Lulu Ziegler

Karen Margrete Maria (Lulu) Ziegler (18 April 1903 – 14 November 1973) was a Danish actress, singer and theatre director who was active in both Denmark and Sweden. She gained fame as a cabaret singer in the 1930s, enchanting her audiences in her own expressive style. In 1942, after attracting anti-German support at her cabaret in central Copenhagen, she was forced to flee to Sweden where she continued her highly popular anti-Nazi performances in revues. After the war, she returned to Denmark where she was welcomed as a heroine. When her popularity waned in the 1950s, she returned to Sweden, performing in the cabaret restaurant Hamburger Börs. There she directed shows with performances including Lars Forssell's increasingly popular chansons. She later devoted her skills to theatre management, directing shows in Gothenburg and Odense where she staged the musical Cabaret in 1968. Early life and education Born on 18 April 1903 in Sorø, Margrete Maria Ziegler-Andersen was the daughter of the dentists Axel Johan Ziegler-Andersen (1875–1960) and Johanne Margrethe Veistrup (1873–1960). In October 1926, she married the representative Hugo Lorenz Jensen; the marriage was dissolved in 1936. In December 1936, she married the stage director Per Thor Brockdorff Knutzon (1897–1948). In September 1950, she married the Norwegian director Kristian Carsten Lindqvist. She had two children: Anne Jensen (1935) and Lars Knutzon (1941). Lulu Ziegler was raised in a comfortable middle-class environment in Sorø together with her younger sister Aase (1906–1975) who also became an actress. After matriculating from high school in 1921, she moved to Copenhagen where she began to study English and singing at the University of Copenhagen. She was nevertheless attracted by the stage, first performing in a student production in 1926. She gave up her university studies and in the late 1930s turned to acting, becoming a pupil of Svend Methling at Det Ny Teater. Career It was at Det Ny Teater that she made her debut in 1930 as Jenny in Bertolt Brecht's musical play Laser og pjalter. While on a visit to Berlin, she became a personal friend of Brecht. When he fled to Denmark from Nazi Germany in 1934, he lived for a period in her home. For a few seasons she was attached to the Betty Nansen Theatre but never made any real headway.