Lili Elbe

The story of Lili Elbe is a peculiar story about a man who underwent the first operation in the world in 1930 to become a woman. It's about an open-minded couple who became sexual pioneers and a man who had the courage to go against the norms.

Lili Elbe was born a man, by the name of Einar Wegener. He got married and had a wife, Gerda Wegener. The two of them were artists, Gerda was a good painter and photographer and was more popular than her husband at the time. The two of them had always had a good relationship were Gerda was understanding and supportive of her husband, always by his side no matter how hard the circumstances were.

In the twenties, Denmark was at the time somewhat open, sexuality and women's right-wise. The suffragettes were parading in the city for women's right to vote and the gay community was half-visibly present in certain areas of the capital.



The event that triggered it all happened to be Gerda, who by the time often used female models for her paintings, asking her husband to don stockings and a dress because she thought his hips and legs looked so much nicer than those of her models and society-wives who often modelled for her. By Einar, merely putting on women's clothing, was enough to flip a switch inside of him that he never had thought about flipping before. From that day on, when the young couple would go out with friends or to parties, Einar would from time to time dress in women's clothes, for the fun of it.

Even though Denmark was open to a certain point, several people pointed fingers at them, laughing at them. So the couple had no choice than to move to Paris where people were even more open minded towards subject of these matters.



In Paris, when they first settled down, Gerda became a fashion illustrator in the city and nobody knew them at first. It even came as far as people laughing at Einar, when the couple went for walk along the Seine, because they thought it was ridiculous for a woman to wear men's clothing. After incidents like those, Einar went to wearing womens clothing on a more regular basis, taking the name of Lili Elbe.

Lili Elbe fit in perfectly on the Parisian scene. She often spoke her mind and her charms even had several men proposing marriage to her, all of which she refused. Because she still had no inner calm. She would often take nocturnal walks, contemplating suicide because it felt like two persons battling it out inside her body. She knew that there wasn't room for both of them and eventually one had to go away or they would both have to perish.

Doctors offered no answer when the couple went to see them. They claimed that Lili Elbe was either going out of her mind or quite simply, a homosexual. It wasn't until later that a German docotr, who researched in hormones had an answer that Lili could use. By running tests, he could see that her body contained more female hormones than the usual and said that Lili was a woman inside and that he probably had the answer to that. When Lili heard that she thrust herself into the doctors mercy, allowing him to do whatever to her so that she could become complete.

Unfortunately, surgical procedures were not advanced at the time. And what was a transforming procedure might very well have been a simple castration.


Lili Elbe with her nurse after the first surgery.

But it didn't stop there. Because the thing that she wanted the most was to be able to give birth one day and fully become a woman. So she underwent another surgery that was supposed to inject ovaries into her abdomen, removed from a healthy young woman.

When she complained about pains in the abdomen, the doctor had to remove the tubes and ovaries that her body had rejected. But she never lost hope. When Gerda and Lili's marriage was annulled by the King of Denmark, she even accepted a marriage proposal but within short time she died of the infections caused by the complications of the surgery.

When she was buried, written on her tombstone was her female name: Lili Elbe, after her dying wish.

In the light of my last entry on Haruna Ai, I researched the topic and decided to write about the first transsexual operation in the world and the person who gave her life for it. I don't think it's possible for me to fully understand the inner conflicts that transsexuals experience and the hardships that they have to go through. I think that Lili Elbe was a very courageous human being that put words into action. To want something that much that you're willing to die for it is admirable and passion in true form. I wonder if I will ever be able to experience want and passion of this measure...