Sonja Ziemann and Marek Hłasko

For Germans Sonja Ziemann was “the great film star” and Marek Hłasko was only “her Polish husband”. For Poles he was “the great rebel author” and she was only “his German wife”. The best-known German/Polish couple in the post-war period had enough explosive material to keep the yellow press happy in both countries.

A film entitled “The Eighth Day of the Week” (Ósmy dzień tygodnia) was shot in Breslau in 1957, twelve years after the war. It was based on the eponymous short story by Marek Hłasko. The director was Aleksander Ford. The producer, Artur Brauner , came from Berlin. He was of Polish/Jewish origin from Łódź (Lemberg) and had been head of CCC-Film Productions in Berlin since 1946. His acting discovery, the woman who was to star in the film, was called Sonja Ziemann. Sonja Ziemann was fascinated by the role of “Agnieszka” (Agnes) and the scenario of the love story in the chaotic post-war period. At first she was somewhat sceptical but then she decided to travel to Breslau. Hłasko also showed up in Breslau. The restless writer wanted to keep a personal eye on how they were filming his book. Here the two met for the first time and fell in love. But Sonja Ziemann was unable to acknowledge this relationship to the general public because she was involved in divorce proceedings from a stocking manufacturer by the name of Rudolf Hambach. The two had a son, Pierre, and Sonja did not wish to risk losing custody of the child. By contrast, Marek Hłasko found consolation for his love sickness in the arms of other women. Six months later, in February 1958, Marek Hłasko flew to Paris on the invitation of the renowned Polish exile publisher in France, the Instytut Literacki (French: Institut Littéraire / Literature Institute). Here he wrote for the magazine “Kultura“, by far the most important monthly periodical of Polish literature and culture outside communist Poland. It appeared from 1947 to 2000. His short stories also appeared in Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Budapest. When Sonja Ziemann visited him in Paris the relationship grew deeper.

In 1958 “Kultura” published his short story “The Graveyard” (Cmentarze). The Paris publisher, Instytut Literacki, awarded him the prize for the best story by a Polish author. In “The Graveyard” Hłasko depicts life in a totalitarian system and shows insecure people who are fooled by propaganda. The communist government in Poland reacted quickly. The “Trybuna Ludu” (The People’s Tribune), the organ of the Communist Party of Poland, published a hostile article on Hłasko entitled “Primadonna jednego tygodnia?” (Primadonna for a Week?). This was the start of a whole series of propaganda articles against Marek Hłasko. The Polish writer had fallen out of favour with the communist powers in Poland. When his passport ran out and the Polish consulate in Berlin refused to renew it, Hłasko was given political asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany. 

His short story “The Eighth Day of the Week” was published by Kiepenheuer and Witsch in Cologne on 1st December 1958. In January 1959 Hłasko flew to Israel. A few months later Sonja Ziemann visited him in Tel Aviv. They wanted to marry but since Israel had no official wedding ceremony for Christians they married symbolically. Sonja Ziemann was in great demand as an actress. She worked round the clock and around the world. Marek Hłasko’s stories were also translated and published in Denmark, Holland, Finland, Spain, Germany and the USA. At the start of February 1961 Hłasko visited the set of a film being made by Sonja Ziemann in London: here they married on 20th February 1961. Officially they lived together in West Berlin in a villa belonging to her parents. Hłasko had his own workroom there but he continually fled into another world because of his excessive alcohol consumption. This did no harm to his popularity. In 1963 Kiepenhauer and Witsch published “Dirty Deeds”. In 1964 the Paris Instytut Literacki published “Everyone turned their Backs” (Wszyscy byli odwróceni). Marek Hłasko was now living alone in Switzerland, where he worked with the magazine “Weltwoche“. In 1965 Marek and Sonja spent a holiday together in Italy. Hłasko then demanded a divorce. After a short stop in Paris he flew to Hollywood in 1966 to meet a film producer. The meeting was arranged for him by Roman Polański. The differences of opinion between the writer and the producer made any further work on the film impossible. Nonetheless Marek Hłasko remained in California. His lifestyle was dissolute. In 1969 Sonja Ziemann and Marek Hłasko divorced. In the same year Hłasko flew to Tel Aviv once more. The German television channel, ZDF, was shooting a film based on his story “Everyone turned their Backs” (Wszyscy byli odwróceni) with Sonja Ziemann in the main role. In June 1969 he travelled to Wiesbaden to meet the ZDF editor, Hans Jürgen Bobermin, and sign another contract with ZDF. In the night of the 13th to 14th June 1969 Marek Hłasko died from an overdose of sleeping tablets in Bobermin’s house in Wiesbaden. He was 35 years old. His friends were convinced that his death could never have been suicide. No farewell letter could be found: on the other hand there were flight tickets to Israel and sketches for a new scenario.

Like Marek Hłasko himself, his literary characters were romantic rebels. To Hłasko’s generation they symbolised the disappointment and protest against the reality of communist life in Poland during the 1950s. Marek Hłasko had a sharp tongue and was able to describe precisely the atmosphere in the depths of society where hopelessness and cynicism reigned. His protagonists dreamt of change but these dreams were never fulfilled.

Sonja Ziemann was a successful film actress until the early 1990s. Today she lives in Munich. 

Brief biographies
 

Sonja Ziemann was born on 8th February 1926 in Eichwalde near Berlin. Her talent as a dancer and actress was recognised as an early age. At the age of 10 she began taking ballet lessons and three years later she was accepted into the dance school run by Tatjana Gsovsky. Later she attended the Ufa drama school in Berlin. She made her stage debut in 1941. In the same year she stood before the camera for the first time. Sonja Ziemann appeared in over 80 films.

Marek Hłasko was born in Warsaw on the 14th January 1934. He lived with his mother in Warsaw until 1944. After the repression of the Warsaw uprising and the complete destruction of Warsaw the family moved to Częstochowa, and later moved on to Breslau. Hłasko finished school here and in 1949 started a course in stage management in Warsaw, that he later broke off. He kept his head above water with odd jobs until he was able to earn enough money from writing. His literary debut“Baza Sokołowska” (The Service Area in Sokołowska Street) appeared in 1954. His most important works include “The Eighth Day of the Week” (Ósmy dzień tygdonia), “Next Stop Paradise” (Następny do raju), “Everyone turned their Backs” (Wszyscy byli odwróceni), “Dirty Deeds” (Brudne czyny), and “The Beautiful Girls in their Twenties” (Piękni dwudziestoletni). Marek Hłasko died on 14th June 1969 in Wiesbaden. He was buried in the Powązki cemetery in Warsaw.

 

Adam Gusowski, March 2016

Sonja Ziemann - Filmography

1941: Ein Windstoß

1943: Die Jungfern vom Bischofsberg

1943: Geliebter Schatz

1944: Eine kleine Sommermelodie

1944: Hundstage

1945: Freunde

1945/47: Liebe nach Noten

1946: Allez Hopp

1946: Sag’ die Wahrheit

1947: Spuk im Schloss

1947: Herzkönig

1948: Danke, es geht mir gut

1948: Wege im Zwielicht

1949: Nichts als Zufälle

1949: Vier junge Detektive

1949: Nächte am Nil

1949: Um eine Nasenlänge

1949: Nach Regen scheint Sonne

1950: Eine Nacht im Separee

1950: Maharadscha wider Willen

1950: Schwarzwaldmädel

1950: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor

1951: Schön muss man sein

1951: Die Frauen des Herrn S.

1951: Johannes and die 13 Schönheitsköniginnen

1951: Grün ist die Heide

1952: Die Diebin von Bagdad

1952: Alle kann ich nicht heiraten

1952: Muss das sein, Fräulein (Made in Heaven)

1952: Am Brunnen vor dem Tore

1953: Hollandmädel

1953: Christina

1953: Mit siebzehn beginnt das Leben

1953: Die Privatsekretärin

1954: Bei Dir war es immer so schön

1954: Meine Schwester and ich

1954: Die sieben Kleider der Katrin

1954: Große Starparade

1954: Der Zarewitsch

1955: Liebe ohne Illusion

1955: Ich war ein hässliches Mädchen

1955: Mädchen ohne Grenzen

1956: Das Bad auf der Tenne

1956: Dany, bitte schreiben Sie

1956: Opernball

1956: Kaiserball

1956: Nichts als Ärger mit der Liebe

1957: Frühling in Berlin

1957: Die große Sünde

1957: Frauenarzt Dr. Bertram

1957: Die Zürcher Verlobung

1958: Heimweh, Stacheldraht and gute Kameraden (Gli italiani sono matti)

1958: Tabarin

1958: Der achte Wochentag

1958: Die Beklagte (TV)

1958: Texasmädel (Sérénade aus Texas)

1958: Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben

1959: Liebe auf krummen Beinen

1959: Menschen im Hotel

1959: Abschied von den Wolken

1959: Strafbataillon 999

1959: Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen

1960: Affäre Nabob

1960: Geheime Wege (The Secret Ways)

1961: Denn das Weib ist schwach

1961: Verpfiffen

1961: Der Traum von Lieschen Müller

1961: Ihr schönster Tag

1962: Journey into nowhere

1962: Axel Munthe – Der Arzt von San Michele

1964: Frühstück mit dem Tod

1965: 2 x 2 im Himmelbett

1965: Madeleine and Manouche (TV)

1965: Das Leben des Horace A. W. Tabor (TV)

1967: Josephine (TV)

1967: Liebesgeschichten (TV series, one episode)

1969: Die Brücke von Remagen (The Bridge at Remagen)

1969: Das ausschweifende Leben des Marquis de Sade (De Sade)

1970: Alle hatten sich abgewandt (TV)

1970: Fröhliche Weihnachten (TV)

1971: Das Messer

1973: Der Kommissar (TV series, one episode)

1977: Das Biest (TV)

1996: Guten Morgen, Mallorca (TV series, one episode)

1997: Park Hotel Stern (TV series, two episodes)

2011: Germaine Damar – Der tanzende Stern (Documentary)

Marek Hłasko - Bibliography

Pierwszy krok w chmurach (The First Step in the Clouds), Warsaw, Czytelnik 1956

Cmentarze (The Graveyard)

Następny do raju (Next Stop Paradise), Paris, Instytut Literacki 1958

Opowiadania (Short Stories), Paris, Instytut Literacki 1963

Wszyscy byli odwróceni (Everyone Turned Their Backs); Brudne czyny (Dirty Deeds), Paris, Instytut Literacki 1964

Nawrócony w Jaffie; (Converted in Jaffa) London, Polska Fundacja Kulturalna 1966

Piękni dwudziestoletni (The Beautiful Twenty-Year Olds), Paris, Instytut Literacki 1966

Sowa, córka piekarza (no English translation.) Paris, Księgarnia Polska 1968

Opowiadania (Short Stories), Warsaw, Czytelnik 1976

Utwory wybrane (Selected Works), Kraków / Krakow, Wydawnictwo ABC; KOS 1980-1981

Namiętności (no English translation) Kraków / Krakow, Wydawnictwo Literackie 1982

Utwory wybrane (Selected Works), Warsaw, Czytelnik 1985

Palcie ryż każdego dnia (The Rice burns Every Day), Warsaw, PIW 1983

Dzieła zebrane (Collected Works), Warsaw, Da Capo 1993-1994

Listy Marka Hłaski (The letters of Marek Hłasko), Warsaw, Oficyna Ypsylon 1994

Film versions
 

Koniec nocy (The End of the Night), 1956, R: J. Dziedzina

Ósmy dzień tygodnia (The Eighth Day of the Week), 1957, R: A. Ford

Pętla (The Noose), 1958, R: W. J. Has

Baza ludzi umarłych (no English version) 1958, R: C. Petelski

Sonata marymoncka (no English version) 1987, R: J. Ridan

Śliczna dziewczyna (no English version) 1993, R: D. Pawłowicz

Isprani (no English version) 1995, R: Z. Ogresta

Niebo nad fabryką (no English version) 2001, R: P. Porczyński