca and has appeared on television commercials.

NHLPA President[link]

As a player representative to the NHL Players Association since 1990,^[60] Linden was responsible for being the contact between his teammates and the NHLPA.^[3] He saw the experience as a chance to be involved in the business side of the sport.^[60] In light of this service, Linden was elected President of the NHLPA in June 1998. Consequentially, Linden was actively involved in negotiations with Gary Bettman and the NHL on a new CBA that ended the 2004–05 lockout.^[5] This included a final meeting in January 2005 between Linden and Harley Hotchkiss, the chairman of the NHL Board of Governors, in an attempt to avoid losing the NHL season.^[3] Despite this meeting, a result was not found in time to keep the NHL from cancelling the 2004–05 season.

Attachment to Vancouver[link]

Linden's long tenure with the Canucks (Linden holds the franchise record for games played at 1140), deep attachment to the city of Vancouver and history of charitable community service and involvement have made him one of the most beloved and respected players among fans in franchise history.^[61] His 2001 return to the Canucks was an emotional event for fans and players alike, with Linden admitting that he was too excited to sleep the night before his first game back.^[1] He is still often referred to affectionately as 'Captain Canuck', despite not having captained the team since 1997.^[62] On April 5, 2008, the Canucks' final game of the 2007–08 season, the Vancouver crowd gave Linden a standing ovation before the start of the third period. Once the game ended, the crowd again rose to their feet in recognition of Linden.^[63]

Community involvement[link]

In addition to hockey, Linden has also undertaken a considerable amount of charitable work. Working primarily with children, he has made frequent appearances at the BC Children's Hospital and Canuck Place, a hospice for terminally ill children.^[64] In 1995, he inaugurated the Trevor Linden Foundation to raise money for local charities and also hosts an annual golfing event as a fundraiser for BC Children's Hospital.^[65] When he was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2003, the citation referred to him as a "hockey player and humanitarian".^[61] Linden has cited his brother, Dean, as being the inspiration for undertaking his charitable work, telling him to use his power as a hockey player.^[52]

A testament to his efforts off the ice in Vancouver, Linden has been a recipient of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy (1997) and the NHL Foundation Player Award (2008), honours awarded by the NHL to players for significant contributions in his community.

Linden took part in the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay when the flame was in Vancouver before the opening ceremony.^[66]

On December 30, 2010, it was announced that Linden was to be invested as a Member of the Order of Canada. He was cited "[f]or his ongoing sportsmanship and community engagement as a respected leader both on and off the ice."^[67]

International play[link]

Medal record
Competitor for Canada
Men's ice hockey
World Junior Championships
Gold	1988 Soviet Union	Ice hockey
World Championships
Silver	1991 Finland	Ice hockey
World Cup
Silver	1996 World Cup of Hockey	Ice hockey

Throughout his hockey career, Linden has appeared in five international tournaments for Team Canada. He first appeared on the world stage at the 1988 World Junior Championships, a tournament Canada won, where he scored one goal. His first senior international tournament was the 1991 World Championship, in which he contributed one goal and four assists in ten games as Canada won the silver medal. Linden was also invited to training camp for the 1991 Canada Cup roster, but was released early.^[68] In the 1996 World Cup, the successor to the Canada Cup, Linden helped Canada to a second place finish with a goal and an assist over eight games.

Two years later, Linden was selected as a member of Team Canada in the 1998 Nagano Olympics.^[69] Though he injured his knee only weeks before,^[70] he played in all six games, scoring one goal, a game-tying marker with 67 seconds left against the Czech Republic that sent the semi-final game to overtime.^[71] Canada finished fourth in the tournament.^[72] Later that summer, he participated in the 1998 World Championships. He scored one goal and four assists as Canada finished fifth.^[73]

Career statistics[link]

Regular season and playoffs[link]

International[link]

All-Star Games[link]

• All stats taken from NHL.com.^[74]

Awards[link]

Canadian honours[link]

NHL[link]

WHL and CHL[link]

Vancouver Canucks team awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trevor Linden

• Trevor Linden's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Trevor Linden's biography at Legends of Hockey
• Trevor Linden's NHL player profile

Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich, aged 49 (in 1951)
Born	Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-12-27)27 December 1901 Schöneberg, German Empire
Died	6 May 1992(1992-05-06) (aged 90) Paris, France
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Years active	1919–1984
Spouse	Rudolf Sieber (m. 1923–1976; his death)
Children	Maria Riva, born (1924-12-13) 13 December 1924 (age 87)
Relatives	John Michael Riva (grandson), born (1948-06-28) 28 June 1948 (age 63)
Website
http://www.marlene.com

Marlene Dietrich (German pronunciation: [maɐˈleːnə ˈdiːtʁɪç]; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)^[1] was a German-American actress and singer.

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as "Lola-Lola" in The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, brought her international fame and provided her a contract with Paramount Pictures in the US. Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express and Desire capitalised on her glamour and exotic looks, cementing her stardom and making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the era. Dietrich became a US citizen in 1939,^[2] and throughout World War II she was a high-profile frontline entertainer. Although she still made occasional films in the post-war years, Dietrich spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a successful show performer.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth-greatest female star of all time.

Childhood[link]

Situation of Marlene Dietrich's & Alfred Lion's Birthplace on the "Rote Insel"

Dietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 in Leberstrasse 65 on the Rote Insel in Schöneberg, now a district of Berlin, Germany. She was the younger of two daughters (her sister Elisabeth being a year older) of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine (née Felsing), who married in December 1898. Dietrich's mother was from a well-to-do Berlin family who owned a clockmaking firm and her father was a police lieutenant. Her father died in 1907.^[3] His best friend, Eduard von Losch, an aristocrat first lieutenant in the Grenadiers, courted Wilhelmina and eventually married her in 1916, but he died soon after as a result of injuries sustained during World War I.^[4] Eduard von Losch never officially adopted the Dietrich children, hence Dietrich's surname was never von Losch, as has sometimes been claimed. She was nicknamed "Lena" and "Lene" (pronounced Lay-neh) within the family. Around the age of 11, she contracted her two first names to form the then-novel name of "Marlene".

Dietrich attended the Auguste-Viktoria girls school from 1907 – 1917^[5] and graduated from the Viktoria-Suisen-Schule the following year.^[6] She studied the violin^[7] and became interested in theatre and poetry as a teenager. Her dreams of becoming a concert violinist were cut short when she injured her wrist,^[8] but by 1922 she was employed as a violinist in a pit band accompanying silent films at a cinema in Berlin – her first job, from which she was fired after only four weeks.^[9]

Early career[link]

Even at the start of her film career, Dietrich would often include masculine clothes in her wardrobe, giving herself an androgynous quality^[10]

Her earliest professional stage appearances were as a chorus girl on tour with Guido Thielscher's Girl-Kabarett, vaudeville-style entertainments, and in Rudolf Nelson revues in Berlin.^[11] In 1922, Dietrich auditioned unsuccessfully for theatrical director and impresario Max Reinhardt's drama academy;^[12] however, she soon found herself working in his theaters as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas, without attracting any special attention at first. She made her film debut playing a bit part in the 1922 film, So sind die Männer.^[13]

She met her future husband, Rudolf Sieber, on the set of another film made that year, Tragödie der Liebe. Dietrich and Sieber were married in a civil ceremony in Berlin on 17 May 1923^[14] Her only child, daughter Maria Elisabeth Sieber, was born on 13 December 1924.^[15]

Dietrich continued to work on stage and in film both in Berlin and Vienna throughout the 1920s. On stage, she had roles of varying importance in Frank Wedekind's Pandora's Box,^[16] William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew^[16] and A Midsummer Night's Dream^[17] as well as George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah^[18] and Misalliance.^[19] It was in musicals and revues, such as Broadway, Es Liegt in der Luft and Zwei Krawatten, however, that she attracted the most attention. By the late 1920s, Dietrich was also playing sizable parts on screen, including Café Elektric (1927), Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (1928) and Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen (1929).^{[citation needed]}

Film star[link]

[edit] Breakthrough in The Blue Angel

In 1929, Dietrich landed the breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer who causes the downfall of a hitherto respected schoolmaster, in UFA's production The Blue Angel (1930). The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, who thereafter took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich. The film is also noteworthy for having introduced Dietrich's signature song "Falling in Love Again", which Dietrich recorded for Electrola. She made further recordings in the 1930s for Polydor and Decca.

Paramount Pictures[link]

On the strength of The Blue Angel's international success, and with encouragement and promotion from von Sternberg, who was already established in Hollywood, Dietrich then moved to the U.S. on contract to Paramount Pictures. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to MGM's Swedish sensation, Greta Garbo.

A still from Shanghai Express (1932). Josef von Sternberg used butterfly lighting to enhance Dietrich's features. This photograph was cited by Mick Rock as the inspiration for the iconic Queen II album cover.

Dietrich starred in six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935: von Sternberg worked very effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous femme fatale. He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress – she, in turn, was willing to trust him and follow his sometimes imperious direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted.^[20]

Their first American collaboration, Morocco, again cast her as a cabaret singer; the film is best remembered for the sequence in which she performs a song dressed in a man's white tie and kisses another woman, both provocative for the era. The film earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination.

Morocco was followed by Dishonored (with Dietrich as a Mata Hari-like spy) and Blonde Venus. Shanghai Express was von Sternberg and Dietrich's biggest box office hit. Their last two films, The Scarlet Empress and The Devil Is a Woman — the most stylized of their collaborations — were their least commercial ventures. Dietrich later remarked that she was at her most beautiful in The Devil Is a Woman.

A crucial part of the overall effect was created by von Sternberg's exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect — the use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted blinds (as for example in Shanghai Express) — which, when combined with scrupulous attention to all aspects of set design and costumes, make this series of films among the most visually stylish in cinema history.^[21] Critics still vigorously debate how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased working together.^[22]

Dietrich's first film after the end of her partnership with von Sternberg was Frank Borzage's Desire (1936), a commercial success that gave Dietrich an opportunity to try her hand at romantic comedy. Her next project, I Loved a Soldier (1936) ended in a shambles when the film was scrapped several weeks into production due to script problems and disagreements between the star and her director.

Box Office Poison[link]

Extravagant offers lured Dietrich away from Paramount to make The Garden of Allah (1936) for independent producer David O. Selznick (she received $200,000) and to England for Alexander Korda's production, Knight Without Armour (1937) (at a salary of $450,000). Although she was now one of the best paid film stars, her vehicles were costly to produce and neither of the latter two films was financially successful. By this time, Dietrich ranked 126th at the box office and exhibitors labelled her "Box Office Poison" (alongside others like Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Dolores del Río, Mae West and Katharine Hepburn).

While she was in London, officials of the Nazi party approached Dietrich and offered her lucrative contracts, should she agree to return to Germany as a foremost film star in the Third Reich. She refused their offers and applied for US citizenship in 1937.

She returned to Paramount to make another romantic comedy, Angel (directed by Ernst Lubitsch): reception to the film was so lukewarm that Paramount bought out the remainder of Dietrich's contract. When film projects at other studios fell through, Dietrich and her family set sail for an extended holiday in Europe.

[edit] Comeback in Destry Rides Again

In 1939, she accepted producer Joe Pasternak's offer (and a pay cut) to play against type in her first film in two years: that of the cowboy saloon girl, Frenchie, in the light-hearted western Destry Rides Again, opposite James Stewart. The bawdy role revived her career and The Boys in the Back Room, a song she introduced in the film, became a hit when she recorded it for Decca. She played similar types in Seven Sinners (1940) and The Spoilers (1942), both opposite John Wayne.

While Dietrich arguably never fully regained her former screen glory, she continued performing in the movies, including appearances for such distinguished directors as Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, in films that included A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Rancho Notorious, Stage Fright and Touch of Evil.

World War II[link]

Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In interviews, Dietrich stated that she had been approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but had turned them down flat. Dietrich, a staunch anti-Nazi, became an American citizen in 1939.^[1]

Dietrich signing a soldier's cast (Belgium, 1944).

In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She toured the US from January 1942 to September 1943 (appearing before 250,000 troops on the Pacific Coast leg of her tour alone) and it is said that she sold more war bonds than any other star.^[23]

During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945,^[23] she performed for Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria, Italy, England and France and went into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometres of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand" — "out of decency".

Her revue, with future TV pioneer Danny Thomas as her opening act, included songs from her films, performances on her musical saw (a skill she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s), and a pretend "mindreading" act. Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds, and ask them to concentrate hard on thinking about whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to a soldier and earnestly tell him, "Oh, think of something else. I can't possibly talk about that!" American church papers reportedly published stories complaining about this part of Dietrich's act.^[23]

In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musac project,^[24] musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Dietrich, the only performer who was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including Lili Marleen, a favourite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.^[25] William Joseph Donovan, head of the OSS, wrote to Dietrich, "I am personally deeply grateful for your generosity in making these recordings for us.^[26]

At war's end in Europe, Dietrich reunited with her sister Elisabeth and her sister's husband and son. The family had resided in the German city of Belsen throughout the war years running a movie theatre for Nazi officers and officials who oversaw the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dietrich interceded with Allied officials on behalf of her relatives, sheltering them from possible prosecution as Nazi collaborators.^[27]

Dietrich was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the US in 1947. She said that this was her proudest accomplishment.^[24] She was also awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government as recognition for her wartime work.

Stage and cabaret[link]

Dietrich often performed parts of her show in top hat and tails. Caricature by Hans Georg Pfannmüller showing Dietrich during a cabaret performance in 1954.