KNOWhomo

LGBTQ* People and History You Should Know

Lili Elbe < Einar Mogens Wegener>  (1886-1931) 

-  First known recipient of genital reconstruction surgery

-  Believed Lili may have been intersex (a doctor noticed rudimentary ovaries during on examination) and also found higher count of female hormones in blood tests

-  Married Gerda in 1906 – both worked as illustrators together

-  Started to dress in female attire and transition after marriage to Gerda, later referred to Gerda as her sister

- Later, publicly identified as Lili Elbe and maneuvered throughout society in the late 1920’s/1930’s with acceptance and tolerance from her immediate community

-  In 1930, Elbe went to Germany to meet with Sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld

-  She was then introduced to Dr. Warnekros in the Dresden Women’s Clinic

-   Her first surgery removed the male genitals (Hirschfeld supervised the procedure)

-   She had ovaries added during another surgery (later removed due to complications)

-  Her case marked medical review and fascination skyrocketing discussions of sexual reassignment and genital reconstruction in Germany and Denmark 

-  The government granted Lili legal documents with both sex and name changes

-  King of Denmark invalidated her marriage to Gerda in October 1930 (not in spite but because the marriage was no longer between a man and a woman)

-  Gerda remarried and Lili accepted a marriage proposal of her own

-  Lili Elbe died in 1931 – believed to be complications from surgeries

·        Man into Woman (edited by Ernst Ludwig Hathorn Jacobson using the pseudonym Niels Hoyer), was published in 1933. The book uses pseudonyms for her friends and those closest to her.