Kurt Warnekros

Kurt Warnekros (born November 15, 1882 in Neustrelitz , † September 30, 1949 in Paris ) was a German gynecologist . He was the head of the gynecological clinic in Dresden for many years and carried out one of the first sex reassignment operations in 1930 .

Live and act

As the son of the later medical professor Ludwig Warnekros at Berlin University , Warnekros studied medicine in Würzburg and Berlin from 1902 to 1907 . In 1908 he received his medical license . From 1909 he worked at the women's clinic at the University of Berlin, where he also completed his habilitation in 1914. In 1918 Warnekros was appointed professor and in 1924 temporarily took over the management of the clinic. In addition to working as a gynecologist and obstetrician, Warnekros also worked scientifically in the field of X-rays with his sister, a trained X -ray assistant . For example, he published a highly acclaimed book with X-rays of babies in the womb.

In 1925 he took over the management of the gynecological clinic of the Dresden-Johannstadt City Hospital . As a successful obstetrician, he was soon able to show a large number of prominent patients, including Princess Ileana of Romania , a daughter of King Ferdinand I of Romania , and the wife of the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov .

In 1930, Warnekros hit the headlines when he performed one of the first sex reassignment surgeries . The patient Lili Elbe was previously known as Einar Wegener as a landscape and architectural painter and was born with both male and female organs. After ovarian transplantation, a uterus should be transplanted in a fourth operation. A few months later in 1931 there were complications, probably due to transplant rejection , from which Lili Elbe died. It was only over 80 years later that this operation was successfully carried out for the first time in the world.

In 1933 Warnekros became a member of the NSDAP . Nevertheless, in 1936 investigations were carried out against him as a “Jew's favor” - before 1933 he had also treated Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild , daughter of the German industrialist Fritz von Friedlaender-Fuld and a member of the well-known Rothschild family , and he continued to accept Jewish patients - initiated, which would not lead the gynecological clinic sufficiently in the sense of National Socialism . Since he was also treating the wife of the Saxon NSDAP Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann , the investigation was soon discontinued. He continued to treat Jewish patients until 1944. In addition, however, forced sterilizations were also carried out under Warnekros at the gynecological clinic in Johannstadt . 1944 helped turn Warnekros Eva Olbricht, the wife of Friedrich Olbricht , one of the co-conspirators of the assassination of 20 July 1944 , in their flight from the guilt by the Nazis.

The air raids on Dresden on February 13 and 14, 1945 also destroyed the women's clinic, and many of Warnekros' patients were killed. Warnekros arranged for the survivors to be transported to Kreischa , where the women's clinic was evacuated. Warnekros kept the management of the gynecological clinic until 1948, but in the end he stopped operating himself due to illness. Shortly before his death, he moved to Paris at the invitation of the Baroness von Goldschmidt-Rothschild.

Family grave

First buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in 1949 , his urn was transferred to the family grave at the Grunewald cemetery in 1954 .

Others

In the 2015 film The Danish Girl about the life story of Lili Elbe, Warnekros is played by the German actor Sebastian Koch .

Works

• About the function of the M. constrictor pharyngis sup. language under normal and pathological conditions - Berlin, 1908
• The value of prophylactic radiation after carcinoma operations and the success of relapse treatment using X-rays and radium . - in: Munich medical weekly; 1917, No. 27 and 28  
• X-ray pregnancy and childbirth . - Munich, 1917
• X-ray birth and postpartum period . - Munich: Bergmann, 1925
• Serious boom . - Munich: Lehmann, 1925
• Operative Gynecology / Ernst Bumm. Edited by Kurt Warnekros. - Munich: Bergmann, 1926

literature

• Marina Lienert: a hero of women. In: Saxon newspaper . 24./25. November 2007.
• Susanne Kailitz: The experiment. In: The time . January 12, 2012.

Web links

Commons : Kurt Warnekros  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Kurt Warnekros in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A person changes his gender: A life confession, edited from papers left behind by Niels Hoyer . Translated from the Danish original Fra Mand til Kvinde by Ernst Harthern-Jacobson. Reissner, Dresden 1932, p. 15.
2. ↑ Sabine Meyer, "How Lili became a real girl", Transcript Verlag, 2015, pages 271–281
3. ↑ Lili Elbe Biography . A&E Television Networks. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
4. ^ The tragic true story behind The Danish Girl . In: The Telegraph , December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015. 
5. ↑ http://www.biography.com/people/lili-elbe-090815
6. ^ For criticism of this version see: Susanne Kailitz: Das Experiment. In: The time . January 12, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
7. ↑ The world's first womb transplant: Landmark surgery brings hope to millions of childless women - and it could be in Britain soon . May 25, 2012.
8. ↑ Albrecht Scholz, Birgit Töpolt: The practice of forced sterilization in Dresden. ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen. Vol. 16 (2005), no. 4, pp. 164–167 (PDF file, 139 kB). Retrieved January 10, 2016. 
9. ^ The Danish Girl (2015) - Full Cast & Crew , IMDb , accessed January 8, 2016.