Vera Gottlieb von Lehndorff

About Vera Gottlieb von Lehndorff

Second daughter of Count Heinrich von Lehndorff-Steinort and Countess Gottliebe von Kalnein, members of the Prussian nobility. Her father, a reserve officer, became one of the key men in the anti-Nazi German resistance. Accused of having been part of the 20 July plot, she was hanged on 4 September 1944, while his wife, pregnant with their fourth daughter at the time of the attack, was interned in a labor camp. Vera and her sisters, separated from their mother, were taken to Bad Sachsa, together with the children of the other conspirators.

Vera von Lehndorff-Steinort studied in Hamburg and Florence. In 1959 she was discovered by the photographer Ugo Mulas, who launched her as a model. In Paris and New York City (where she had moved in 1961) she did not enjoy the success she had hoped for and returned to Munich, where she began to spread the rumor that she was Russian, even changing her name to Veruschka to create an aura of mystery.