Bravo, 1981: Anni-Frid: With the help of Bravo, she found her father

Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad, the fourth of the SuperSwedes ABBA, has a very special connection to Bravo. Because thanks to Bravo, she found her father, a German officer who was considered to be missing when the war had ended and whom she had never seen yet up till then.
In 1977, Bravo reported about the ancestry of the ABBA star and in that context also mentioned the name of her father, Haase, who was believed to be dead. A couple of days later, family members of one Alfred Haase from Karlsruhe contacted Bravo and they said that he might very well be the father of the famous ABBA star.
A furhter investigation of the life of the then 58-year-old pastry baker Haase ruled out the last doubts: Anni-Frid had found her father again. In 1977, Frida met him for the first time in Stockholm. The meeting – set up by Bravo – was very cordial and both of them made contact with each other right away, although they had some language problems.
Anni-Frid was born on November 15, 1945 in a small village, not far from the Norwegian town Narvik. Her mother, Synni Lyngstad, had met the German officer Haase – who was stationed in Norway – in the last year of the war and they spent a summer in love with each other. The bitter end came when Alfred Haase had to withdraw to his home country with his battalion towards the end of the war. Although he promised that he would return, things remained silent. Intense research – started by Frida’s mother – led to the wrong conclusion that Alfred Haase was dead.
Anni-Frid’s mother was never able to cope with the loss of the man she loved. Two years later she died – lonely and abandoned – at the age of 21. Anni-Frid was taken into care by her grandmother.
The old lady knew very well that a child of a German soldier wasn’t very welcome in her home country at the time. That’s why she moved to Sweden with Anni-Frid where she made a living as a seamstress in the little town of Torshälla.

At the age of 13, Frida had her first musical experiences as a singer with a dance band. At the time, she had to disguise her true age, because otherwise she wouldn’t have been allowed to work.
Her second assignment led her to the – then very well-known – jazz band Bengt Sandlunds Big Band, where she met her first love, the bass player Ragnar Fredriksson. Shortly after that, Ragnar and Frida even started their own band which was called Anni-Frid Four. Privately, the couple was inseparable as well, they got married. Anni-Frid had two children, Hans (1963) and Liselotte (1967).
In the same year that Frida’s second child was born, she enjoyed her first musical success as well. With the song ‘A Day Off’ she won the talent competition New Faces that was organised every year in Sweden on the Day of the Child. After that, everything went quickly: recording sessions, promotional tours and tours with well-known Swedish singers.
In 1969, Frida’s turn in the direction of ABBA was finally established. At a concert in Malmö, she met Benny Andersson, who was on the road with the Hep Stars at that time. For Anni-Frid and Benny it was – as it is beautifully put – love at first sight. Only a few months after they had first met they started living together in Stockholm. In 1978, they got married in all secrecy.
But their happiness wouldn’t last for long. In the winter of 1980, Benny fell in love with another woman. Her name is Mona Nörklit and she is a production assistant at the Swedish broadcasting company. A long talk between Benny and Frida resulted in a decision that was a big schock to all fans and friends of ABBA: a divorce.
Six weeks later, Frida stated in an interview that she had found a new man. Allegedly, it’s Bertil Hijert (37), vice-president of a textile company in Uppsala, according to a British newspaper. Frida: “He has become a part of my life. Marriage is not important to me any longer, but I do need love.”