About
Nadja Auermann is a German supermodel and occasional actress whose statuesque silhouette and piercing blue-green eyes helped define 1990s fashion. Born on 19 March 1971 in West Berlin, she skyrocketed onto magazine covers—Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and more—after being hailed by Guinness World Records for having the longest legs in the industry. Her stride carried her down catwalks for Prada, Chanel, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent and Hermès, while her face anchored global campaigns for Shiseido and Cartier. Even today, at 54, she still slips back into the spotlight for select editorials, balancing nostalgia for the supermodel era with a refreshing candor about aging gracefully.
Before Fame
Auermann grew up in a family of bankers in Berlin and originally imagined a conventional career path. Fate changed over coffee: in 1989 a scout noticed her in a local café and suggested modeling. Although her first booking—a tourist-catalog shoot—went nowhere, she soon signed with a Paris agency and landed Vogue Paris and Benetton ads in 1991. By the autumn of 1994 she pulled off an industry coup, appearing simultaneously on American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. The combination of doll-like features, athletic poise and down-to-earth humor set her apart from the era’s more glamorous archetypes, giving photographers a fresh muse and fashion houses an unforgettable runway presence.
Trivia
- Record-breaking limbs: Guinness World Records once calculated her leg-to-height ratio as the longest of any professional model.
- Instant icon status: People magazine placed her in its “50 Most Beautiful People” list in 1994, the same year Time included her among its “Top 10 People in the World.”
- Designer’s muse: Valentino famously remarked on her resemblance to silver-screen legend Marlene Dietrich, while Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh returned to her repeatedly for their stark, sculptural portraits.
- Life off-duty: A vegetarian who loves the Baltic spa town of Heiligendamm, she prefers cycling and seaside walks to red-carpet blitzes.
- Brush with the law: In 2011 a German court fined her €90,000 for tax irregularities—an episode she later described as a cautionary tale about trusting accountants.
Family Life
Auermann is the proud mother of four. Daughter Cosima arrived in 1997 with media manager Olaf Björn Tietz, and has since dabbled in modeling while pursuing interior design in Berlin. Son Nicolas followed in 1999 during Nadja’s marriage to German actor Wolfram Grandezka; he, too, has tested the fashion waters. Two younger daughters, born in 2010 and 2013 with a later partner, keep the household lively in Dresden, where Auermann enjoys relative anonymity. In a 2024 interview, she spoke about body image at 50-plus, telling RTL that it’s “okay to be a little fuller” and praising diversity in today’s runways. Her open, sometimes strict parenting style—Cosima once recalled “clear rules” at home—reflects a desire to ground her children despite their fashion-world connections.
Associated With
Throughout her career, Auermann collaborated with a who’s who of fashion talent. Photographers Helmut Newton, Steven Meisel, Juergen Teller, Craig McDean, and especially Peter Lindbergh captured her chiseled features in era-defining images. Designers such as Karl Lagerfeld (for Chanel), Gianni Versace, Thierry Mugler, and Vivienne Westwood sent her down the runway, often pairing her with contemporaries like Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss. Naomi, in fact, is godmother to Cosima, underscoring the close-knit bonds among ’90s supers. Today, Auermann’s legacy endures in the elongated silhouettes favored by modern labels—and in the careers of her own children, who continue her fashion story for a new generation.
