Georgina Leichenberg was a highly regarded German laboratory scientist who specialised in virology and bio-containment. Her work is often cited as being at the forefront of modern proactive preventative medicine, with her methods providing a blueprint for process-driven viral-culture analysis to this day. She has been a widely recognised leading authoritative figure in her field since the mid nineteen eighties.
Georgina was born just outside Cologne to strict Evangelical parents who, daunted by the magnitude of parental responsibility, abandoned her shortly after her third birthday. Despite several failed attempts by the authorities to find willing, adoptive parents, she was eventually taken in and raised by her aunt Katrina, an eccentric and somewhat flamboyant spinster. Katrina was known locally for her over-exuberant greetings which, in addition to an allusion to her sunny disposition (usually sung in a light, often carefree manner), incorporated an exaggerated and oft-repeated arm gesture, something akin to a series of overemphasised waves.
Georgina’s genius was apparent from an early age and her aunt, recognising her undeniable potential, gave her every encouragement. A keen interest in natural sciences proliferated throughout her teens culminating in her acceptance into the University of Würzburg; the first person to be accepted onto the course at fifteen years old. Her self-absorbed, highly focussed application to study saw her become something of a Titan amongst her classmates, and garnered a number of awards for various theses which served to substantiate her global reputation.
After leaving Würzburg with a masters degree commendation, she spent a number of years travelling the globe studying life-threatening viruses wherever they presented themselves; often taking samples back to her newly created private lab back in Cologne for further analysis. Cologne being a vibrant and progressive city, furnished her with the perfect backdrop against which she could proliferate her alternative lifestyle. She would regularly dress as a man, preferring to keep her hair cut short, adorning herself in men’s formal suits and loungewear, and conversing in a deep masculine voice.
Her work, and lifestyle (relatively unconventional for the day), quickly attracted the attention of other leading German virologists who flocked to Cologne in order to share ideas and results, hypothesise, and to generally engage in scientific discourse. They would spend prolonged evenings at many of Cologne’s leading nightspots earning themselves a reputation as scientific hell raisers. As the leading light of this progressive group of scientists, Georgina’s peers would affectionately refer to her as ‘Das Mädchen Georgina’ (Girl Georgina) with the group becoming known locally, and quite uniquely, as Kulturklub, or ‘Culture Club’ in English; a moniker obviously alluding to the group’s invaluable lab-work combatting infectious disease.
A number of challenging relationships within Kulturklub, led Georgina to become disillusioned with the scientific community. In recent years she has turned her back on her virological endeavours, preferring to embrace her new interest as a high profile mainstream dance club DJ in Ibiza and other Balearic hotspots. Although she has retained her exuberant aesthetic, she currently dresses in a manner which could be mistaken as marginally more feminine, and she has taken to shaving her facial hair.
