Veruschka
German model, actress and performance artist
Vera Lehndorff (German: Vera Anna Gottliebe Gräfin von Lehndorff; born 14 May 1939), known professionally as Veruschka, is a German aristocrat, model, actress and artist. She is considered the "first German supermodel".
Early life and ancestry
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 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).
“Veruschka” enters the record as german model, actress and performance artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Veruschka, German and model can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Veruschka” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Veruschka, German and model provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q64610. VIAF identifies the subject as 13104214. The Library of Congress control number is n86081442. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1913, 1993 and 1937.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Veruschka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.