:Veruschka von Lehndorff

Born into an old noble House of Lehndorff, Vera Gottliebe Anna Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, as the second of four daughters of Count Henrich von Lehndorff-Steinort and his wife, Countess Gottliebe Marianne Alexandrine Nancy von Kalnein (1913–1993). Her father was a German aristocrat and army reserve officer who became a key member of the German Resistance, after witnessing Jewish children being beaten and killed.

She is one of four sisters: Marie Eleanore Nona (b. 1937, d. 2018, married {{ill|Jan van Haeften|de|Jan van Haeften}} and later Wolf-Siegfried Wagner (b. 1943), son of Wieland Wagner and great-grandson of composer Richard Wagner); Gabriele (b. 1942, married Armin, Edler Herr und Freiherr von Plotho); and Katharina (b. 1944, married Henrik Kappelhoff-Wulff).

She grew up at Steinort, an estate in East Prussia, which had belonged to her family for centuries. When Veruschka was five years old, her father was executed for being involved in the attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in the 20 July Plot. After his death, the remaining family members were detained in labor camps until the end of World War II. Her family was left homeless by the end of the war and the annexation of East Prussia by the Soviet Union. As a young girl, she attended 13 schools.

File:FM-2019-1-6-5-22 Niggl-Radloff-B-Veruschka-ONLINE.jpg, 1960]]

She studied art in Hamburg and then moved to Florence, where she was discovered at age 20 by the photographer Ugo Mulas and became a full-time model. In Paris, she met Eileen Ford, head of the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency. In 1961 she moved to New York City, but soon returned to Munich. For some time she was with the Stewart Modeling Agency at 405 Park Avenue in New York, where she reigned as the girl with the most covers on the wall inside the agency's entrance. She had also garnered attention when she made a brief five-minute appearance in the 1966 cult film Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.

Veruschka appeared on the cover of Life magazine's August 1967 issue; and various times on all four major Vogue magazines' (American, Italian, French and British) covers throughout the 1960s.{{cite web|last1=Valenti|first1=Lauren|title=Happy Birthday, Veruschka! The '60s Supermodel's Best Beauty Looks of All Time|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/veruschka-60s-supermodel-best-beauty-looks-graphic-eyes-big-hair|website=Vogue|date=14 May 2018}} She once worked with Salvador Dalí and photographer Peter Beard, who took her to Kenya. At her peak, she earned as much as $10,000 a day. In 1975, however, she departed from the fashion industry due to disagreements with Grace Mirabella, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue. In a 1999 interview, Veruschka said of their disagreements, "She wanted me to be bourgeois, and I didn't want to be that. I didn't model for a long time after that."{{cite web |last=Belverio |first=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Belverio |title=Looking Back at my Interview with Veruschka |url=http://dianepernet.typepad.com/diane/2009/05/looking-back-at-my-interview-with-veruschka-by-glenn-belverio.html |website=A Shaded View on Fashion |date=18 May 2009 |access-date=10 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111214034526/http://dianepernet.typepad.com/diane/2009/05/looking-back-at-my-interview-with-veruschka-by-glenn-belverio.html |archive-date=14 December 2011 }}

In 1969, she attended the Woodstock festival.{{Cite web|url=https://celebspulse.com/woodstock-photos/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108190451/https://celebspulse.com/woodstock-photos/|archive-date=8 November 2018|title=43 Rare Woodstock Photos That Show Just How Crazy Woodstock Really Was – Page 11 of 45|first=Meghan J.|last=Barrett|date=2 October 2018|website=Celebs Pulse}}

Veruschka inspired the most prestigious photographers of her time, like Franco Rubartelli, Richard Avedon, Bert Stern, David Bailey, Steven Meisel, Francesco Scavullo, and Peter Beard, who took her to Kenya and for big designers like Tom Ford, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana and Ailanto.

Veruschka was a pioneer of body painting. In 1966 she appeared in a photoshoot wearing nothing but body paint. After she retired from modelling in 1975 she collaborated with the sculptor and painter Holger Trülzsch, using body painting to create a series of avant-garde nude self-portrait photographs.{{cite web|title=Veruschka|url=https://www.formidablemag.com/veruschka/|website=Formidable Mag|access-date=27 January 2022}}

She worked for the most important fashion houses, like YSL. Since 1990 she worked for Helmut Lang and Paco Rabanne.

She appeared as one of 28 women under the banner We've had abortions! (Wir haben abgetrieben! ) on the cover page of the West German magazine Stern on 6 June 1971. In that issue, 374 women publicly stated that they had had pregnancies terminated, which at that time was illegal.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/druckgut-stern-wir-haben-abgetrieben.html|title=Druckgut Stern 'Wir haben abgetrieben!'|website=Lebendiges Museum Online|language=de|trans-title=Print copy of Stern 'We've had abortions!'|access-date=27 May 2019}}

Occasionally Veruschka still appears on catwalks. She was a guest model in the Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2000 in Australia. In October 2010, at the age of 71, she modeled for Giles Deacon's showing for the fall run of London Fashion Week.{{cite web|url=http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-look/simply-chic-blog-post.aspx?post=56015863-2e97-451f-8c15-7bb2b67b61d0>1=32002|title="First Supermodel Walks Runway"|first=Kristin|last=Larson|website=Simply Chic|publisher=msn|date=7 October 2010|access-date=7 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010025858/http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-look/simply-chic-blog-post.aspx?post=56015863-2e97-451f-8c15-7bb2b67b61d0>1=32002|archive-date=10 October 2010|url-status=dead}} She appeared in the Resort 2018 lookbook for Acne Studios in 2017.{{cite web|url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/veruschka-acne-studios-resort|title=At 78, Veruschka Just Stole Resort Season as the Face of Acne Studios|first=Stephanie|last=Eckardt|work=W|date=8 June 2017 |access-date=8 June 2017}}

Veruschka provided vocals on several tracks on the 2010 album Mimikry by ANBB, a collaboration between Blixa Bargeld and Alva Noto.{{cite web|url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/ANBB-Mimikry|title=Tiny Mix Tapes Review of Mimikry by ANB|author=DNC|website=Tiny Mix Tapes|access-date=3 March 2011}}

• Blowup (1966) – Herself
• Veruschka: Poetry of a Woman (1971)
• Salomé (1972) – Myrrhina
• Evil Thoughts (1976) – Mario Manani's Lover
• Flesh Color (1978) – Anna
• {{ill|Milo Milo|de}} (1979) – Barbara
• Bizarre Styles (1981) – Prophet
• {{ill|Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press|de|Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse}} (1984) – Dorian Gray
• Vom Zusehen beim Sterben (1985) – Herself
• The Bride (1985) – Countess
• L'Orchestre rouge (1989) – Anna Maximovitch
• Veruschka – Die Inszenierung (m)eines Körpers (2005) – Herself
• Casino Royale (2006) – Gräfin von Wallenstein

{{reflist}}

• {{Fashionmodel|name=Veruschka}}
• {{IMDb name|0902610}}
• [http://www.veruschkaselfportraits.com/ Portraits of Veruschka]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111126055931/http://www.veruschka.net/ Veruschka.net] (archived)
• [https://www.aenigma-images.com/2015/09/veruschka-and-rubartelli/ Veruschka and Rubartelli] at [https://www.aenigma-images.com/ aenigma]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=DlYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 LIFE Magazine Aug. 18, 1967]

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Category:1939 births

Category:Living people

Category:Nobility from Königsberg

Category:Actors from Königsberg

Category:People from East Prussia

Category:Countesses in Germany

Category:German female models

Category:German film actresses

Category:The Lions (agency) models

Category:Royalty and nobility models

Category:Royalty and nobility actors

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