We calculate diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of $rho$-, $rho$- and $rho$-mesons. The incoming photon dissociates into a $qbar{q}$-dipole which scatters on the nucleon and transforms into a vector meson state. The scattering amplitude is calculated in non-perturbative QCD with the model of the stochastic vacuum. Assuming that the physical $rho$- and $rho$-mesons are mixed states of an active 2S-excitation and some residual hybrid state which cannot be produced diffractively in lowest order QCD, we obtain good agreement with the data, especially the markedly different spectrum in the $pi^+pi^-$-invariant mass for photoproduction and $e^+e^-$-annihilation.