Irmgard von Stephani
Encyclopedia
Irmgard von Stephani was at age 112 years 15 days, the oldest person in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 alive and one of only 4 Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

ans left who were officially born in 1895. The three remaining ones at the time were Astrid Zachrison
Astrid Zachrison
Elin Astrid Sofia Zachrison was a Swedish supercentenarian. She became Sweden's oldest person ever on 6 October 2007, surpassing the age attained by Elsa Moberg. She is the second oldest Nordic person on record, after Christian Mortensen of Denmark.Zachrison was born in Åby in Fliseryd, west of...

 of Sweden, Manuela Fernández-Fojaco
Manuela Fernández-Fojaco
Manuela Fernández Fojaco was the fifth-oldest living person, the oldest person in Europe and the oldest living person in Spain at the time of her death, at the age of 113 years, 202 days...

 of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Marie-Louise Lhuillier of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Von Stephani was born in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

. In the 1930s, she moved to Lankwitz, a district of Steglitz
Steglitz
Steglitz is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in the south-west of Berlin, the capital of Germany. The locality also includes the neighbourhood of Südende.-History:...

 in the southwest of the German capital Berlin. She was a young adult during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and at the end of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, she was 50 years old.

Von Stephani was unmarried with no children. She became the oldest living German resident at age 109 on 22 July 2005, with the death of 110-year-old Frieda Müller. Von Stephani held this position for over two years. When Von Stephani turned 110, she received an honorary certificate from German President Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union. He was President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on...

. She had her 111th birthday in 2006. At the time, she was having trouble with her eyesight and hearing, but she still went out occasionally for the odd walk, and, quite remarkably, was also still living on her own.

When turning 112, she had moved into an old people's facility just five months before. Despite being in seemingly good health, Von Stephani died not long after her last birthday, aged 112 years 15 days. She was succeeded as Germany's oldest person by 111-year-old Elsa Tauser
Elsa Tauser
Elsa Tauser was a supercentenarian and Germany's oldest person for one day.Born in Hamburg, Elsa Martens married Konrad Tauser in 1935....

, who died herself just one day later, relinquishing the title to fellow 111-year-old Frieda Borchert.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK