After a series of Miss Worlds still in their teens, in 1956 Petra Schurmann, at the age of 23, became Miss World. A student of philosophy and history of the arts, Petra returned to her studies after winning the title before moving into a television career.
1st runner-up Betty Cherry, United States
2nd runner-up Rina Weiss, Israel
3rd runner-up Midoriko Tokura, Japan

Over the years since winning Miss World, Petra worked on more than 1000 television programmes in Germany as a presenter, moderator and talk-show guest. By the time she retired to the shores of Lake Starnberg, south of Munich, Petra Schürmann had also written several books and worked as an actor. Petra passed away on January 13th 2010.