Dora Richter

Dora Richter, German transgender woman and the first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender-affirming surgery (died 1966)

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Born: April 16, 1892
Died: April 26, 1966
Zodiac sign: Aries
Birth year: 1892

About 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 in Seifen (now Ryžovna), a small town in the Bohemian Ore Mountains region to a poor farming family on 16 April 1892. Her mother was Antonia Richter (née Kraus; 1867–1938), and her father, Josef Richter (1862–1931), was a musician. She was baptized into the Catholic Church on 17 April 1892. Early in childhood, Richter displayed a "tendency to act and carry on in a feminine way". 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.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

In early 1931, Richter had a penectomy performed by Institute physician Ludwig Levy-Lenz, and in June that year an artificial vagina was surgically grafted by Gohrbandt, making her the first recorded transgender woman to undergo vaginoplasty.
Richter's fate after this attack was unknown for many years.
According to 1939 Census records from Prague's National Archives, Richter was living in a house that she owned in her birthplace of Ryžovna as of 17 May 1939, was unmarried and earned her living as a homework lace maker.

Dora Richter timeline

1892Dora 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.
1931In early 1931, Richter had a penectomy performed by Institute physician Ludwig Levy-Lenz, and in June that year an artificial vagina was surgically grafted by Gohrbandt, making her the first recorded transgender woman to undergo vaginoplasty.
1939According to 1939 Census records from Prague's National Archives, Richter was living in a house that she owned in her birthplace of Ryžovna as of 17 May 1939, was unmarried and earned her living as a homework lace maker.

The world when Dora Richter was born

Dora Richter was born in 1892. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentFirst heavyweight boxing title under Queensberry rules
Top headlineEllis Island immigration station opens
Technology milestoneDiesel engine patented by Rudolf Diesel
World population~1.52B

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderBenjamin Harrison
U.S. population65.0M

1892 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Dora Richter's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1892	2026
Population	65.0M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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