German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3615. Photo: Wesel / Berolina / Herzog Film. Publicity still for Das haut hin/The skin-out (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3614. Photo: Wesel / Berolina / Herzog Film.
Miss Germany
Margit Nünke was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) in 1930. She became Miss Germany in 1955 after previously being Miss North Rhine-Westphalia.
The following year, 1956, she won the Miss Europe pageant in Stockholm before 12 other candidates and in front of 5,000 spectators. Finally, she reached the 4th place at the Miss Universe contest in Long Beach, USA, in 1958 (in 1955, according to Wikipedia).
From 1957 on she appeared in feature films and TV movies. In Italy, she acted opposite Rik Battaglia and Sylva Koscina in I fidanzati della morte/The betrothed of death (Romolo Marcellini, 1957).
In the German musical comedy Das haut hin/The skin-out (Géza von Cziffra, 1957), she appeared opposite the popular Peter Alexander. On TV she starred in the crime mini-series Gesucht wird Mörder X/Wanted murderer X (Volker von Collande, 1959).
In the Austrian film Geliebte Bestie/Arena of Fear (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1959), she put her dancing skills to the test. The film plays in the circus milieu, and Nünke played Beatrix, a dancer who plans to act in an animal cage and plays up to circus tiger trainer Gerhard Riedmann so that she can join his act. Nünke also seduces the sharpshooter (Willy Birgel), who becomes jealous and drugs the tigers, then kills himself when he's found out.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. T 850. Photo: Deutsche Cosmopol / Ringpress / Vogelmann. Publicity still for I fidanzati della morte/The betrothed of death (Romolo Marcellini, 1957) with Rik Battaglia.
Dutch postcard by DRC Holland, no. 1223. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Geliebte Bestie/Arena of Fear (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1959) with Gerhard Riedmann.
Lighter-than-light entertainment
In the next decade, Margit Nünke continued to appear in German lighter-than-light entertainment films with such film partners as Walter Giller and Toni Sailer.
Titles include the Conny Froboess comedy Meine Nichte tut das nicht/My Niece Doesn't Do That (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1960), and Liebesgrüße aus Tirol/With Love from Tyrol (Franz Antel, 1964) with Peter Weck and Gitte Hænning.
For TV, she worked a few times with comedian Willy Millowitsch, such as in Der kühne Schwimmer/The bold swimmer (Willy Millowitsch, 1960).
As a singer, she recorded several singles, including the duet Jede Woche, die hat 7 Tage (Every week has 7 days) with Peter Garden. They married. Together, they performed in his TV-series Garden-Party (1969-1970).
After an interval of more than a decennium, she appeared in the TV series Eine Klasse für sich - Geschichten aus einem Internat/A class apart (Frank Strecker, 1984) and in an episode of the comedy series Heiße Wickel - kalte Güsse/ Hot Wraps - cold treatments (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1984). These were her last screen appearances.
Margit Nünke lives in Munich, Germany.
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4332. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann.
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 189. Photo: dpa.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
