Gerda von Zobeltitz

Gerda von Zobeltitz (9 June 1891 – 29 March 1963) was a German dressmaker, noblewoman, and one of the first recognized transgender people in the late German Empire and early Weimar Republic.

Life An article about Zobeltitz in the Chattanooga Daily Times, August 12, 1912. Zobeltitz came from the noble family of the same name, albeit from a line that had "gone down somewhat in social terms in recent generations". She grew up in Weissensee, Berlin and lived there with her family for most of her life. Her father was a saddler, like her grandfather. Her mother is sometimes listed in address books as a market foreman, and other times as a widow. Zobeltitz had an older brother who died in infancy, and a sister who was two years younger than her who stayed close to the family.

Zobeltitz is first recorded under the name Gerda in 1912. She was arrested for the first time in February 1912, and was taken to the Weissensee police station. She was soon released, and a report was filed by the Berlin police regarding her status. The report corresponded to Hirschfeld's view of transvestite behavior at the time. It attested Gerda's "unsuppressable tendency" from an early age to "live in the manner of the opposite sex, in particular to dress as a girl and to engage in play and work".

Following arrest, Gerda wrote to Magnus Hirschfeld, asking for his assistance. Hirschfeld and his colleague, Ernst Burchard, ran a practice in which they pioneered sexual medicine and from which the Institute for Sexual Science emerged in 1919. They examined Zobeltitz and gave her a report that was supposed to help her get one of the first so-called transvestite passes. This document was intended to protect people whose clothing did not correspond to their official sex from police persecution.

In 1912, von Zobeltitz applied for a transvestite pass with the help of the report from the Berlin police chief, Traugott von Jagow, and received the pass on August 6, 1912

Gerda also wore women's clothing for the Imperial Army's examination in 1913. They also certified that she had no tendency towards criminally prosecuted homosexuality.

In June 1914, von Zobeltitz was arrested again at short notice because she was wearing extraordinarily conspicuous clothing and had attracted large crowds on several occasions. She worked as a dressmaker and wore her own designs in extravagant fashion according to the latest fashion. In August 1916 two newspapers again reported on Gerda von Zobeltitz, saying she had married an actress; the two appeared in a photo in their wedding dresses. In fact, on August 29, 1916, von Zobeltitz married 37 year-old privatier Charlotte Valeska Theophila Paulig, who was born in Berlin-Schoeneberg.

Since then, Gerda von Zobeltitz has repeatedly been mentioned in depictions of the role of early trans people in the Weimar Republic, such as in the exhibition "TO BE SEEN. queer lives 1900–1950" at the NS-Document Center Munich 2022/23.