Editing Karl Lagerfeld (section)

==Early life==
Karl Otto Lagerfeld<ref name="birthname" >{{cite web |date=19 February 2019 |title=Fashion designer Lagerfeld dead at 85 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47293612 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> was born in [[Hamburg]] on 10 September 1933 to Elisabeth (née Bahlmann) and [[Otto Lagerfeld]]. His father, coming from a family of wealthy wine-merchants, was a prosperous businessman and [[polyglot]], speaking nine languages;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rBwnYfW34c&t=28s|title=The Life and Death of Karl Lagerfeld|publisher=YouTube|author=understitch|date=23 April 2023|quote=...''was actually a polyglot, speaking nine different languages, including Russian, and so was a genuinely successful businessman there''...}}</ref><ref name="welt-birth">{{cite news |url=https://www.welt.de/print/wams/hamburg/article117793202/Der-grosse-Karl-wird-doch-schon-80.html |title= Der große Karl wird doch schon 80 |last=Reiners |first= Gisela |date=7 July 2013 |newspaper=Die Welt |publisher=Axel Springers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203737/http://www.welt.de/print/wams/hamburg/article117793202/Der-grosse-Karl-wird-doch-schon-80.html |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> and owned an import company (Lagerfeld & Co.) specialising in  [[evaporated milk]], leading him to work with the American [[dairy industry|dairy]] company [[Carnation (brand)|Carnation]]. During his travels, his father was present during the great [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]], escaping unharmed.<ref>Horyn, Cathy (6 October 2013). "Why Fashion Films Are Usually Cartoons". ''The New York Times''. p. 13</ref> A fluent [[Russian language|speaker of Russian]], his father had even attempted to gain citizenship into the country at the start of [[World War I]], leading to an accusation of espionage and a three-year prison term in [[Vladivostok]], eventually returning to Germany after the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917. His maternal grandfather, Karl Bahlmann, was a local politician for the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Catholic Centre Party]].<ref name="welt-birth"/> His family belonged to the [[Old Catholic Church]]. When Lagerfeld's mother met his father, she was a lingerie saleswoman from Berlin. His parents married in 1930.<ref name="NDB">[http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz47422.html Otto Lagerfeld] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063053/http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz47422.html |date=4 March 2016}}, in ''[[Neue Deutsche Biographie]]''</ref>

Lagerfeld was known to misrepresent his birth year, claiming to be younger than his actual age and misrepresenting his parents' background. For example, he claimed that he was born in 1938 to "Elisabeth of Germany" and Otto Ludwig Lagerfeldt from Sweden.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Colapinto |first=John |author-link= John Colapinto |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/19/070319fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all |magazine=The New Yorker |title=In the Now|date=19 March 2007 |access-date=8 September 2011}}</ref> These claims have been conclusively proven to be false, as his father was from Hamburg and spent his entire life in Germany, with no Swedish connection.<ref name="welt-birth" /><ref name="NDB" /> There is also no evidence his mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, the daughter of a middle-class local politician, called herself "Elisabeth of Germany".<ref name="NDB" /> He was known to insist that no one knew his real birthdate. In an interview on French television in February 2009, Lagerfeld said he was "born neither in 1933 nor 1938".<ref>Interview on ''[[On n'est pas couché]]'', [[France2]], 21 February 2009</ref>

In April 2013, he finally declared he was born in 1935.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fr.news.yahoo.com/karl-lagerfeld-r%C3%A9v%C3%A8le-%C3%A2ge-premi%C3%A8re-fois-064500963.html |title=Karl Lagerfeld révèle son âge pour la première fois |date=25 April 2013 |access-date=25 April 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703004340/https://fr.news.yahoo.com/karl-lagerfeld-r%C3%A9v%C3%A8le-%C3%A2ge-premi%C3%A8re-fois-064500963.html |archive-date=3 July 2015}}</ref> A birth announcement was, however, published by his parents in 1933, and the baptismal register in Hamburg also lists him as born in that year, showing he was born on 10 September 1933.<ref>[https://www.welt.de/print/wams/hamburg/article117793202/Der-grosse-Karl-wird-doch-schon-80.html Der grosse Karl wird schon 80] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203737/http://www.welt.de/print/wams/hamburg/article117793202/Der-grosse-Karl-wird-doch-schon-80.html |date=3 March 2016}} [[Die Welt]], 7 July 2013 {{in lang|de}}<br />[http://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/karl+lagerfeld/0/14703.html biography] at Munzinger-Archiv {{in lang|de}}</ref> ''[[Bild am Sonntag]]'' published his baptismal records in 2008 and interviewed his teacher and a classmate, who both confirmed he actually was born in 1933. Later, his death record confirmed the same.<ref>« born on 10 September 1933 in Hamburg (Germany)&nbsp;- Neuilly sur Seine City Civil Status Registry, entry
No. 2019/171»</ref> Despite that, Karl Lagerfeld announced publicly he was celebrating his "70th birthday" on 10 September 2008, despite actually turning 75.<ref>[http://www.bild.de/BILD/unterhaltung/leute/2008/09/08/modedesigner-karl-lagerfeld-luege-ums-alter/kleine-schmummelei-um-das-wahre-alter.html „Der Modedesigner und seine Geburtstags-Mogelei: Der große Karl macht sich ein klein wenig jünger"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327134255/http://www.bild.de/BILD/unterhaltung/leute/2008/09/08/modedesigner-karl-lagerfeld-luege-ums-alter/kleine-schmummelei-um-das-wahre-alter.html |date=27 March 2010}}, [[Bild]].de, 10 September 2008</ref><ref>[http://orf.at/ticker/301234.html „Karl Lagerfeld wohl fünf Jahre älter als angegeben"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527194423/http://orf.at/ticker/301234.html |date=27 May 2010}}, [[ORF (broadcaster)|ORF]], 6 September 2008</ref><ref>[https://www.faz.net/s/RubB62D23B6C6964CC9ABBFCB78BC047A8D/Doc~ED82C9524C8C94530985C759ECD159795~ATpl~Ecommon~Sspezial.html ''FAZ''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201151712/https://www.faz.net/s/RubB62D23B6C6964CC9ABBFCB78BC047A8D/Doc~ED82C9524C8C94530985C759ECD159795~ATpl~Ecommon~Sspezial.html |date=1 February 2011}}, 4 September 2008</ref>

His older sister, Martha Christiane "Christel", was born in 1931. Lagerfeld had an older half-sister, Theodora Dorothea "Thea", from his father's first marriage. His family name has been spelled both Lagerfeldt (with a "t") and Lagerfeld. Like his father, he used the spelling Lagerfeld, considering it to "sound more commercial".<ref name="The Karl Lagerfeld Diet">{{cite book |last1=Lagerfeld |first1=Karl |last2=Houdret |first2=Jean-Claude |title=The Karl Lagerfeld Diet |publisher=PowerHouse Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57687-251-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/karllagerfelddie00karl }}</ref>

His family was mainly shielded from the [[Home front during World War II#Germany|deprivations of World War II]] due to his father being a member of the Nazi party and his business interests in Germany through the firm Glücksklee-Milch GmbH.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Sahner |title=Karl |publisher=mvg verlag |year=2009 |page=15 |isbn=978-3-86882-015-7 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PU4YAAAAIAAJ|volume=9 |page=161 |title=Encyclopedia of World Biography |publisher=Gale Research |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7876-2221-3 |quote=Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was born on 10 September 1935, in Hamburg, Germany. |access-date=7 January 2012}}</ref>

As a child, he showed great interest in the visual arts, and former schoolmates recalled he was always making sketches "no matter what we were doing in class".<ref>DW Documentary (2014), 14:00.</ref> Lagerfeld told interviewers he learned much more by constantly visiting the [[Kunsthalle Hamburg]] museum than he ever did in school.<ref name="DW1650">DW Documentary (2014), 16:50.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Biography News, Volume 1 |publisher=Gale Research Company |year=1974}}</ref>