Opening photo: RAPH GATTI / AFP
During his life, Karl Lagerfeld did everything to prevent information about his family from coming to light. He has always been tight-lipped when asked about his childhood, and has often lied about his year of birth and the origin of his parents, writes the Index.
The father of Otto Lagerfeld, the fashion designer, was a dairy farmer. In 1914, during the First World War, he lived in Russia, where he planned to open factories to expand his company even further, but in the end he was suspected of espionage and arrested. After that, he was sent to an internment camp in Siberia, where he spent four years.
After the end of the First World War, he was able to return to Germany, where he met his future wife 12 years later, from whom the fashion designer was born three years later.
Writer Alfons Kaiser also pointed out in a 2020 biography that Lagerfeld and his wife became members of the Nazi Party in May 1933.
According to some information, at the time of the Anschluss, i.e. the annexation of Austria to the Third Reich, in 1938, the couple even planted a swastika flag on their property to demonstrate their loyalty. It is known that they may have lied to the commission set up to eliminate the Nazis. The father scolded the government, while the wife hid the fact that she was a party member, so they escaped punishment. After that, it’s no coincidence that the fashion designer never liked to talk about his younger years, including his parents.
