   hildegard frieda albertine knef (december 28, 1925february 1, 2002) was a german actress, singer, and writer. she was billed in some english language films as hildegard neff or hildegarde neff. ==early years== hildegard knef was born in ulm. her parents were hans theodor and friede augustine knef. her father, who was a decorated world war i veteran, died when she was only six months. then her mother moved to berlin and worked in a factory. knef began studying acting at the age of 14, in 1940. she left school when she was 17 to become an apprentice animator with universum film ag. after she had a successful screen test, she went to the state film school at babelsberg, berlin, where she studied acting, ballet and elocution. josef goebbels, who was hitler's propaganda minister, wrote to her and ask to meet her, but knef's friends wanted her to stay away from him. knef appeared in several films before the fall of the third reich, but most were released only afterward. during the battle of berlin, knef dressed as a soldier in order to stay with her lover ewald von demandowsky, and joined him in the defence of schmargendorf.beevor, a (2003) berlin: the downfall 1945, penguin books, p311 the soviets captured her and sent her to a prison camp. hildegard knef fan website. retrieved january 10, 2013 the prisoners of the jail where she was, helped her to escape in order she could come back to berlin. ewald von demandowsky was then killed. but before that, he helped knef to get protection from the well-known character actor viktor de kowa in berlin. de kowa gave her the opportunity to be a mistress of ceremonies in the theater that he had opened. knef also got a part in marcel pagnol's "marius," which was directed by boleslaw barlog. it was one of the germany's theater greats. de kowa also directed knef in plays by shakespeare, pagnol and george abbott. her two best known film roles were "susanne wallner" in wolfgang staudte's film die mÃ¶rder sind unter uns (the murderers are among us), produced in 1946 by the east german state film company, and the first film released after the 
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