Erika Leuchtag
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29 August 1908
Erika Leuchtag | |
|---|---|
.png) Leuchtag from a 1958 newspaper | |
| Born | Erika Kate Leuchtag 29 August 1908 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | 11 August 1980 (aged 71) Hendon, London, England |
Erika Leuchtag (29 August 1908 – 11 August 1980) was a German physiotherapist. In 1949 she became the first European to enter the King of Nepal's palace in Kathmandu, where she was hired to treat the King's senior wife, Queen Kanti of Nepal.[1] Leuchtag quickly began to treat the King too, and the two developed a close friendship. She supported him in his plans to overthrow the Prime Minister of the Rana dynasty, which had controlled the Shah dynasty and kept the royal family under house arrest for a century.[2] In 1957 the Rank Organisation paid a "record price" for the film rights to her book With a King in the Clouds, before it had been written.[3]
Leuchtag was born in Hamburg, Germany. She left Germany in April 1939 "because of the rise of Hitler" and travelled to India.[4][5] In October 1952, after 12 years in Asia, including time spent in Nepal, she moved to England. By 1957 she was living on Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead. At the time of her death in 1980 she was living in Mill Hill, North London.[6]
