Eva-Maria Hagen (1934-2022)

German actress Eva-Maria Hagen died last Tuesday, 16 August 2022, at 87. From 1957 to 1965 she appeared in some 50 films and TV productions and became known as 'East-Germany’s Brigitte Bardot'. Her daughter, the well-known singer Nina Hagen, and two of her grandchildren told the German newspaper Bild on Friday. It is not known how she died. Eva-Maria Hagen was also a well-known singer, painter and author.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1720, 1962. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Ludwig Schirmer.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 245/465, 1957. Photo: DEFA / Wenzel. Eva-Maria Hagen in Vergesst mir meine Traudel nicht/Don’t Forget My Traudel (Kurt Maetzig, 1957).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2249, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarzer.

Sexy blondes

Eva-Maria Hagen was born as Eva-Maria Buchholz in Költschen, Germany (now Kolczyn, Poland) in 1934. She grew up in Kremlin at the edge of Pommern until the age of ten.

After graduating from machine fitter training, she started to attend actor's training in East Berlin in 1952. Already a year later she played a leading part under the direction of the legendary Bertolt Brecht at the famous Berliner Ensemble Theater in the play 'Katzgraben' (Cat’s Grave) by Erwin Strittmatter.

A year later she married the author and screenplay writer Hans Oliva-Hagen, but they divorced in 1959. In 1955 their daughter Catherina was born, who would later become pop star Nina Hagen. In 1956 she continued her acting studies at the Fritz-Kirchoff-Akademie in West Berlin.

Eva-Maria Hagen began her film career in the heart-warming DEFA comedy Vergesst mir meine Traudel nicht/Don’t Forget My Traudel (Kurt Maetzig, 1957). According to IMDb reviewer Lillian Hartman, Hagen refreshingly played a silly but also very anxious girl who has no place in this world due to World War II.

In 1958 she obtained an engagement at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater in Berlin, and in the following years, Hagen became one of the most important actresses on the East-German theatre scene. Although she is dark-haired by nature she had to dye her hair blonde to play sexy blondes, which gave her the nickname ’Brigitte Bardot der DDR’ (Brigitte Bardot of the German Democratic Republic).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 106/632, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: DEFA-Neufeld.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 11851, 1957. Photo: Franz Radocay.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 11851 b, 1957. Photo: Franz Radocay.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 688, 1958. Photo: Kiesling.

Defamation of the State

From 1957 to 1965, Eva-Maria Hagen appeared in some 50 films and TV productions, like Nur eine Frau/Just A Woman (Carl Balhaus, 1958), the thriller For Eyes Only (János Veiczi, 1963), and the comedy Reise ins Ehebett/Journey in a Marriage Bed (Joachim Hasler, 1966) with Anna Prucnal.

She was a star guest at the Filmfestival in Karlovy Vary and other events. In 1965 she met songwriter and poet Wolf Biermann. The two became life partners from 1965 till 1972.

In 1966, Biermann got a 'berufsverbot' to play and publish by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). This also put Hagen in the line of fire of the GDR government. There was a lawsuit against her concerning ‘defamation of the state’.

Job opportunities got heavily restricted so that Hagen at times had to work for provincial theatres and she could only play small roles in films like Die Fahne von Kriwoj Rog/The Flag of Krivoy Rog (Kurt Maetzig, 1967) and Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul and Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973) with Angelica Domröse.

Furthermore, she was discriminated against and observed by the Stasi, the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic. In 1977, after she protested against Biermann's expulsion from the GDR in 1976, she was finally also stripped of her GDR citizenship. She was forced to emigrate with Nina and settled in Hamburg.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 957. Photo: DEFA / Pathenheimer. Eva-Maria Hagen and Wilfrid Ortmann in Ware für Katalonien/Goods for Catalonia (Richard Groschopp, 1959).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1454, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Kurt Mihatsch.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1668, 1962. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Harry Hirschfeld.

After the Fall of the Wall

In West Germany, Eva-Maria Hagen started a successful career interpreting songs by Wolf Biermann and Bertolt Brecht. Her debut album, 'Nicht Liebe Ohne die Liebe' (Not Without Love, 1979), was a collection of Russian and Gypsy folk songs translated into German by Wolf Biermann.

Biermann started to write songs for her which she released on the album 'Ich Leb' Mein Leben' (I Live My Life) in 1981. On 'Das mit den Männern und Den Frau'n' (That Thing Between Men and Women, 1985) and 'Michael, Michael' (1986) she continued the collaboration with Biermann.

After the fall of the wall in 1989, she was finally allowed to perform again in East Germany, like with Biermann at the Leipziger Messe.

She also played supporting roles in films like Gibbi - Westgermany (Christel Buschmann, 1980) with Eric Burdon, and Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht/Marble, Stone and Iron Break (Hans-Christof Stenzel, 1982), a biopic of tragic Schlager singer Drafi Deutscher.

At the time she lived together with director Matti Geschonneck, and later with pianist Siegfried Gerlich.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1.812, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Christa Benjack.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1.816, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Ludwig Schirmer.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2331, 1965. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Raddatz.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2511, 1965. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Kroiss. Frank Schöbel, Anna Prucnal and Eva-Maria Hagen in Reise ins Ehebett/Journey into the Nuptial Bed (Joachim Hasler, 1966).

Eva and the Wolf

Eva Maria Hagen regularly appeared on German TV, like in the popular adventure series 4 gegen Z/Four Against Z (2005-2007) starring Udo Kier. Together with her daughter Nina and her granddaughter Cosma Shiva, she appeared in the TV film Ein Mann für gewisse Sekunden/A Man For Certain Seconds (Bernhard Stephan, 1999).

Besides her theatre and film projects, as well as exhibitions of her paintings, she continued to release CDs: 'Wenn Ich Erstmal Losleg' (Once When I get Started, 1996) with new Biermann songs using Baltic folk material, and on occasion of Brecht's 100th birthday she released 'Joe, Mach die Musik von Damals Nach' (Joe, Play That Music from Then Again, 1997).

Her book 'Eva und der Wolf' (1998, Eva and Wolf) about her time together with Biermann was a big success in Germany. She was awarded the Carl Zuckmayr medal for her book. In 1999 she released another album with Biermann songs: 'Eva Singt Wolfslieder' (Eva Sings Wolf’s Songs). In 2006 she published another autobiographical book, 'Eva jenseits vom Paradies' (Eva Out of Paradise).

She returned in the cinema in Dinosaurier/Dinosaurs (Leander Haußmann, 2009) with Walter Giller and Nadja Tiller. This crime comedy was a remake of the film Lina Braake (Bernhard Sinkel, 1975) about an 81-year-old lady bank robber. Her last appearance on the big screen was in the international co-production Lore (Cate Shortland, 2012).

On 16 August 2022, Eva-Maria Hagen died in Hamburg at the age of 87. Besides her daughter Nina Hagen, her granddaughter Cosma Shiva Hagen is also active as an actress.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2601, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: S. Peters.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2730, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2925, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Melies.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3092, 1968. Photo: Schwarz / DEFA.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 63/76, 1976. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Bergemann.


Eva Maria Hagen and Nina Hagen sing two songs by Bertolt Brecht together, 'Eifersuchtsduett' (Duet of jealousy) and 'Alabama Song. It was their first duet in public. Source: gnapgnapgnap (YouTube).

Sources: Frank Eisenhuth (AllMusic), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.