Elfie (Elfriede) Fiegert (born 1946) is an

Afro-German Afro-Germans (german: Afrodeutsche) or Black Germans (german: schwarze Deutsche) are people of Sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or residents of Germany. Cities such as Hamburg and Frankfurt, which were formerly centres of occupatio ...

film actor who became famous as a child actor for playing the lead role in the film ''

Toxi ''Toxi'' is a 1952 West German drama film directed by Robert A. Stemmle and starring Elfie Fiegert, Paul Bildt and Johanna Hofer. The film's release came as the first wave of children born to black Allied servicemen and white German mothers en ...

'' (1952) filmed when she was five years old. This was followed in 1955 with the film '' The Dark Star'' which has erroneously been described as sequel. At the age of seventeen she had a small role in '' The House in Montevideo'' (1963).

Toxi

Elfie did not receive a credit for a role in ''Toxi''. She was described as playing herself. The publicity for the film suggested that the story of the film reflected Elfie's own origins, and she came to use the stage name Toxi. The name also Toxi became widely used as shorthand in the German media when referring to Afro-Germans and their social condition.

Later career

Reflecting upon Elfie's career as an example of racial stereotyping, Heide Fehrenbach suggests that whilst as a child actor, Elfie was typecast as a black child of the US occupation of Germany post 1945; the onset of puberty meant that she became exoticised, sexualised and geographically removed from Germany. In 1964, she married a Nigerian student in Munich who did not allow her to star in films. After they divorced, she resumed her acting career. She also appeared in documentaries on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. In 1986, it was reported she had remarried, living in

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

for the past 9 years and visiting Germany infrequently.

Filmography

* Toxi (1952) * ''Stars Over Colombo (1953)'' * '' The Dark Star'' (1955) * ''

Two Bavarians in the Harem ''Two Bavarians in the Harem'' (german: Zwei Bayern im Harem) is a 1957 West German comedy film directed by Joe Stöckel and starring Stöckel, Beppo Brem and Christiane Maybach. It was one of three sequels made to the 1956 hit '' Two Bavarian ...

'' (1957) * ''Our Nifty Aunts (1961)'' * ''The House in Montevideo (1963)'' * ''Our Nifty Aunts in the South Pacific (1963)'' * ''

Our Crazy Aunts in the South Seas ''Our Crazy Aunts in the South Seas'' (german: Unsere tollen Tanten in der Südsee) is a 1964 Austrian comedy film directed by Rolf Olsen and starring Gunther Philipp, Gus Backus, and Udo Jürgens. It was the final part in a trilogy of films tha ...

'' (1964) * Salto Mortale (1969) * ''NBC Experiment in Television'': ''Color Me German (1969)'' * '' Our Doctor is the Best (1969)'' * ''Half and Half: Mischlinge in Germany (1972)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiegert, Elfie 1946 births German people of African-American descent Living people