Lili Elbe

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Lili Elbe
Lili Elbe 1926.jpg
Lili Elbe in 1926
Born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener
(1882-12-28)28 December 1882
Vejle, Denmark
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Dresden, Germany
Other names Lili Ilse Elvenes

Lili Ilse Elvenes, better known as Lili Elbe (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), real name Einar Wegener was a Danish man who attempted to change into a woman and died as the result of unethical experimentation by the German doctor Hirschfeld, Magnus. [1] He was one of the earliest recipients of so-called sex reassignment surgery.[2] Elbe was born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener[3] and was a successful artist under that name. He adopted the name Lili when he started cross-dressing. Later he registered a legal name change to Lili Ilse Elvenes[4] and stopped painting.

Einar's year of birth is sometimes stated as 1886. This appears to be from a book about him, which has some facts changed to protect the identities of the persons involved. Factual references to the life of Einar's wife Gerda Gottlieb indicate that the 1882 date is correct since they married while at college in 1904.[5][6] It has been claimed that Einar was an intersex person,[7] but this is the result of transgender ideology appropriating and misrepresenting intersex conditions.[8]

His autobiography Man into Woman, was published in 1933.[9]

Marriage and modelling

Einar Wegener.jpg

Einar met Gerda Gottlieb at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen,[10] and they married in 1904, when Gerda was 19 and Einar was 22.[5] The two of them worked as illustrators, with Einar specializing in landscape paintings, while Gottlieb illustrated books and fashion magazines.

One day when Gerda's model did not turn up she asked Einar to act as a substitute, putting on stockings and high heels so his legs could be drawn. Einar enjoyed the experience and repeated it.[11] Over time, Gerda became famous for her paintings of beautiful women with haunting almond-shaped eyes dressed in chic fashions. In 1913, the public was shocked to discover that the model for these paintings was in fact Einar.[5]

They traveled through Italy and France, eventually settling in Paris in 1912, where Einar could pass as a woman.[5] Einar received the Neuhausens prize in 1907 and exhibited at Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling (the Artists Fall Exhibition), at the Vejle Art Museum, and in the Saloon and Salon d'Automme in Paris. He is represented at Vejle Art Museum in Denmark.[11]

In the 1920s, Einar regularly passed as a woman in public, attending various festivities and entertaining guests at home. He appears to have become obsessed with the role and developed gender dysphoria.[12][13] Gerda would introduce Einar as Wegener's sister Lili.[2]

Surgeries and dissolution of marriage

File:Lili Elbe by Gerda Wegener.jpg
Lili Elbe by Gerda Gottlieb

In 1930, Elbe went to Germany to see Dr Magnus Hirschfeld a sexologist who was willing to attempt to use surgical means to alter his body to resemble that of a woman, although it would of course always remain male. A series of four operations was carried out over a period of two years.[13] The first surgery, removal of the testicles, was made under the supervision of Dr Hirschfeld in Berlin.[13] The rest of Einar's surgeries were carried out by Kurt Warnekros, a doctor at the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic.[14] The second operation was to implant ovaries onto his abdominal musculature, and the third to remove his penis and scrotum,[15] A fourth operation was planned.[16][17]

At the time of Elbe's last surgery, his case was already a sensation in newspapers of Denmark and Germany. A Danish court invalidated the Wegeners' marriage in October 1930,[18]. Einar got his sex and name legally changed, including receiving a passport as Lili Ilse Elvenes. He stopped painting, believing it to be something that was part of his previous masculine identity. After the divorce, he returned to Dresden for a final surgery.

Death

In June 1931, Elbe had his fourth operation, which consisted of implanting a uterus and the construction of a vagina, both of which were new and experimental procedures at that time.[16] He died three months after the surgery due to heart paralysis caused by the rejection of the uterus by his immune system and the resulting infection.[16][17][19][20]

His widow Gerda went on to marry an Italian military officer, aviator, and diplomat, Major Fernando "Nando" Porta, and moved to Morocco, where she would learn of the death of Einar, whom she described to a friend as "my poor little Lily [sic]".[citation needed] During their marriage, Fernando burned through all of Gerda's savings, and after living for several years in Marrakech and Casablanca, the Portas divorced. Gerda then returned to Denmark, where she died "penniless" in 1940.[17]

In popular culture

The book misleadingly titled Man into Woman: The First Sex Change was written about Elbe and first published in 1933.[21]

The LGBT film festival MIX Copenhagen gives four "Lili" awards named after Elbe.[22]

David Ebershoff's 2000 novel The Danish Girl is a fictionalized account of the life of Lili Elbe.[23] It was an international bestseller and was translated into a dozen languages. The film version, produced by Gail Mutrux and Neil LaBute and starring Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, was well received at the Venice Film Festival in September 2015, where its mission as transgender propaganda went down well.[24] The film has been, absurdly, criticized for its casting of a man in the title role of Einar Wegender, who was in fact, a man at every stage of his tragic existence. [25]

References

  1. Chirurgische Eingriffe bei Anomalien des Sexuallebens: Therapie der Gegenwart, pp. 67, 451–455
  2. 2.0 2.1 Lili Elbe. andrejkoymasky.com. 17 May 2003
  3. Meyer, Sabine (2015), »Wie Lili zu einem richtigen Mädchen wurde« – Lili Elbe: Zur Konstruktion von Geschlecht und Identität zwischen Medialisierung, Regulierung und Subjektivierung, p. 15, pp. 312-313.
  4. (Meyer 2015, pp. 311–314)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 She and She: The Marriage of Gerda and Einar Wegener. The Copenhagen Post. 3 July 2000
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  11. 11.0 11.1 The Arts and Transgender. renaissanceblackpool.org
  12. Gerda Wegener. get2net.dk
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  14. Brown, Kay (1997) Lili Elbe. Transhistory.net.
  15. (Meyer 2015, pp. 271–281)
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  18. (Meyer 2015, pp. 308–311)
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Further reading

  • Man into Woman, a book about the life of Lili Elbe (edited by Ernst Ludwig Harthern-Jacobsen using the pseudonym Niels Hoyer) was published in 1933. The book also uses pseudonyms for her friends. ISBN 0-9547072-0-6.
  • »Wie Lili zu einem richtigen Mädchen wurde« – Lili Elbe: Zur Konstruktion von Geschlecht und Identität zwischen Medialisierung, Regulierung und Subjektivierung by Sabine Meyer (2015), ISBN 978-3-8376-3180-7.
  • Schnittmuster des Geschlechts. Transvestitismus und Transsexualität in der frühen Sexualwissenschaft by Dr. Rainer Herrn (2005), pp. 204–211. ISBN 3-89806-463-8. German study containing a detailed account of the operations of Lili Elbe, their preparations and the role of Magnus Hirschfeld.

External links