Lili Elbe

For the opera, see Lili Elbe (opera).
Lili Elbe
Black-and-white photograph of Lili Elbe. She is a white woman with dark hair. She is wearing a sunflower dress and jewelry and holding a hand fan.
Elbe in 1926
Born(1882-12-28)28 December 1882
Vejle, Denmark
Died13 September 1931(1931-09-13) (aged 48)
Dresden, Weimar Republic
Other namesLili Ilse Elvenes (legal name)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1904; annul. 1930)​

Lili Ilse Elvenes (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), better known as Lili Elbe, was a Danish painter, transgender woman, and one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery (then called sex reassignment surgery).[1][2]

She was a painter under her birth name Einar Wegener.[3] After transitioning in 1930, she changed her legal name to Lili Ilse Elvenes, stopped painting,[4] and later adopted the surname Elbe. She was the first known recipient of a uterus transplant in an attempt to achieve pregnancy, but died due to the subsequent complications.[5][6][7][8]

The UK and US versions of her semi-autobiographical narrative were published posthumously in 1933 under the title Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex.[9][10] A film inspired by her life, The Danish Girl, was released in 2015. An opera based on her life, Lili Elbe, composed by Tobias Picker, premiered in 2023.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ Hirschfeld, Magnus (1926). "Chirurgische Eingriffe bei Anomalien des Sexuallebens". Therapie der Gegenwart (in German): 67, 451–455.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Koymasky-2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Meyer 2015, pp. 15, 310–313.
  4. ^ Meyer, Sabine (2015). »Wie Lili zu einem richtigen Mädchen wurde«: Lili Elbe: Zur Konstruktion von Geschlecht und Identität zwischen Medialisierung, Regulierung und Subjektivierung (in German). Verlag. pp. 311–314. ISBN 978-3-8394-3180-1.
  5. ^ Goldberg, A. E.; Beemyn, G. (2021). The Sage Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. Sage Publications. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-5443-9382-7. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  6. ^ Kroløkke, C.; Petersen, T. S.; Herrmann, J. R.; Bach, A.S.; Adrian, S. W.; Klingenberg, R.; Petersen, M. N. (2019). The Cryopolitics of Reproduction on Ice: A New Scandinavian Ice Age. Emerald Studies in Reproduction, Culture and Society. Emerald Publishing Limited. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-83867-044-3. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  7. ^ "Lili Elbe Biography". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference This Week-2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Worthen, Meredith (n.d.). "Lili Elbe – Painter". Biography.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  10. ^ Elbe, Lili (2020). "Introduction". In Caughie, Pamela; Meyer, Sabine (eds.). Man Into Woman: A Comparative Scholarly Edition. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-350-02149-5.
  11. ^ "Lili Elbe". tobiaspicker.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  12. ^ Charles Shafaieh. "Living Authentically". Opera News. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  13. ^ Cannon, Richard. "Lucia Lucas: The BBC Music Magazine Interview". BBC Music Magazine. Retrieved 11 September 2023.