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science

Homosexuality & the sex variant: what anthropology, economics, medicine, psychology, sociology and other sciences say. Original articles and reprints or abstracts from material published elsewhere. ONE regards this department as a continuing seminar in the field of socio-sexual research and holds no brief for or against the views expressed by various scientific workers. Readers, as "students", are urged to pursue their own further study.

Reflections on the CHRISTINE JORGENSON Case

by Carlotta, Baronin von Curtius

THE

HE startling news in the American newspapers about two years ago, concerning the sex transformation of a former G.I., seemed to cause sensation and controversy amongst all sorts of people. However, as we all know, there is nothing new under the sun. Miss Jorgenson was neither the first, nor will she be the last, to undergo such an operation.

During my long association with Prof. Hirschfeld and the "Institut für Sexualwissenschaften" in Berlin, I have, between 1925 and the closing of the Institute in 1935 (at which time I left Berlin), witnessed four such "sex changes." Three of the patients were Germans, the fourth a wellknown Danish painter, by the name of Einar Wegener, who, after the "change", became Mme. Lilly Elbe,

in honor of the city of Dresden-on-theElbe, where the operation was performed by the prominent surgeon, Prof. Warnecross.

The others were Albert Richter, born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, who became Dora Richter. As she is an excellent cook, she soon became the owner of a small restaurant in the city of her birth. Then we have Herbert Haase, who, as Hertha Haase, turned out to be quite a fashionable dressmaker; and last but not least, is Arno Engel, who, as Arna Engel, is even today one of Germany's leading por-

traitists.

The last three mentioned were operated on at the "Tiergarten Clinik", the hospital attached to the Institute. The surgeon, in all three cases, was Prof. Ghorband, of the "Urban Krankenhaus" in Berlin.

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