Dora Richter

Dora Rudolfine Richter (16 April 1892 – 26 April 1966) was a German trans woman and the first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender-affirming surgery. She was one of a number of transgender people in the care of sex-research pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld at Berlin's Institute for Sexual Research during the 1920s and early 1930s. She underwent surgical removal of the testicles in 1922, followed in 1931 by removal of the penis and vaginoplasty. Richter died at the age of 74 in Allersberg, Bavaria, on 26 April 1966.

Early life Richter was born as the second child of seven to a poor farming family on 16 April 1892. At the age of 6, she apparently tried to remove her penis with a tourniquet.

In 1909, after a baker apprenticeship, she left her small town and moved to a bigger one, where she continued to dress as a girl in her free time.

Surgeries In 1922, Richter underwent an orchiectomy, From May 1923,

In 1931, , a psychiatrist working at the institute, published a paper about Richter's (and Toni Ebel's) gender confirming surgeries as a case study in the : "Her castration had the effect – albeit not very extensive – of making her body become fuller, restricting her beard growth, making visible the first signs of breast development, and giving the pelvic fat pad... a more feminine shape."

Later years From left to right: Toni Ebel, Charlotte Charlaque and Dora Richter, c. 1933

In late 1931, Richter was working as a chef at Restaurant Kempinski (modern Hotel Bristol) at Kurfürstendamm 27.

In May 1933, with growing Nazi influence in Germany (Hirschfeld had fled the country), a mob of students attacked the institute, and the state authorities then burned its records. Richter's fate after this incident remained unknown for many years, and researchers assumed that she had died during the attack. Her employer was listed as Berta Kolitsch, who traded in bobbin lace.