Margot Pfannstiel

Margot Pfannstiel (18 June 1926 - 10 October 1993) was a German journalist and author. She was Editor in Chief of the East German women's magazine Sibylle between 1958 and 1968. Both before and after her decade at Sibylle she was a chief reporter at the weekly news magazine Wochenpost.

Life Margot Pfannstiel was born in Altenburg, a country town to the south of Leipzig. Her father was an engineer. She grew up in Berlin where she was a child during the Second World War and where she attended school. She completed a commercial training and then, between 1943 and 1945, worked as a typist. Margot Pfannstiel found herself identified as a member of the "Party-enemy Zaisser-Herrnstadt Group": she was removed from Neues Deutschland.

The weekly news magazine Wochenpost was launched in December 1953. Pfannenstiel was a co-founder In 1958 she took over from as managing editor of the recently launched women's magazine Sibylle. Her reputation at this time was as an economics journalist, which may have made her appointment to run a women's magazine appear slightly strange, but she remained in post for ten years, so presumably the authorities were happy with her stewardship. One high profile appointment that she made, which in many ways came to outshine Pfannenstiel's own more direct contributions, involved Dorothea Melis, aged just 23 when appointed to the position of Sibylle's fashion editor.

Pfannenstiel left Sibylle in 1968, resuming her position as chief reporter at Wochenpost. She retired in 1986 but continued to work as a freelance journalist. Margot Pfannstiel died in Berlin on 10 October 1993.