Biography

She performed with Heinz Sandberg in the Hamburg bars Faun and Trichter. In early 1944, the Gestapo investigated Sandberg for playing jazz and charged him. Friedländer was now supposed to do forced labor, but went into hiding after an Italian musician offered to hide her in Berlin. In the further course of 1944 she performed illegally in Berlin bars in the Latin Quarter such as Orangerie or Patria; among the audience was Goebbels adjutant Diether von Wedel, a jazz fan.

1946 recordings were made for Odeon, where she was accompanied (partly singing in English) by the Kurt Widmann Orchestra ("Bei mir bist du schön", "Rum and Coca-Cola"). She became known, among other things, as an interpreter of compositions by George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.

Two years before her death she recorded five titles with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk together with her husband at the piano.

After the end of the war she quickly found a connection with the Radio Berlin Tanzorchester and sang mainly swinging songs.

Friedländer's singing talent was particularly encouraged by her mother.