Miss Germany

For other Miss Germany, see Miss Universe Germany.

Janice Behrendt in Miss World 2007, Sanya, China

Miss Germany is a national beauty pageant for unmarried women in Germany. In 1927, the contest was held for the first time.

In the past there were several organisations which claimed the title: In the 1920s already, German jurisdiction decided that the title Miss Germany could not be patented or registered, thus everybody was allowed to run a contest and name the winner Miss Germany. A similar decision followed in 1982. This resulted in having two titleholders in some years (as in 1928, 1931, 1953 and 1982), elected by different associations. In 1953, the new organiser and main sponsor of the pageant, the Opal stocking industries, acquired the international franchises for Miss Europe, Miss World, and Miss Universe and built up a kind of monopoly: Other promoters could not delegate their winners to international competitions, thus such rival contests became unattractive. The election of Heidi Krüger by the daily newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost remained an exception for many years.

After the bankruptcy of the Opal company, a period of decline followed. There were no financially strong sponsors. Members of the Revolution of 1968 and feminists mobilized against the "meat-inspects". Public interest diminished. Influential organisers became not active before the end of the 1970s. The international franchises held by Opal became vacant. In 1979, Miss Germany was elected live in the German television for the first time. In 1982, the first rival contest was held again after a long interval.

Since 1985, at least two organisations run rival pageants:

• The MGC (Miss Germany Corporation, Oldenburg) of Horst Klemmer, compère in preliminaries and finals of the 1960s, together with his son Ralf, send their winners to the Miss World and Queen of the World pageants. After an unsuccessful lawsuit of event-manager Erich Reindl in 1982, neither MGC nor another promoter can claim protection of the title. Not before 1999, MGC succeed in having registered Miss Germany as a trade mark at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market in Alicante (Spain), and secure the exclusive rights. From 2000 on, other organisers have to pick up other titles – not only for the pageants, but also for their companies‘ names. In addition to Miss Germany, MGC temporarily held also Miss World Germany, German Miss World, Queen of Germany, and Beauty Queen of Germany. Moreover, there are contests for Misses Germany and Mister Germany. In 2010, it acquired the Miss Earth license -where the Miss Germany winner will take part.
• The Miss Germany Company holds beauty pageants from 1985 to 1991: Miss Europe 1991 – Susanne Petry – came there. Not much is known about this company, besides the names of their winners. The company possibly is a predecessor of MGA.
• In 1991, the MGA (Miss Germany Association, Bergheim near Cologne) of Detlef Tursies run a Miss Germany pageant for the first time. The winners participate in Miss Universe, Miss International, Miss Europe, and Miss Intercontinental. In 1999, MGA transforms into MGO (Miss Germany Organisation). From 2000, they award the title Miss Deutschland, and change their name again: MGO - Komitee Miss Deutschland. Furthermore, they hold the international franchises as mentioned above.
• A short time before the title gains exclusivity, the situation becomes most unclear: In 1999, a third Miss Germany appears – Yvonne Wölke from Berlin. In autumn of 1999, two other organisations chose their titleholders for the year 2000 – Model of Germany Productions in Mainz-Kastel (= Miss Germany No. 4), and the MGF (Miss Germany Foundation, Barby) in Magdeburg, who awards the title Miss Millennium Deutschland (from 2001, Princess of Germany).

Winners

During the National Socialist era there were held no beauty contests. The Nazi government prohibited them as a "Jewish-Bolshevik decadence", and instead of them publicised the election of (local) Harvest, Bloom, and Wine Queens. The government forbade Charlotte Hartmann the participation in the Miss Europe contest in Paris, France. She had been elected Miss Germany a few days before the beginning of the Nazi rule, and secretly took part in the pageant, nevertheless. In substitution, the Saar Territory which was governed by the League of Nations chose a Miss, which was allowed to travel to international competitions.

In the GDR, beauty pageants were also forbidden as "degradation and exploitation of the woman by capitalism". Nevertheless, in the Eastern part of Berlin there were held some contests, camouflaged as culture-evenings, in the second half of the 1980s. The winners received a cake and a bouquet as a prize. In 1990, the MGC (see above) held the only official election for Miss DDR. The winner, Leticia Koffke, became the first all-German Miss Germany a few months later.

In some years, no national contests were held: The German delegates for international pageants were hand-picked out of the regional winners, without a final. So it happened from 1972 to 1978. In 1971, the term of Irene Neumann was even extended for another year.

Prior to World War II

Year	Name	Site of election
1927 :	Hildegard Quandt	Berlin
1928 :	Hella Hoffmann	Berlin
1928 :	Margarete Grow	Berlin
1929 :	Elisabeth Rodzyn	Berlin
1930 :	Dorit Nitykowski	Berlin
1931 :	Ruth Ingrid Richard	Berlin
1931 :	Daisy d’Ora	Berlin
1932 :	Liselotte de Booy-Schulze	Berlin
1933 :	Charlotte Hartmann	Berlin

Notes: Daisy d’Ora was a pseudonym. The real name of the 1931 winner was Daisy, Baronesse von Freyberg. – In 1935, Elisabeth Pitz from Saarbrücken participated in the Miss Europe Pageant in Paris as last German delegate before World War II. But she was not Miss Germany.

1949 to 1984

Year	Name	Qualified as	Site of election
1949 :	Inge Löwenstein	Miss Stuttgart	Bad Homburg
1950 :	Susanne Erichsen	Miss Schleswig-Holstein	Baden-Baden
1951 :	Vera Marks	?	Baden-Baden
1952 :	Renate Hoy	?	Baden-Baden
1953 :	Christel Schaack	?	Wiesbaden
1953/54 :	Heidi Krüger	?	Hamburg
1954 :	Regina Ernst	Miss Bremen	Baden-Baden
1955 :	Margit Nünke	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Baden-Baden
1956 :	Marina Orschel	Miss Berlin	Baden-Baden
1957 :	Gerti Daub	Miss Hamburg	Baden-Baden
1958 :	Marlies Behrens	Miss Bayern	Baden-Baden
1959 :	Carmela Künzel	Miss Berlin	Baden-Baden
1960 :	Ingrun Helgard Moeckel	Miss Rheinland	Baden-Baden
1961 :	Marlene Schmidt	Miss Baden-Württemberg	Baden-Baden
1962 :	Gisela Karschuck	Miss Hessen	Travemünde
1963 :	Helga Carla Ziesemer	Miss Bayern	Travemünde
1964 :	Martina Kettler	Miss Berlin	Berlin
1965 :	Ingrid Bethke	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Berlin
1966 :	Marion Heinrich	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Berlin
1967 :	Fee von Zitzewitz	Miss Schleswig-Holstein	Berlin
1968 :	Lilian Atterer	Miss Bayern	Munich
1969 :	Gesine Froese	Miss Bayern	Munich
1970 :	Irene Neumann	?	San Juan (Puerto Rico)
1971 :	Irene Neumann	—	term extended without election
1972 :	Heidi Weber	Miss Bayern	appointed without election
1973 :	Ingeborg Martin	?	Munich
1974 :	Monja Bageritz	Miss Rheinland	appointed without election
1975	Marina Langner	?	appointed without election
1976 :	Monika Schneeweis	?	Baden-Baden
1977 :	Dagmar Winkler	Miss Bayern	Baden-Baden
1978 :	Monika Greis	Miss Süddeutschland	appointed without election
1979 :	Andrea Hontschik	Miss Berlin	Bremen, Studio Radio Bremen (1)
1980 :	Gabriella Brum	Miss Berlin	Berlin
1981 :	Marion Kurz	Miss Bayern	Munich
1982 :	Kerstin Paeserack	Miss Niedersachsen	Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
1982 :	Monika Baier	?	Nuremberg
1983 :	Loana Radecki	Miss Berlin	Badgastein (Austria)
1984 :	Brigitte Berx	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Bad Mondorf (Luxembourg)

Note: (1) In 1979, the Miss Germany election was broadcasted live in the German TV for the first time.

From 1985 : MGC - Miss Germany Corporation GmbH (Oldenburg)

Year	Name	Qualified as	Site of election
1985/86 :	Patricia Patek	Miss Hessen	Wangerooge
1986/87 :	Anja Hörnich	Miss Saarland	Oberstdorf
1987/88 :	Susann Stoss	Miss Rheinland-Pfalz	Bonn - Bad Godesberg
1988/89 :	Nicole Reinhardt	Miss Baden-Württemberg	Cologne
1989/90 :	Claudia Weins	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Schwäbisch-Gmünd
1990/91 :	Leticia Koffke	Miss Brandenburg	Wesseling (near Cologne)
1991/92 :	Ines Kuba	Miss Berlin	Oldenburg
1992/93 :	Astrid Kuhlmann	Miss Bayern	Berlin
1993/94 :	Cornelia Oehlmann	Miss Baden-Württemberg	Hanover
1994/95 :	Beate Almer	Miss Bayern	Cologne
1996 :	Yasemine Mansoor	Miss Berlin	Berlin
1997 :	Sabrina Paradies	Miss Norddeutschland	Berlin
1998 :	Michalina Koscielniak	Miss LR-Kosmetik	Berlin
1999 :	Alexandra Phillips	Miss Süddeutschland	Berlin
2000 :	Sandra Hoffmann	Miss Mitteldeutschland	Berlin
2001 :	Mirjana Bogojevic	Miss Hamburg	Berlin
2002 :	Katrin Wrobel	Miss Berlin	Berlin
2003 :	Babett Konau	Miss Schleswig-Holstein	Rust (near Freiburg)
2004 :	Claudia Hein	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Rust (near Freiburg)
2005 :	Antonia Schmitz	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Rust (near Freiburg)
2006 :	Isabelle Knispel	Miss Berlin	Rust (near Freiburg)
2007 :	Nelly Marie Bojahr	Miss T-Online	Rust (near Freiburg)

1985-1991 : Miss Germany Company

Year	Name	Qualified as
1985 :	Anke Symkowitz	Miss Baden-Württemberg
1986 :	Birgit Jahn	Miss Bayern
1986/87 :	Dagmar Schulz	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen
1987/88 :	Christiane Kopp	Miss Berlin
1988/89 :	Andrea Stelzer	Miss Bayern
1989/90 :	Christiane Stöcker	Miss Hessen
1990/91 :	Susanne Petry	Miss Saarland
1991/92 :	Monika Resch	Miss Thüringen

1991-1999 : MGA - Miss Germany Association GmbH (Bergheim near Cologne)

Year	Name	Qualified as	Site of election
1991 :	Petra Hack	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	?
1992 :	Meike Schwarz	Miss Saarland	?
1993 :	Verona Feldbusch	Miss Hamburg	Bremen
1994 :	Tanja Wild	Miss Baden-Württemberg	?
1995 :	Ilka Endres	Miss Rheinland-Pfalz	?
1996 :	Miriam Ruppert	Miss Arabella TV	?
1997 :	Nadine Schmidt	Miss Rheinland-Pfalz	?
1998 :	Katharina Mainka	Miss Rheinland-Pfalz	Trier
1999 :	Diana Drubig	Miss Sachsen	Trier

1999/2000 : other organisers

Year	Name	Site of election	Company
1999 :	Yvonne Wölke	Berlin	Rolf Eden
2000 :	Sonja Strobl	Mainz-Kastel	Model of Germany Productions

Notes: Yvonne Wölke became Miss Berlin and participated in Miss Deutschland in 2002. – The pageant and the title of Model of Germany Productions later had to be renamed Model of Germany.

Pageants with other names

From the following competitions, certainly, only Miss Deutschland is of importance. In the inland it does not have the same prestige as Miss Germany, but compensates this, as the election always takes place (and is announced in the media) some weeks before. One can estimate the international presence of the organization by the four assigned titles for 2006.

For the other contests there are no complete data available. Also it is not always known whether they still exist. They are only shown here in order to obtain an impression how unclear the situation still is, although there is only one Miss Germany since 2000.

Miss Deutschland from 2000 : MGO - Komitee Miss Deutschland (Bergheim near Cologne)

Year	Name	Qualified as	Site of election
2000 :	Sabrina Schepmann	Miss Ostdeutschland	Kaiserslautern
2001 :	Claudia Bechstein	Miss Thüringen	Kaiserslautern
2002 :	Natascha Börger	Miss Hamburg	Kaiserslautern
2003 :	Alexandra Vodjanikova	Miss Bayern	Bielefeld
2004 :	Shermine Shahrivar [Sharivar]	Miss Süddeutschland	Duisburg
2005 :	Asli Bayram	Miss Nordrhein-Westfalen	Aachen
2006:	Daniela Domröse	Miss Bayern	Krefeld
2007 :	Svetlana Tsys	Miss Ostdeutschland	Hurghada (Egypt)

Model of Germany from 2000 : Model of Germany Productions (Stuttgart)

Year	Name	Qualified as	Site of election
2000 :	Sonja Strobl	Saarland Model	Mainz-Kastel
2001 :	Slata Hellmann	Thüringen Model	?
2002 :	Pamela Schneider	Berlin Model	?
2003 :	Kristin Wünsche	Mitteldeutschland Model	?
2004 :	pageant not held
2005	Yvonne Maier	Baden-Württemberg Model	?

Note: The first pageant was held in the end of 1999 under the title of Miss Germany, but later had to be renamed.

Miss World Germany: MGC

Year	Name
1992 :	Carina Jope
1993 :	Petra Klein
1994 :	Marte Helberg
1995 :	Isabell Brauer
1996 :	Melanie Ernst
1997 :	Katja Glawe
1998 :	Sandra Ahrabian
1999 :	Susan Hoecke

German Miss World: MGC

Year	Name
2000/01 :	Natascha Berg
2001/02 :	Adina Wilhelmi

Beauty Queen of Germany: MGC

Year	Name
2000 :	Agnes Glowacki

Beauty-Queen of Germany: BQOG-Management

Year	Name
2004/05 :	Nadine Trompka

Queen of Germany: MGC

Year	Name
1999 :	Julienne Grötsch
2000 :	pageant not held
2001 :	?
2002 :	Claudia Grohmann
2003 :	Melanie Eder
2004 :	Ann-Cathrin Schmidt

Queen of Germany: QGE - Queen of Germany Entertainment (Neuhardenberg, near Frankfurt/Oder)

Year	Name
2000 :	Yvetta Leogrande
2001-04 :	?
2005 :	Stephanie Schießl
2006 :	Alis Scharkoi

Miss Millennium Deutschland: MGF - Miss Germany Foundation (Barby, Sachsen-Anhalt)

Year	Name
2000 :	Nadin Becker

Princess of Germany: Princess Entertainment & Media Group (Barby, Sachsen-Anhalt)

Year	Name
2001 :	Mirjana Bogojevic
2002 :	Nicole Kratochvil
2003 :	Katrin Reimann ?
2004 :	Josephina Balasus

Princess Entertainment is successor of MGF (renamed because the title Miss Germany must not be used any longer). – The pageants concentrate on the new (eastern) lands of the Federal Republic.

Note: Mirjana Bogojevic had been elected also as Miss Germany of MGC in 2001.

Top Model of Germany: MGA/MGO Komitee Miss Deutschland (Bergheim near Cologne)

Year	Name
1993-99 :	?
2000 :	Heike Schmidt

Top Model of Germany: Yet-Set Corporation (Cologne)

Year	Name
2001 :	Daniela Dürr
2002-04 :	?
2005 :	Sarah Zöllner

This pageant was promoted by MGA and MGO from 1993 to 2000. In 2001, Yet-Set Corporation in Cologne claims title protection (Titelschutz) according to German law (§ 5 Abs. 3 MarkenG).

Miss Allemagne: Yet-Set Corporation (Cologne)

For this pageant Yet-Set Corporation in Cologne also claims title protection in 2001. For winners' names there are contradictory information: In 2001, both Jennifer Dietrich and Eileen Bali are named. In 2003, the pageant happened in Kiel (winner unknown). It seems to have been the last edition.

Miss pageants in the GDR

Miss DDR and predecessors (1986-1988 private events, 1990 MGC)

Year	Name	Site of election	Title
1986 :	Katrin Gawenda	Berlin	Miss Frühling (Miss Spring)
1987 :	Cornelia Franzke	Berlin	Miss Frühling (Miss Spring)
1988 :	Gabi Kirmihs	Berlin	Miss Sommer (Miss Summer)
1990 :	Leticia Koffke	Schwerin	Miss DDR (Miss GDR)

Note: Leticia Koffke later became Miss Germany for united Germany.

Titles at major international competitions

Miss World

• 1956 : Petra Schürmann
• 1980 : Gabriella Brum

Notes: Petra Schürmann only reached rank three in Miss Germany pageant, but was delegated to Miss World because of her better knowledge of English. Gabriella Brum resigned the day after her election as Miss World.

Miss Universe

• 1961 : Marlene Schmidt

Miss International

• 1965 : Ingrid Finger
• 1989 : Iris Klein

Miss Intercontinental

• 1992 : Susanne Petry
• 1993 : Verona Feldbusch
• 2000 : Sabrina Schepmann (is not Miss Germany but Miss Deutschland)

Queen of the World

• 1988 : Susann Stoss
• 1992 : Ines Kuba
• 1996 : Yasemine Mansoor

Miss Europe

• 1954 : Christel Schaack, disqualified for being a widow.
• 1956 : Margit Nünke
• 1961 : Ingrun Helgard Moeckel
• 1965 : Juliane Herm
• 1972 : Monika Sarp
• 1991 : Susanne Petry, later disqualified
• 2005 : Shermine Shahrivar (is not Miss Germany but Miss Deutschland)

Sources

• Veit Didczuneit, Dirk Külow: Miss Germany. Die deutsche Schönheitskönigin. S & L MedienContor, Hamburg, 1998; ISBN 3-931962-94-6 (German)
• Former Website of MGA - Miss Germany Association: http: //www. missgermany. cmsonline. de (German)

External links

• Miss Globe Germany Official Website
• Official Website MGC (German)
• Official Website MGO (German)
• Official Website QGE (German)
• Official Website Model of Germany (German)
• Miss Berlin Wahl 2007 with Pioneer of beauty pageants Playboy Rolf Eden