Biography

Born on October 19, 1934, Eva-Maria Hagen started her stage career in 1953, still under Bertolt Brecht who was then boss of the world-famous Berliner Ensemble theater. When she started a relationship with the ostracized songwriter and poet Wolf Biermann in 1965, the GDR authorities started harassing her, leading to subsequent bans on her work as a performer and actress. In 1977, after protesting against Biermann's expulsion from the GDR the year before, Hagen was forced to relocate to West Germany herself and settled in Hamburg. From there she started a successful career interpreting songs by Wolf Biermann and Bertolt Brecht. Her debut album, Nicht Liebe Ohne die Liebe (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 in 1981. On Das mit den Männern und Den Frau'n (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. Besides many theater and film projects, as well as exhibitions of her paintings, she continued to release CDs: Wenn Ich Erstmal Losleg (1996) with new Biermann songs using Baltic folk material, and on the occasion of Brecht's 100th birthday she released Joe, Mach die Musik von Damals Nach (1997). Her book Eva und der Wolf (1998) about her time together with Biermann was a big success in Germany. In 1999 she released another album with Biermann songs: Eva Singt Wolfslieder. ~ Frank Eisenhuth, Rovi