One of Germany’s most popular film stars of the Nazi and postwar eras was a suspected Soviet spy, according to newly declassified records.

Marika Rökk shot to fame in the 1930s when Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, decided Germany needed a movie icon to rival Hollywood leading ladies such as Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers.

But the star of the Third Reich’s film industry may in fact have been working for the KGB as part of a spy ring passing secrets to Moscow, according to declassified intelligence reports.

The Hungarian-born Rökk was banned from acting for two years after the Second World War for her association with the Nazi regime.