Draft:Christel Schaack
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Christel Schaack
on June 16, 1953, she was crowned Miss Germany as Miss Berlin in the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden. However, this event was hardly noticed, as it was lost in the daily politics: just one day after her election, Soviet tanks crushed the workers' uprising in the GDR.
In 1953, on July 17, she took part in the Miss Universe pageant in Long Beach (California, USA). She was under the age limit of 28.
On June 20, 1954, she was elected Miss Europe in Vichy. Two days later, the title was taken away from her because, according to the statutes of the Miss Europe Committee, she should have been unmarried. However, Christel Schaack had been widowed for two years. She had to hand over the crown to the runner-up, Danièle Gerault from France. Since her widowhood was no obstacle to the Miss Germany election and the committee could not accuse anyone of fraud, it granted her the unofficial title of "Miss Europe Honoris causa".
From 1958 until his death in 2002, she was married to the Austrian composer, arranger and conductor Willy Mattes. Christel Mattes lived in Munich, Salzburg and, in recent years, in Bad Homburg. Her son Frank Schaack continues to live in Bad Homburg as a management consultant.