“We are looking for diversity and internal values,” says Klemmer, adding that beauty contests are not timely any more.
The selection of online entrepreneur Leonie Charlotte von Hase as Miss Germany was a turning point. For the first time, the jury was made up entirely of women, and the winner was a 35-year-old mother.
“I’m not a beauty queen,” says von Hase, who was born and raised in Namibia.
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The contest’s new concept is receiving positive reactions. Some 15,000 women have applied for the next round – more than ever.
The top 32 introduce themselves on the Miss Germany website.
Many offer deep insights into their personal lives, for instance experiences with breast cancer, rape, depression, bullying or even having an artificial anus – they seem not to mind talking about their life crises to empower others.
“This is an interesting development,” says Simone Thomas, spokeswoman for gender equality officers in Germany. “The image of women is colourful and varied,” Thomas says. If women talk about the blows of fate they witnessed, that can help other women.
“If these women are presented as ambassadors, I like it,” she says.
But Thomas is critical about the contest aspect. “It’s not about the greatest bikini body any more, but about the greatest personality.”
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Cultural scientist Sylvia Pritsch from the centre for interdisciplinary women’s and gender studies at the University of Oldenburg in northwest Germany has mixed feelings.
If women can empower themselves through the contest, that’s one thing. But another thing is the organisers making money – for instance, using those women for advertising.
“Everything has a certain price and happens in a certain context,” Pritsch says. “It is less about the women and more about the marketing possibilities.”
Former winners of the Miss Germany pageant have reacted positively to the new concept.
“The contest goes with the times. I think the development is great,” says Miss Germany 2017, Soraya Kohlmann, who today owns a beauty salon in Leipzig in Germany. At the time, she was not bothered that men were judging her appearance in a bikini.“That was simply part of the contest,” the 22-year-old says.
Anne Julia Hagen, who won in 2010, sees it similarly. “It is a system, and you conform to the system. Because you want to win in the system,” she says. She did not think about the conventions at the contest when she took part, at the age of 19.
Hagen, who lives in Florida in the United States, likes the new concept. “It is a very big step,” says the model, who is currently writing her PhD in cultural sciences.
The new concept draws a line with the traditional Miss Germany image and therefore opens up a new market, says the 30-year-old.
Demand for traditional beauty pageants has declined in Germany. It remains to be seen whether the title Miss Germany will continue to fit – the organisers don’t want to change it, but rather they want to reframe the content of the brand, Klemmer says.
The organisers believe they are ready for the future. “We’re sure we have come up with a crisis-proof concept,” Klemmer says.
With the greater target audience, there are also new possibilities for partners beyond the fashion and beauty industries, for instance finance, science, culture and sustainability.
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The firm aims to significantly raise its profit, which currently stands at about 1 million euros (US$1.2 million) per year.
Klemmer is aiming to double that next year.
“We believe this is possible with our new path,” he says. He is not sure whether other pageants will follow suit. “For the others I can only hope that they will read the signs of our time.”
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