Elbe, Lili

Lili Ilse Evenes, known as Lili Elbe, was as an early recipient of gender-affirming surgery. Born in Vejle, Denmark, in 1882, Elbe was assigned male at birth and christened Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener. Under the name Einar Wegener, she established a solid career as a landscape painter. In 1930, Elbe successfully petitioned the Danish state for a change of name and gender. From 1930 to 1931, she undertook a series of surgeries in Germany, the last of which resulted in her untimely death. Her life story, Fra Mand til Kvinde [Man Into Woman], was posthumously published in Danish in 1931, with a German version appearing in 1932, an English one in 1933, and an abridged French serialization in 1934. This entry looks beyond the well-known ...