Her Story Lives on, and so Did She | Dora Richter (1881-1966): Not Just Cistory
A comment I often get on Instagram when I share about different aspects of Queer and Trans history is that ‘trans people are a new phenomina’. I could share many different figures from throughout history, like Elegabalus, or Public Universal Friend, both individuals who could be considered Transgender by today’s metrics who were born before 1800.
However, I want to point out why some people genuinely believe this. (Ignoring the fact that many people simply lie to fit their own beliefs.) It’s because there have been multiple concerted efforts over the years to erase both queer and trans history.
Regimes and groups who have decided that trans and queer individuals (however they were labeled and understood at the time) did not fit into their ideal societies and therefore should not exist, nor should the history of their existence.
Dora Richter was almost one of those erased, by the Nazis in this case, however, she and her story survived. She was thought to have been murdered by the Nazis in the 1930s, but recently it was discovered that she had escaped and lived.
Early Life
While most of Dora’s history takes place in Berlin, it does not begin there. “Dora was born into a poor farming family in 1891 in the Erzgebirge region of Germany.” (Stroude, 2021) She was born ”[o]n April 16, [1891 or] 1892… Richter was born and baptized Catholic on April 17” (Lili-Elbe-Bibliothek, 2023).
One exciting piece of ephemera that has been found recently is a record of Dora’s baptism! There are errata associated with this entry: “a note about the change of [Richter’s] first name was added, and the name was corrected in the baptismal entry! Additionally, the baptismal register contains a letter granting permission for the name change, including instructions to correct the name” (Lili-Elbe-Bibliothek, 2023). This official documentation suggests a level of support from the Catholic church and community more than 100 years ago is still being fought for by the trans community today.
Further evidence of the support Dora received from those around her is that her parents allowed her to dress and live as a girl (Riedel, 2022). Dora experienced what we would now call dysphoria. What little record we have of her early life suggests this, including the fact that she attempted to amputate her own penis at the age of six (Riedel, 2022).
Life in Berlin
Dora moved to Berlin and began the next phase of her life. Of course, she had to work, and she was a waiter, living in stealth (meaning that she lived and dressed as her gender assigned at birth while working as a waiter, but as a woman the rest of the time. (Smith 2024).
Pre WWII- Berlin was, “a hotbed of queer socializing, organizing, and theorizing during the early 20th Century…. They provided venues for serious discussion of politics and identity… the most striking example of the era’s permissiveness was the institution of ‘transvestite passes’” (Sanders, 2020). This was one of the many aspects of our Queer and Trans history that the Nazis tried to erase, as well as all of the writings that were produced before and during this time.
Dora would be one of the recipients of the passes when, after being arrested for wearing women’s clothing multiple times a sympathetic judge “released Richter into the care of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, who promised her employment at his Institut fur Sexualwissenchaft, or Insitute for Sexual Science — the first modern research institute for queer and transgender health, nestled in Berlin’s idyllic Tiergarten park” (Riedel, 2022).
Dora Richter was one of many women who worked for Dr. Hirschfeld (another of the domestic maids was painter Lili Elbi) (Bryan-Quamina). Those in charge of the institute understood that pass or no pass, it was hard for ‘transvestites’ to find work. So, they hired them as maids and secretaries (Stroude, 2021).
Richter received her first gender affirming surgery, an “orchiectomy, which she obtained via a surgeon named Dr. Erwin Gohrbandt in 1922” (Riedel, 2022). This was cutting-edge science at the time, and it allowed Dora’s body to utilize estrogen as it’s primary sex hormone, in turn, “her body became fuller, the growth of beard diminished, breast growth became noticeable and also the fat pad of the pelvis... took on more feminine forms”, effects similar to the results of modern HRT, achieved by taking a testosteron blocker, and a hormone such as estrogen or progesteron (Abraham via Riedel, 2022).
Finally, in the early 1930s, Dora Richter received what may have very well been the very first vaginoplasties due to the efforts of Dr. Levy-Lenz and Dr. Gohrbandt (Riedel, 2022). Richter and her compatriots were essentially putting their bodies and lives on the line for science and to be affirmed in their identity, a sacrifice that we, their trans descendants, are still indebted to them for.
The institure itself was quite famous internationally, “be[omcing] known as an institution providing counselling and treatment for ‘physical and psychological sexual disorders’ as well as, in particular, for ‘sexual transitions’, Hirschfeld’s term for homosexuals, transvestites and hermaphrodites. (The First Institute for Sexual Science) Transvestite was the terminology current at the time, and was coined by doctor Hirschfeld himself. (Stroude, 2021).
Of course, this meant that it was a top priority for demolition by the Nazis. “On the 6th of May, 1933, the Deutsche Studentenschaft (German Student Union) and Nazi Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers) raised the Institut, looting and destroying much of the contents. Thousands of books, journals, and other materials were burned in the street outside of the Institut” (Smith, 2024) This destruction in of itself was horrid, but it was made even worse by “Gohrbandt, with whom [Hirschfeld] had performed supportive operations, joined the Luftwaffe as chief medical adviser” (Schillace, 2021).
The destruction of the institute was not entirely successful in its goal to wipe out the memory of the Trans Mecca that was the Institute and its research, and despite their best efforts, we still know of them today.
She Lived
It was believed until recently that Dora Richter was murdered during this raid or soon after in a concentration camp. However, in 2023, a researcher named Clara Hartmann discovered the baptismal record we talked about before. The record was dated the 28th of January 1946, which was more than ten years after her supposed death (Smith 2024).
Hartmann followed the documents and discovered that “[b]y May of 1946, Dora Richter would reside in Nuremberg. She would live there for an additional 20 years, finally passing away on the 26th of April, 1966 in Allersberg, Germany. She was 74 years old” (Smith, 2024). We do not know much about her life after she fled the institute, but we do know that she escaped and lived.
Record Your Histories
We live in a world that relies so heavily on the written word; we only know about Dora Richter’s life because of documentation. I implore you to record your lives as trans and queer folks. Whether you write things down or record them, find a way to ensure that your story lives on for our own descendants.
Our stories are precious and worth the telling, otherwise, those who fear and hate us wouldn’t work so hard to erase them
Bibliography
The First Institute for Sexual Science (1919-1933). Magnus Hirschfeld und das Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. (n.d.). https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/ausstellungen/institute/
In böhmischen Dörfern – Dora Richters Taufeintrag gefunden. Lili-Elbe-Bibliothek. 2023, April 25). https://lili-elbe.de/blog/2023/04/dora-richter-taufeintrag/
Bryan-Quamina, Gabrielle Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science. Science Museum Blog. (n.d.). https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/magnus-hirschfeld-and-the-institute-for-sexual-science/
Riedel, S. (2022, March 15). Remembering Dora Richter, one of the first women to receive gender-affirming surgery. Them. https://www.them.us/story/dora-richter-first-trans-woman-to-receive-gender-affirming-surgery
Sanders, W. (2020, January 27). 9 lesser-known details of queer persecution during Nazi Germany. Them. https://www.them.us/story/queer-persecution-during-nazi-germany
Schillace, B. (2024, February 20). The forgotten history of the world’s first trans clinic. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/
Smith, G. (2024, June 25). Dora Richter lived. Philadelphia Gay News. https://epgn.com/2024/06/25/dora-richter-lived/
Stroude, W. (2022, September 26). The incredible story of the first known trans woman to undergo gender confirmation surgery. Attitude. https://web.archive.org/web/20230620111801/https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/sexuality/the-incredible-story-of-the-first-known-trans-woman-to-undergo-gender-confirmation-surgery-304097/
