Gerda von Zobeltitz — excuse me, Countess Gerda von Zobeltitz was one of the first to receive what was known as Transvestitenschein, otherwise known as the “transvestite pass” in Germany in 1912 during the Weimar era. The Countess (not the the Luann from The Real Housewives of New York) was not only a tailor and sartorially sickening, she was a trailblazing trans activist and writer. She wrote a brief autobiography for the queer publication of the time Die Freundin and lived her life openly as a trans person in a time when queerness, transness, and gender non-conformity was not the norm. She often had run-ins with the police for wearing women’s clothing and for her gender expression.
All came to a head on July 5, 1930 in Berlin when one of the largest queer organizations in Germany Bund für Menschenrecht (BfM, or League for Human rights) took a steamboat trip the Waldhaus restaurant in Rauchfangswerder. They rented a hall at the Waldhaus, but the hall next to theirs was occupied by a group of police officers — we know how this ends.
As the night went on and alcohol flowed, the taunting began, insults were thrown, and then the violence began. The result was the first cited resistance of LGBTQ people against police harassment in Germany and it would be 40 years later when Stonewall would happen in New York.
And as it would happen today, the headlines and the public sided with the police officers. The police claimed they were provoked and that it was self-defense.
Gerda’s story and many other trans stories are told in the Eli Erlick’s incredible book Before Gender: Lost Stories from Trans History, 1850-1950.
