Doris Nefedov
Encyclopedia
Alexandra was the stage name of German
singer Doris Nefedov, maiden name Treitz (May 19, 1942 - July 31, 1969).
, Memelland (today: Šilutė
, Lithuania
). Due to Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII, her mother had to take her and her two elder sisters to the West. While the father wanted his daughters to aim for office jobs, the mother supported artistic aspirations, and the interest in foreign languages. At age 17, she left school in Kiel
to become a fashion designer and actor in Hamburg
, studying at Margot-Höpfner-Schauspielschule, working in several jobs to earn the money. At age 19, Doris Treitz took part in the Miss Germany
pageant, enjoying being in the spotlight while still living with her mother in a small cheap apartment in Hamburg's Rothenburgsort
. In order to pay the rent, they had to lease a room, to a Russian, Nikolai Nefedov, who was 49 years old and en route to emigration into the US. Doris fell in love, they married. After their boy Alexander ("Sascha") was born when she was 20, the couple got a divorce and Mr. Nefedov went to America alone.
As she did not consider her legal name Doris Nefedov as helpful for a career, she chose Alexandra instead, after her son. Before a concert of singer Salvatore Adamo
, the crowd booed other new female talents away, until Alexandra won them over with her rather melancholic style. Hans R. Beierlein, the well known German music manager of Udo Jürgens
, became her manager, friend and lover.
Alexandra's first hit single, "Zigeunerjunge" ("gypsy boy"), was released in 1967; several more releases followed, including, "Schwarze Balalaika" ("black balalaika
") and "Mein Freund, der Baum" ("my friend, the tree"). Most of the songs became no big hits, according to producer Fred Weyrich because they "were ahead of their time". She was forced to record a song not written by herself, "Sehnsucht" ("yearning") and vowed not to sing it again, yet it became a hit.
In her international career, she performed songs in several other languages besides German
as well, including French
, English
, Russian
and Hebrew
. In 1968, she performed in Rio de Janeiro, and spent a holiday there, meeting a new lover. In spring of 1969, she was awarded the "Golden Europa" award for best newcomer. Soon, she had to take a time-out in Davos due to the stress of her career which soon resumed after a move to Munich. She met Pierre Lafaire, and they intended to marry even though her sisters disagreed, suspecting fraud. They split up. Following phone calls, she sleeps in the same room with her son fearing that her son might get abducted, and writes her last will in favour of her son and mother.
, Alexandra drove her recently acquired Mercedes-Benz 220 SE Coupé
. With her were her son, Alexander, and her mother. On the way, she had the car checked in a work shop before she failed to brake for a crossing, colliding with a truck near the town of Tellingstedt
, Holstein
under unexplained circumstances. Alexander survived with minor injuries, while Alexandra was killed instantly and her mother dying in hospital. The car might have had problems, and there was some speculation that the accident was sabotage.
With 3000 persons attending, Alexandra was buried at Munich
's Westfriedhof, her tombstone is simply labelled "Alexandra".
A biography was published in 1999 by movie director Marc Boettcher; Boettcher received several anonymous threats while researching the circumstances of Alexandra's death, and announced that he would push for a new investigation of the circumstances of her death in 2004 after further research, citing former Stasi
documents that revealed that her lover Pierre Lafaire had been an American secret agent in Denmark as well as testimonies contradicting the documented results of the original investigation.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
singer Doris Nefedov, maiden name Treitz (May 19, 1942 - July 31, 1969).
Biography
Doris Treitz was born in HeydekrugŠilute
Šilutė is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar capital of Šilutė County and is currently the capital of Šilutė district municipality.-Name:...
, Memelland (today: Šilutė
Šilute
Šilutė is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar capital of Šilutė County and is currently the capital of Šilutė district municipality.-Name:...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
). Due to Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII, her mother had to take her and her two elder sisters to the West. While the father wanted his daughters to aim for office jobs, the mother supported artistic aspirations, and the interest in foreign languages. At age 17, she left school in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
to become a fashion designer and actor in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, studying at Margot-Höpfner-Schauspielschule, working in several jobs to earn the money. At age 19, Doris Treitz took part in the Miss Germany
Miss Germany
Miss Germany is a national beauty pageant for unmarried women in Germany. In 1927, the contest was held for the first time.In the past there were several organisations which claimed the title: In the 1920s already, German jurisdiction decided that the title Miss Germany could not be patented or...
pageant, enjoying being in the spotlight while still living with her mother in a small cheap apartment in Hamburg's Rothenburgsort
Rothenburgsort
Rothenburgsort is a quarter in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2006, the population was 8,660.-Geography:The quarter is situated in the south-east center of Hamburg...
. In order to pay the rent, they had to lease a room, to a Russian, Nikolai Nefedov, who was 49 years old and en route to emigration into the US. Doris fell in love, they married. After their boy Alexander ("Sascha") was born when she was 20, the couple got a divorce and Mr. Nefedov went to America alone.
As she did not consider her legal name Doris Nefedov as helpful for a career, she chose Alexandra instead, after her son. Before a concert of singer Salvatore Adamo
Salvatore Adamo
Salvatore, Knight Adamo, simply known as Adamo is a Belgian – Italian composer and singer of ballads, mainly in French, but also in other languages such as German, Italian and Spanish. He had commercial success during the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, but...
, the crowd booed other new female talents away, until Alexandra won them over with her rather melancholic style. Hans R. Beierlein, the well known German music manager of Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens
Udo Jürgens is an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spans over fifty years...
, became her manager, friend and lover.
Alexandra's first hit single, "Zigeunerjunge" ("gypsy boy"), was released in 1967; several more releases followed, including, "Schwarze Balalaika" ("black balalaika
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
") and "Mein Freund, der Baum" ("my friend, the tree"). Most of the songs became no big hits, according to producer Fred Weyrich because they "were ahead of their time". She was forced to record a song not written by herself, "Sehnsucht" ("yearning") and vowed not to sing it again, yet it became a hit.
In her international career, she performed songs in several other languages besides German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
as well, including French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. In 1968, she performed in Rio de Janeiro, and spent a holiday there, meeting a new lover. In spring of 1969, she was awarded the "Golden Europa" award for best newcomer. Soon, she had to take a time-out in Davos due to the stress of her career which soon resumed after a move to Munich. She met Pierre Lafaire, and they intended to marry even though her sisters disagreed, suspecting fraud. They split up. Following phone calls, she sleeps in the same room with her son fearing that her son might get abducted, and writes her last will in favour of her son and mother.
Death
On July 31, 1969 Alexandra traveled to Hamburg to negotiate with her record company. She took a car train. The same day, on her way to a holiday on SyltSylt
Sylt is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Frisia...
, Alexandra drove her recently acquired Mercedes-Benz 220 SE Coupé
Mercedes-Benz W128
The Mercedes-Benz W128 was a 6-cylinder automobile that was available in sedan, coupé, or cabriolet body styles and produced from October, 1958 to August, 1959...
. With her were her son, Alexander, and her mother. On the way, she had the car checked in a work shop before she failed to brake for a crossing, colliding with a truck near the town of Tellingstedt
Tellingstedt
Tellingstedt is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approx. 13 km east of Heide.Tellingstedt is part of the Amt Kirchspielslandgemeinde Eider....
, Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
under unexplained circumstances. Alexander survived with minor injuries, while Alexandra was killed instantly and her mother dying in hospital. The car might have had problems, and there was some speculation that the accident was sabotage.
With 3000 persons attending, Alexandra was buried at Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
's Westfriedhof, her tombstone is simply labelled "Alexandra".
A biography was published in 1999 by movie director Marc Boettcher; Boettcher received several anonymous threats while researching the circumstances of Alexandra's death, and announced that he would push for a new investigation of the circumstances of her death in 2004 after further research, citing former Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
documents that revealed that her lover Pierre Lafaire had been an American secret agent in Denmark as well as testimonies contradicting the documented results of the original investigation.
Songs (Selection)
- Erstes Morgenrot
- Zigeunerjunge (Tzigane)
- Sehnsucht (Das Lied der Taiga)
- Illusionen
- Grau zieht der Nebel (Tombe la Neige)
- Was ist das Ziel?
- Die anderen waren schuld
- Those were the daysThose Were the Days (song)"Those Were the Days" is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put English lyrics to the Russian song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" , written by Boris Fomin with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevskii. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic idealism...
- Ja lubljú tebjá
- Der Traum vom Fliegen
- Im sechsten Stock
- Accordéon (franz)
- Mein Freund der Baum
- Schwarze Balalaika
- Auf dem Wege nach Odessa
- Das Glück kam zu mir wie ein Traum
- Am großen Strom
- Kleine Anuschka
- Wenn die letzten lila Astern blühn
- Es war einmal ein Fischer
- Duscha, Duscha
- La taiga (franz)
- Was sind wir Menschen doch für Leute
- Schwarze Engel
External links
- "Official" website, supported by family members
- Literature by or about Doris Nefedov (Die Deutsche Bibliothek)