About the writer

This site is created by writer and playwright Bjorn-Erik Hanssen. My production consists of juvenile books as well as books for children, poetry and documentary novels, film scripts and theatre plays. My last book was  a biography about the boxer Ole Klemetsen, in the US known as "The Golden Viking". I also wrote the film script for the drama documentary "Big John", (2008) about Ole Klemetsen and his father and coach and the relationship between them. The film has got several rewards internationally.  "Glamour for Goebbels" (2014) is also a film project in process.

Aschehoug Publishing House says in the presentation of "Glamour for Goebbels":

Bjorn-Erik Hanssen has tried to answer many of the questions [linked to Heiberg's biography] in his book, and has made sensational discoveries.

History of the project

I have been working with this project since 2009, both as a book, film script and theatre monologue. The book is ready for presentation, the work with the film project continues. The theatre monologue will possibly be staged during 2015/16. In 2008 I saw Elsa Aanensen's theatre play  about Kirsten Heiberg at the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund. I started wondering if it was possible to be employed in the German film industry in the 1930s and 40s and still be opposed to nazism? Kirsten Heiberg claimed that she was. I started to investigate. The sources for "Glamour for Goebbels" are many: One is Kirsten Heiberg's own scrap book, mainly covering her Norwegian theatre career from 1929 until 1938. All her films are naturally also a part of the investigation, and so are the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the most important source to understand what happened in German film industry during his rule. Documents found in Bundesarchiv are also added here, so are for instance sound recordings from Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv. Important Norwegian sources are newspaper articles from Aftenposten (Oslo) and Adresseavisen (Trondheim). The clip below is from Aftenposten in May 1938, Kirsten and Franz are coming to Oslo from Berlin to get married.

Our users

There are many fans of Kirsten Heiberg, in many countries. I want to offer information about her real story and also of German film industry in the Nazi era. Our film fans can always come back here to have the real facts, instead of the many misconceptions that exist on the web.