Peter

Peter_Berlin
Iconic „70s Sex Symbol“, first major “Global Selfie Influencer”

Peter Berlin (*1942 as Armin Peter Hagen Baron von Hoyningen-Huene in Litzmannstadt) is a German male model, illustrator and, above all, photographer who became known worldwide in the gay subculture in the 1970s.

The great-nephew of the renowned US fashion photographer George Baron von Hoyningen-Huene (VOGUE), Armin spent his youth in Germany. A scion of the exiled German-Baltic aristocratic Hoyningen-Huene family, he grew up in Berlin. He worked as an illustrator, tailor, and photographer. In his mid-twenties, he worked for the popular German TV magazine 'V.I.P.-SCHAUKEL' and photographed internationally prominent superstars such as Catherine Deneuve, Klaus Kinski, Alfred Hitchcock, and Brigitte Bardot.

His passion included self-portraits (selfies!!) in specially tailored erotic clothing. He also wore these extremely figure-hugging outfits while cruising at night in Berlin parks and train stations. In the early 1970s, he emigrated to the United States. In his adopted hometown of San Francisco, California, he became one of the most famous eccentrics in the hippie neighborhood as "Peter Berlin."

Through his highly recognizable photographic selfie portraits, the normally introverted and shy Peter Berlin quickly became a sex symbol for an entire generation of homosexuals. He maintained close friendships with well-known figures, including dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Important artists such as Andy Warhol, Tom of Finland, and Robert Mapplethorpe used him as a model for drawings and photographs.