Alena Gerber

Alena Gerber (born 20 August 1989) is a German model, actress and TV host.

Contents

Life

Gerber was born in Baden-Württemberg and was discovered by a German model agency at the age of 13. She participated in regional beauty contests. She also had brief guest appearances on several German TV series and has appeared in a number of German TV shows.

Gerber resides in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. Her agency is Vivienne models.

TV hosting and acting

After numerous appearances on German IPTV channels she started hosting the Zurich Nightlife show usgang.tv (usgang means "to celebrate" in Swiss German).

In 2010 Gerber was the face of the Streetparade, the Swiss version of the German Loveparade.[1]

German guestworker controversy

Alena Gerber became particularly famous in Switzerland when she was at the center of a xenophobic controversy between the conservative Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volksparty) and German guest workers. The Swiss People's Party's stance was the too many German foreigners would already overcrowd Switzerland, destroy its cultural identity and take away the citizen's jobs.[2][3] The German and Swiss yellow press newspapers BILD and Blick kept the issue in the media for several months, thereby indirectly contributing to Gerber's increasing popularity.[4] The argument ended, when People's Party officials and Alena Gerber reconciled in public in late 2009.[5]

Swiss television named Alena Gerber "one of the most prominent examples of Anti-German sentiment".[6]

References

  1. ^ http://www.streetparade.com/content/tv?lang=de-de&id=1&content=30&main=26
  2. ^ http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/2009/10/28/schweizer-politiker-will-deutsches-playboy-model/rauswerfen-weil-kein-schwyzerduetsch.html
  3. ^ http://www.blick.ch/unterhaltung/tv/gehoert-ein-deutsches-playmate-weg-vom-ch-bildschirm-131947
  4. ^ http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/2009/10/29/schweiz-playboy-model/alena-gerber.html
  5. ^ „Playmate Alena zähmt SVP-Hardliner Erich Hess“, Blick, 1. November 2009
  6. ^ „Reporter: Ungeliebte Deutsche – Vom Störfaktor zum Hassobjekt“, fernsehen.ch blog, 4. Dezember 2009

External links