Lili Elbe
| Lili Elbe | |
|---|---|
Lili Elbe in 1926
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| Born |
Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener 28 December 1882 Vejle, Denmark |
| Died | 13 September 1931 (aged 48) Dresden, Germany |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Other names | Lili Ilse Elvenes |
Lili Ilse Elvenes, better known as Lili Elbe (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), was a Danish transgender woman and one of the first identifiable recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Elbe was born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener and was a successful painter under that name. She also presented as Lili (sometimes spelled Lily) and was publicly introduced as Einar's sister. After successfully transitioning in 1930, she made a legal name change to Lili Ilse Elvenes and stopped painting altogether.
The name "Lili Elbe" was made up by Copenhagen journalist Louise "Loulou" Lassen. Lili died from complications involving a uterus transplant.
Her autobiography, Man into Woman, was posthumously published in 1933.
Elbe's year of birth is sometimes stated as 1886. This appears to be from a book about her, which has some facts changed to protect the identities of the persons involved. Factual references to the life of Elbe's wife Gerda Gottlieb indicate that the 1882 date is correct since they clearly married while at college in 1904.
It is highly likely that Elbe was an intersex person, although that has been disputed. Some reports indicate that Elbe already had rudimentary ovaries in her abdomen and she may have had Klinefelter syndrome.
Wegener met Gerda Gottlieb while they were students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and they married in 1904, when Gottlieb was 19 and Wegener was 22. The two of them worked as illustrators, with Elbe specializing in landscape paintings, while Gottlieb illustrated books and fashion magazines. They both traveled through Italy and France, eventually settling in Paris in 1912, where Elbe could live openly as a woman, and Gottlieb a lesbian. Elbe 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. She is represented at Vejle Art Museum in Denmark.
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