Medical figure. She was a transgender woman and an early recipient of gender confirmation surgery.
Lili was born in Vejle, Denmark, the child of Ane Marie Thomsen and spice merchant Mogens Wilhelm Wegener, most likely in 1882. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she met and married Gerda Gottlieb, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, in 1904. She worked as a landscape painter under the name of Einar Wegener. In 1912, Lili and Gerda moved to Paris where Lili could present openly as a woman, posing as Gerda's sister-in-law. There, she modeled for Gerda's paintings in feminine clothing and adopted the name Lili. She stopped painting after her transition.
In 1930, Lili traveled to Germany's Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science to receive gender-affirming surgery. Her marriage to Gerda was annulled that October. Her name and sex were legally changed, and she received a Danish passport which properly reflected her identity as a woman. Her experiences were widely covered in Danish newspapers at the time.
Lilli returned to Dresden and began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, whom she wished to marry and with whom she wished to have children. (Gerda remarried, but the marriage ended in divorce.) In 1931, she received an early uterine transplant and vaginoplasty. However, little was known at the time about the importance of tissue compatibility in organ transplant and her body rejected the transplanted uterus, leading to infection which caused her death three months post-operation.
Lili's paintings are still on display at the Vejle Art Museum in her hometown.
Lili was born in Vejle, Denmark, the child of Ane Marie Thomsen and spice merchant Mogens Wilhelm Wegener, most likely in 1882. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she met and married Gerda Gottlieb, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, in 1904. She worked as a landscape painter under the name of Einar Wegener. In 1912, Lili and Gerda moved to Paris where Lili could present openly as a woman, posing as Gerda's sister-in-law. There, she modeled for Gerda's paintings in feminine clothing and adopted the name Lili. She stopped painting after her transition.
In 1930, Lili traveled to Germany's Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science to receive gender-affirming surgery. Her marriage to Gerda was annulled that October. Her name and sex were legally changed, and she received a Danish passport which properly reflected her identity as a woman. Her experiences were widely covered in Danish newspapers at the time.
Lilli returned to Dresden and began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, whom she wished to marry and with whom she wished to have children. (Gerda remarried, but the marriage ended in divorce.) In 1931, she received an early uterine transplant and vaginoplasty. However, little was known at the time about the importance of tissue compatibility in organ transplant and her body rejected the transplanted uterus, leading to infection which caused her death three months post-operation.
Lili's paintings are still on display at the Vejle Art Museum in her hometown.
Medical figure. She was a transgender woman and an early recipient of gender confirmation surgery.
Lili was born in Vejle, Denmark, the child of Ane Marie Thomsen and spice merchant Mogens Wilhelm Wegener, most likely in 1882. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she met and married Gerda Gottlieb, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, in 1904. She worked as a landscape painter under the name of Einar Wegener. In 1912, Lili and Gerda moved to Paris where Lili could present openly as a woman, posing as Gerda's sister-in-law. There, she modeled for Gerda's paintings in feminine clothing and adopted the name Lili. She stopped painting after her transition.
In 1930, Lili traveled to Germany's Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science to receive gender-affirming surgery. Her marriage to Gerda was annulled that October. Her name and sex were legally changed, and she received a Danish passport which properly reflected her identity as a woman. Her experiences were widely covered in Danish newspapers at the time.
Lilli returned to Dresden and began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, whom she wished to marry and with whom she wished to have children. (Gerda remarried, but the marriage ended in divorce.) In 1931, she received an early uterine transplant and vaginoplasty. However, little was known at the time about the importance of tissue compatibility in organ transplant and her body rejected the transplanted uterus, leading to infection which caused her death three months post-operation.
Lili's paintings are still on display at the Vejle Art Museum in her hometown.
Lili was born in Vejle, Denmark, the child of Ane Marie Thomsen and spice merchant Mogens Wilhelm Wegener, most likely in 1882. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where she met and married Gerda Gottlieb, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, in 1904. She worked as a landscape painter under the name of Einar Wegener. In 1912, Lili and Gerda moved to Paris where Lili could present openly as a woman, posing as Gerda's sister-in-law. There, she modeled for Gerda's paintings in feminine clothing and adopted the name Lili. She stopped painting after her transition.
In 1930, Lili traveled to Germany's Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science to receive gender-affirming surgery. Her marriage to Gerda was annulled that October. Her name and sex were legally changed, and she received a Danish passport which properly reflected her identity as a woman. Her experiences were widely covered in Danish newspapers at the time.
Lilli returned to Dresden and began a relationship with French art dealer Claude Lejeune, whom she wished to marry and with whom she wished to have children. (Gerda remarried, but the marriage ended in divorce.) In 1931, she received an early uterine transplant and vaginoplasty. However, little was known at the time about the importance of tissue compatibility in organ transplant and her body rejected the transplanted uterus, leading to infection which caused her death three months post-operation.
Lili's paintings are still on display at the Vejle Art Museum in her hometown.
Bio by: HH
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