Episode summaries
Episode 1: Welche 15 Mädchen werden es in die nächste Runde schaffen?
Original airdate: 1 March 2007
Out of over 16,000 applicants, the judges selected 100, who then had to prove themselves in model castings. The applicants were given 2 minutes to win over the judges with their charisma and personality. From the 100, 25 were chosen, and given their first task - a fashion show at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany's largest football stadium, where they had to do a catwalk down the field during half-time in front of over 70,000 football fans watching the Borussia Dortmund vs. VfB Stuttgart game. At the end of the second day of casting, ten of the girls were eliminated, leaving just 15 left in the running.
Episode 2: Das erste große Einzel-Fotoshooting steht bevor
Original airdate: 8 March 2007
The 15 remaining contestants arrived in St. Moritz and went to their first photo shoot on a snow-covered mountain for German Cosmopolitan. After this photo shoot, contestants Sophie and Alina decided to leave the show to pursue education. They were replaced by previously eliminated contestants Tonia and Denise. The contestants were then given their first challenge, which was won by Aneta. Finally, they went to their first important photo shoot, posing in front of a gigantic fan with a car behind them. Janine was the first model eliminated, due to a lack of expression in her photos.
- Quit: Sophie and Alina
- Comeback: Tonia and Denise
- Eliminated: Janine
Episode 3: Einzug ins neue Zuhause
Original airdate: 15 March 2007
The remaining contestants moved into their new house. Bruce and Boris trained them in three styles of runway-walk and make-up: sporty, young virgin, and sexy. Later the contestants were given publicity training with comedian Hugo Egon Balder; Barbara won the challenge, and chose Janina to share her prize - a three-course dinner with Heidi Klum at a hotel. For the photo shoot, the girls posed in Swarovski Crystals and bald caps. Contestants Enyerlina and Antje were eliminated.
- Eliminated: Enyerlina and Antje
Episode 4: Der neue Style
Original airdate: 22 March 2007
The contestants were given new haircuts, and then forced to pass the "Falling Fairytales" photo shoot from America's Next Top Model, Season 6. Janina was eliminated.
Episode 5: Es wird eisig...
Original airdate: 29 March 2007
During Akademie Mode and Design-affiliated designer Suzanne Marx's fashion show, Alla and Anja were not allowed to walk the runway. The fashion show was a chance for three of the contestants to present themselves to the designers Johnny Talbot and Adrian Runhof and their prêt-à-porter fashion show in Paris, France. The designers decided to take Hana, Fiona and Milla.
The challenge during this episode was a photo shoot with a male model depicting the four seasons. The goal of this challenge was to teach the contestants the difference between commercial and editorial posing. The winners Tonia, Denise, Mandy and Barbara were allowed to spend the evening with the male models. The other contestants had to clean the house.
The photo shoot for this episode took place in a cold storage house with photographer Matt McCabe. The contestants had to deal with extremely low temperature as they were forced to pose with ice sculptures while wearing mini skirts and mini dresses. Before the elimination, every contestant had to do a live-walk and demonstrate one's learning aptitude by presenting a fire brigade outfit in editorial posing and another product in commercial posing.
Alla was eliminated.
- Booked for job: Fiona, Hana and Milla
- Challenge winner: Tonia, Denise, Mandy, and Barbara
- Eliminated: Alla
- Featured photographers: Matt McCabe, Oliver S.
- Special guests: Designer Johnny Talbot, Adrian Runhof, Designer Susanne Marx, and Fank Wilde
- Guest judge: Matt McCabe
Episode 6: Knutsch die Kröte
Original airdate: 5 April 2007
After acting lessons, eight of the ten girls went on a professional casting for a car advertisement being shot in Cape Town. Denise and Fiona were nominated by the other contestants to stay at home and miss the casting. Hana won the job.
As a reward for winning a challenge, Anni was chosen to be in the music video for the song "Zwei Sommer" by German singer Kim Frank. She was encouraged to pick three contestants who knew how to play guitar or keyboards to co-star in the video. WeAnnindler selected Mandy, Milla, and Aneta. Anni later complained the video left her with bruising from pretending to play guitar all day.
The contestants shot a television commercial for an online dating agency. They each were dressed as a fairy princess for the ad in which they found a frog, and gave him a kiss. Frustrated when he didn't turn into a prince, they angrily demanded he do so, insisting he wanted to. The commercial was not shot in one continuous take. At this point, so as to avoid cruelty, the real frog was swapped for a fake frog. Then shoot resumed, as the model tossed the fake frog down in frustration at the end of the commercial. Denise was seen as clumsy during the shoot. Judge Heidi Klum was on the set and witnessed this behavior, resulting in Denise's elimination at the end of this episode.
- Booked for job: Hana
- Challenge winner: Anni
- Eliminated: Denise
- Featured producer: Andreas Kayales
- Special guests: Kim Frank and Ursula Michelis
- Guest judge: Andreas Kayales
Episode 7: Heiße Action
Original airdate: 12 April 2007
This week's photo shoot forced the contestants to stay concentrated despite loud explosion noises in the background. Barbara was asked to co-star with Heidi Klum in a McDonald's television commercial as a reward for winning an acting challenge. The contestants' parents surprised their daughters by making a visit.
- Booked for job: Barbara
- Challenge winner: Aneta, Anja, Anni, Barbara, Fiona, and Milla
- Eliminated: Tonia and Aneta
- Featured photographer: Mario Schmolka
- Special guests: Caroline Nippert, Johann Stockhammer, and Sascha Lutzi
- Guest judge: Mario Schmolka
Episode 8: Ein tierisch gutes Shooting
Original airdate: 19 April 2007
The seven contestants traveled to Bangkok to participate in a casting for the Thai fashion label Fly Now. Five of the seven contestants were allowed to walk the runway, which was placed in a shallow swimming pool. Anja and Fiona were chosen by the designer to not walk with the others. The next day, the contestants traveled to Los Angeles for a photo shoot with an elephant and a barely dressed man. The judges eliminated Milla due to a lack of expression in her face.
- Eliminated: Milla von Krockow
Episode 9: Topmodel trifft Superstar
Original airdate: 26 April 2007
The contestants stayed in Los Angeles for another week. Their first challenge was to act professionally on the red carpet surrounded by celebrities and actors. Anja was chosen as this challenge's winner and was awarded with a yacht trip (along with Mandy) while the other contestants took part in a fitness lesson.
All of the contestants then participated in a casting with designer Christian Audigier. Hana, Mandy, and Barbara were chosen to walk the runway at a popular fashion show.
This week's photo shoot saw the contestants pose like superheroes knotted with ropes between house walls of Los Angeles. After many quarrels with the judges, Anja was eliminated.
- Challenge winner: Anja
- Booked for job: Barbara, Hana, and Mandy
- Eliminated: Anja
- Featured photographer: Antoine Verglas
- Special guest: Christian Audigier
- Guest judge: Antoine Verglas
Episode 10: Bodypainting am Malibu Beach
Original airdate: 3 May 2007
The contestants had to take part in a nude photo shoot, as their bodies were covered only by body color during a body painting session at the Malibu Beach. Runway coach Bruce Darnell forced the girls to find pedestrians in Hollywood's Rodeo Drive to convince them to take part in a photo shoot imitating famous film posters. Anni stuck out with her outstanding achievement and was thus awarded the opportunity to ride in a helicopter. Due to the show's success, the producers decided to elongate it by adding an additional episode: as such, no contestants were eliminated in this episode.
Episode 11: Das große Cosmopolitan-Shooting steht bevor
Original airdate: 10 May 2007
The five remaining contestants took part in a shoot at a villa in the Hollywood Hills, at which they were allowed to take revenge on judge Peyman Amin for his mean appraisals. The shoot was curtailed when a bush fire broke out nearby. The contestants then had a photo shoot for the chance to be on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. They then had to answer questions in English at a press conference with American journalists; the language barrier was an obstacle, and Barbara was upset when she inadvertently said something she thought would upset her boyfriend. They were relieved to find out afterwards that the journalists were actors. At the judging, the girls had to walk in both pret-a-porter and haute couture clothes. Mandy is eliminated.
Episode 12: Wiedersehen mit allen 15 Kandidatinnen
Original airdate: 17 May 2007
Episode 13: Das Finale
- Original airdate: 24 May 2007
Though officially described as "live", the finale was recorded several hours before airing. The three finalists were introduced, and then given two catwalk challenges: the first bikini-themed, and the second with old-fashioned dresses. The photos taken in the previous episode were shown to the audience and judges, while the contestants explained their ideas and implementation. Hana was eliminated without any explanation by the judges..
- Final three: Anni, Barbara, and Hana
- Eliminated: Hana
Runway trainer Bruce Darnell was asked to do photo shoots with Anni and Barbara, involving the themes of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Caught in the Act" respectively. Clips of the three finalists were shown in a montage, which led into an opera version of Ave Maria with all of the season's contestants walking the runway dressed in baroque-themed clothing. The band Monrose made a guest appearance and walked the runway. After one last runway walk by all of the contestants, the announcement was made that Barbara had won.
- Final two: Anni and Barbara
- Germany's Next Topmodel: Barbara
Episode 14: Was keiner sah
Original airdate: 31 May 2007
This episode consisted largely of a summary of shown footage.
Controversy
Many fans were able to find out the eliminated contestant from the next week's episode beforehand.
- Eyerlina Sanchez had entered in Miss Dominican Republic 2002.
- Denise Dahinten's elimination was confirmed by studio guests of that day's episode of late night show TV total, where the eliminated contestants appeared after their elimination.
- Host channel ProSieben booked a web domain for each contestant's name, e.g. www.fiona-erdmann.de – the only names that were not booked were Tonia Michaely, Aneta Tobor, and Michaela "Milla" Gräfin von Krockow, so their elimination was indirectly confirmed.
- An Austrian newspaper published a report on Anja Platzer being home again, confirming her elimination the next week.
- Mandy's friends divulged her elimination in several internet forums.
- As the 11th episode ended with a cliffhanger, making it ambiguous whether Fiona Erdmann or Anni Wendler would be one of the final three, fans began to collect details that would reveal the last finalist. Some television guides accidentally published photos of Wendler, Barbara Meier, and Hana Nitsche. Paparazzi photos of the three were shot and leaked into the internet. [1] Finally, in the 11th episode, judges Heidi Klum and Peyman Amin could be heard stating "those three really deserve to get into the final show". When these words were said, there was a brief visual of three photos separated from two others. The two put aside were those of Erdmann and Mandy Graff. [2] [3]
In February 2023, the Berliner Zeitung published an article about the show with the headline: "Why isn't Germany’s Next Topmodel actually canceled?" [4]
In March 2023, in a "13 questions" interview on ZDF. [5] [6] former judge Peyman Armin apologized to Lijana Kaggwa for what she had to experience on Germany's Next Topmodel. He also apologized for being part of Germany's Next Topmodel and promised to never take part in the show again. [5] [6]
In March 2023, BILD published the following message: "If the contestants get along too well, they will receive instructions from the crew to argue and produce beef." The participating contestants are also too young and inexperienced and cannot assess the extent of the show. [7]
In April 2023, Heidi Klum said about everything that happens at Germany's Next Topmodel: "At the end of the day I'm the boss and I make the rules!" [8]
In June 2023, the German TV broadcaster ZDF released a 70-minute investigative documentary about the machinations of the makers of Germany's Next Topmodel called "Pressure, hatred, manipulation: how sick does Germany's Next Topmodel make you?". For this documentary, around 50 former contestants, judges and members of the show's crew were interviewed, some anonymously. The makers of the documentary admitted that they are familiar with difficult investigations, but they have never experienced the level of fear and difficulty associated with Germany's Next Topmodel. Many former participants and employees of the show were afraid to talk about what had happened. A crew member of the show who wished to remain anonymous is quoted as saying: "If you film a young woman from morning to night, you'll get every sectional image you want. So you can cut and tell what you want. A lot of things are cut together wildly. The jobs depend on it. It's about ratings." In addition, former contestants report how the show's editors deliberately foment manipulation, lies and discord among the contestants behind the scenes. The contestants are shielded from the outside world so they lose their nerve and argue. The statements by Heidi Klum, the broadcasting TV station Pro7 and the production company are presented as hypocrisy. Pro7 is said to have earned 87 million euros with the Season 18, and Heidi Klum 10 million euros, while the contestants receive no money. Germany's Next Topmodel has driven some contestants into depression and suicidal thoughts. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
