Gerd Katter

Gerd Katter (14 March 1910 – 1995) was a German apprentice carpenter, insurance agent and patient of the notable German physician and sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld.

Katter is largely discussed in the context of his gender identity and status as a patient of Magnus Hirschfeld. Though he was assigned female at birth, Katter lived as a man, changing his name, pronouns and physical form to align with his sense of gender.

Early life Born on March 14, 1910, in Berlin-Britz, Gerd Katter disidentified with his assigned gender at birth. Through publications that described homosexuality and transvestism, such as those by sexual scientist Max Hodann, Das 3. Geschlecht by German activist and author Friedrich Radszuweit, and Magnus Hirschfeld's book Geschlechtskunde, Katter became aware of diverse iterations of sexuality and gender, which informed his own sense of identity.

Surgery In 1927, at age sixteen, Katter visited Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin with his mother, seeking gender affirming surgery in the form of a double mastectomy. The Institute, a research centre specializing in sexology, was known for providing medical and counselling services to its patients. Katter was turned away due to his young age, but returned to the Institute a few days later after having attempted the procedure by himself with a razor, though Katter does not mention this self-injury in his autobiographical account. Later in his life, while living in Brandenburg, East Germany, Katter contacted the Magnus Hirschfeld Society (German: Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft) and donated his records. Katter's various transvestitenschein documents represent some of the few artifacts that scholars have access to today, and have been used to examine the role of identity documents in the fashioning of gender identity in Weimar Berlin.

Later life Katter went on to complete a carpenter's apprenticeship in Berlin, and later lived in Birkenwerder, a village in Brandenburg, East Germany, with his mother, where he worked for an insurance company and took acting lessons. Though Katter's lamentation of Hirschfeld's unjust treatment and victimization under Nazi rule emphasized Hirschfeld's identity as a German, he made no mention of his Jewish identity, believing it would transmute the perception of Hirschfeld from an "active fighter" of fascism into a "passive victim."

Following this letter, Katter contacted friends of Hirschfeld and individuals with cultural influence who he felt may support his endeavour including the German Jewish writers, Friedrich Wolf and Arnold Zweig. In 1985, Katter learned of the Magnus Hirschfeld Society through a West Berlin radio program, and wrote to them, eventually donating his personal archive and recording interviews with the Society.

Death Gerd Katter died in the village of Birkenwerder in Brandenburg, Germany in 1995.