Marlene Dietrich spent an extended period outside Germany from 1931 onwards, and during that time, the performer’s contact to her mother in Berlin was severed by the turmoil of war. However, employed by the American army between 1944 and July 1945 as an entertainer for US troops in Europe (including, briefly, Germany), Dietrich set about making efforts to track down her mother. Her initial request to enter Berlin in July 1945 was denied for security reasons, and so the re-union of mother and daughter would not take place for another two months, as Marlene returned to the USA.

Lucius D. Clay, who was promoted in 1947 from a deputy position to Military Governor of the American occupation zone of Germany, had offered to help Dietrich as soon as realistically possible and he stayed true to his word: American soldiers searched for and located Marlene’s mother in Berlin, so that it was at least possible for the two to establish a written correspondence. On August 6, 1945, Marlene wrote to her mother from the USA: “Up to 1939 Hitler sent messages to me that I should come back and when I refused they said that they had means to make me very unhappy. I knew that they meant you and I nearly went crazy with fear they would take it out on you. You must have had great courage all through those years.”

In September 1945 Marlene Dietrich travelled to Berlin for what proved to be both a long-awaited re-union and a final meeting with her mother. Josefine von Losch died two months later.