High Times

Uschi Obermaier (September 24, 1946) is a former fashion model, actress and political activist. Uschi was born Chrissi Malberg in Munich, Germany.

As a teenager, Obermaier was discovered by the magazine 'twen.' She represented an uninhibited, sexually expressive new type of model who was photographed completely nude for the first time ever on a magazine cover.

One of her first relationships in Munich was with Othello. Othello, a.k.a. Rudolf Liebzeit, was one of six survivors of the ill-fated commercial sailing ship, Pamir. The ship, while caught in a hurricane near Lisbon, sank in 1957. Following this relationship Obermaier moved to Berlin and became involved with the notorious Rainer Langhans. She moved into Kommune 1 or K1 which was the first politically-motivated commune in Germany. The K1 was intended as a counter-model against the small middle-class family, as a reaction against a society that the commune thought was very conservative. Langhans and Obermaier talked openly to the media about their relationship, becoming symbols of the sexual revolution. Some commentators in Germany claim that John Lennon and Yoko Ono, among others, followed their example.

Obermaier probably was the best known German groupie of the 1960s. She was briefly a member of the Krautrock-band Amon Düül, and is said to have had affairs with Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix.

In 1973, Uschi Obermaier fell in love with Dieter Bockhorn, the wealthy owner of a club in Hamburg's Reeperbahn red-light district. Together, they traveled the world in a customized bus, first spending three years in Asia, then going to Mexico and the U.S. for another three years. They married in India, but sadly after only ten years this union would come to an abrupt end when on New Year's Eve 1983, Bockhorn died in a motorcycle accident in Mexico.

By then, Uschi Obermaier had been granted American citizenship. Today, she lives in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles, working as a jewellery designer.