Marlene Dietrich's early love letters sold in Hanover

The most expensive item under the hammer was a cloth-bound diary compiled from September 1920 until October 1921 and which sold for 3,500 marks to lawyer Christoph Guenther. Other items included eight love letters from the same period and a cigarette case. In one letter Marlene aged 20 pours out her heart to Hanoverian backer's son Willy Michel. His heirs found the missives earlier this year when clearing out a loft. Dietrich died in 1992.

"The first day without you was terrible," Marlene wrote to Willy from the boarding school in Weimar where she was learning music. Ardent admirer Guenther, who also bought one of Dietrich's love letters from 1921 for 1,800 marks, said he was convinced the items were genuine. "Both documents are written in blue ink, the colour of passion," said the lawyer. Marlene Dietrich, who is best remembered as the seductive vamp in "The Blue Angel", maintained a lifelong enthusiasm for writing letters and diaries, many of which are preserved for posterity at the Berlin Film Museum. In them she tells of the pain of parting with her one time lover Jean Gabin, experiencing the death of her husband Rudolf Sieber and of her loneliness.

(dpa)