Lili Elbe

Lili Ilse Elvenes, often known as Lili Elbe, was a transgender woman from Denmark who had sex reassignment surgery in the early 1900s. As Einar Wegener, her birth name, she achieved fame as a painter. She quit painting and changed her legal name to Lili Ilse Elvenes in 1930 after transitioning; she eventually took the last name Elbe. She passed away as a result of uterine transplant difficulties. Her semi-autobiographical story was released posthumously in the UK and the US in 1933 under the title Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex.

It is generally accepted that Elbe was born in Vejle, Denmark, in 1882, the son of spice trader Mogens Wilhelm Wegener and Ane Marie Thomsen. Her year of birth is occasionally given as 1886, which appears to be taken from a biography of her in which certain details have been altered to protect the identity of those concerned. According to information regarding her wife Gerda Gottlieb, Elbe was married in 1904 when she was still a college student, making the 1882 date more likely to be accurate. If the 1886 date were valid, Elbe would have only been eighteen. Elbe was allegedly intersex, however it has since been refuted. According to some stories, she may have had Klinefelter syndrome and already had rudimentary ovaries in her belly.

Landscapes, interior settings, still lifes, and portraits were all featured in Elbe's work. She passed very shortly after undergoing the fifth of five extremely experimental procedures to replace her male genitalia with feminine sex organs. In Elbe's case, gender identity was first treated as distinct from sexual orientation, making it the first known instance of gender confirmation surgery.

Detailed information:
Full name: Lili Ilse Elvenes
Date of birth: 28 December 1882
Date of death: 13 September 1931
Known for:

• Greek Youth, 1903
• Poplars along Hobro Fjord, 1908
• Study with figures