Walter Langer

Walter Langer was born in Přívoz, Ostrava, one of three sons of Franz Langer and Berta Messing. His family had a long history in the railroad industry; his father worked as a railway clerk and an office dispatcher at the station in Přívoz, one of his grandfathers was a train driver, and the other was a railway supervisor. His paternal family was originally from Bravantice, and his maternal family from Šunychl. Walter Langer attended primary and secondary schooling in Ostrava and later studied chemistry in Wien (Vienna) where he obtained a doctorate degree. While living in Vienna, he was also briefly married and had a daughter, though the marriage was later dissolved.

By 1926, Langer first came to the United States and settled in New York where he took up figure skating, training under Austrian figure skater Willy Böckl, four-time World Champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist. He also worked as a chemist in the cosmetics industry for Marinello. A member of the Winter Sports Club and Skating Club of New York, Langer competed in domestic competitions including at the 1928 U.S. Championship in New Haven, Connecticut where he placed third. Over the next few years, he continued to perform in skating carnivals and exhibitions in New York as well as in Czechoslovakia. He also had business interests in Breslau (now Wrocław) as well as in Havana, Cuba. A resident of Brooklyn at the time, Langer represented his birth country of Czechoslovakia at the 1932 Olympic Winter Games held in Lake Placid, New York and placed 10th in men’s singles. During the Olympics, he also reported back to Europe on the events for the Ostrauer Zeitung. Langer retired from competition shortly after the Games, but continued to be active in the sport as an accredited judge.

Becoming an American citizen in 1932, Langer established himself in New York City as a leading expert in cosmetics and also worked as a consultant chemist for the American Metals Company (AMCO). Marrying an Englishwoman, the former Eveline Westall Castle in 1936, Langer and his wife went on to run a successful perfume company, Evyan Perfumes in 1946, which became known for its signature scent, White Shadows. By the late 1940s, he and his wife had begun using the names Baron and Baroness von Langendorff and were prominent figures in the social scene of New York City. It does not appear, however, that Langer was from a noble family. Langer and his wife owned several properties in New York City, including the Stuysevant Fish House on Gramercy Park, a suite at the The Pierre Hotel, and two mansions in Westport, Connecticut. Following the death of his Eveline in 1968, he remarried Gabriele Lagerwall, originally from Sweden, who also became known as Baroness Langer von Langendorff. Walter Langer died in his suite at The Pierre in New York City in 1983 at the age of 84 and was interred in a prominent mausoleum at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport.