Petra Schürmann-Freund was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 model, TV announcer, and actress.

Biography

Schürmann won the 1956 Miss World

Miss World 1956

Miss World 1956, the sixth annual Miss World pageant, was held on 15 October 1956 at Lyceum Theatre, London, United Kingdom. 24 contestants competed for the Miss World...

 contest, representing West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

. she is the only German to win this title., with the exception of Gabriella Brum

Gabriella Brum

Gabriella Brum of Germany won the 1980 Miss World beauty pageant and resigned 18 hours later, initially claiming her boyfriend disapproved. She stated that this was because of the pressure from the news media, though there were also allegations that she had posed nude in a magazine...

 who won the title in 1980 but resigned one day later. The pageant was held in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Interestingly, Petra Schürmann only came third in the Miss Germany

Miss Germany

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...

 pageant, but was chosen to represent her country in London because of her better knowledge of English.

At that time she studied philosophy and history of the arts at the universities of Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

 and Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. After winning her Miss World title she continued her studies in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

.

Beginning with the 1960s she entered an ongoing radio and television career, primarily with the Munich based Bayerischer Rundfunk

Bayerischer Rundfunk

Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...

. She also did some acting and wrote some books.

Personal life

In 1973, she married the physician Dr. Gerhard Freund, who already back in 1967, under a veil of secrecy, became the father of their daughter Alexandra. This was at a time when he was still wed to German actress Marianne Koch

Marianne Koch

Marianne Koch is a retired German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in spaghetti westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician....

. Alexandra Freund also had a successful career with the Munich broadcaster but died in 2001 aged 34 from an automobile accident when she collided with a wrong-way driver. Petra Schürmann never really recovered from the loss of her daughter with whom she was very close.

Death

Petra Schürmann retired with her husband to their house on the shores of Lake Starnberg

Lake Starnberg

Lake Starnberg , 25 kilometers southwest of Munich in southern Bavaria, is Germany's fifth largest freshwater lake and, due to its large average depth, the second richest in water...

 south of Munich. When he died in August 2008 they had been married for 35 years. She died on 14 January 2010 in her home in Starnberg

Starnberg

The city of Starnberg is in Bavaria, Germany, some 30 km south-west of Munich. It lies at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the "Five Lakes Country", and serves as capital of the district of Starnberg...

 following a long illness.

External links

• Article in Stern magazine - richly illustrated