Hildegard Knef
Nude

German hottie Hildegard Knef is a historic figure in film. Her nude scene in Die Sünderin (1951) was the first in German moviemaking. It was a mild artist’s model pose, where the painting of her nakedly reclining figure is more explicit than the actual shot of her nude. Still, the Roman Catholic Church criticized the picture, even though there are more images of naked nymphs in the Vatican than in the Playboy mansion. Sadly by the Swinging ’60s Hildegard was making music rather than whoopee onscreen, just as boundaries were being pushed and clothes getting removed. We’ll always have Die Sünderin.