Gert-Christian Südel (1951-2014) pioneer activist

Südel was raised in Hamburg. It just so happened that the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was relatively accepting of trans persons compared to the rest of West Germany. In Bavaria, for example, it was a legal requirement that the photos on the identity card and passport had to clearly match the gender entry; however Hamburg's state law required only a recent photo even it deviated from their registered civil status. In 1959 Hans Giese (not known to be related to Karl Giese) moved his Institut für Sexualforschung to Hamburg, and integrated with the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf - albeit without receiving funding. Support for trans persons was provided at the Institut. As early as 1953 Giese had co-published „Zur Phänomenologie des Transvestitismus bei Männern“. Hamburg also contained the Reeperbahn in its Sankt Pauli district, an area of nightclubs and brothels including some travesti bars where trans persons who were elsewhere refused employment could find work.

Gert-Christian Südel knew early that he was trans, and from age 15 he was exploring the trans section of the Reeperbahn, where, despite being underage, he was welcomed by the staff. He learned a lot by talking to others. He passed this on to his school-friend Tommy, who later became aware of his own trans nature. In 1968, when he was 17 Gert-Christian founded Arbeitskreis TS (TS Working Group) which met in his parents house and inn – the first such group in post-WWII Germany. Südel was undergoing therapy with the sexologist Volkmar Sigusch, who was then with the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf. Südel complained about the lack of information, and Sigusch gave him access to the clinic’s library, particularly to medical journals about transsexuality. Sigusch also referred his other trans clients to Arbeitskreis TS. The group was mainly a social evening, but also offered photography workshops to give feedback on one’s image, and gave advice re shopping and which doctors were supportive. Südel’s parents were initially skeptical, but welcomed the group. The neighbours became curious, but then accepted, and even socialised with the group. They especially directed newcomers to find the Südel inn. Sometimes Gert-Christian arranged for a trans woman to have a short-term job at the inn.

With performer Holly White

In 1968 a judgement of the Schleswig-Holstein Regional Social Court classified transvestites and transsexuals as unfit for placement; In 1972 a decision of the Federal Court of Justice considered gender reassignment surgery to be an immoral intervention. The accusation of immorality could be avoided only if a medical opinion attested to a risk of suicide. Südel wrote to the federal ministries protesting that these judgements were unreasonable.

By 1970 the US trans performer Angie Stardust was living and performing in Hamburg, and became a friend of Südel. Stardust and Ramonita Vargas had small parts as transvestites in the 1970 exploitation film Inspektor Perrak greift ein. Shortly after the film was released, Südel was in the hospital of the Hanover Medical School where he was visited by one of the actresses – who was treated as a star.

In 1972 Arbeitskreis TS was formally incorporated as Interessengemeinschaft für Transsexuelle und Transvestiten, and included contacts he had made all over Europe.

From 1973 Volkmar Sigusch became a professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, and there founded his Institute for Sexology.

In 1975 Südel gave a lecture on transsexuality in a political education class at a Hamburg school. He also regularly distributed his information pamphlets in public places such as bars, cafés, clubs and discos. He made enough of a stir that newspapers and radio stations interviewed him. He collected signatures for a petition entitled "Did you know ...?", towards an amendment of the Personal Status Act so that first names could be changed. In November 1977 he gave a speech at the federal conference of the Social Democrat Party, and complained about the lack of change in the civil status system despite the fact that on 10 June 1976, the Bundestag had unanimously adopted an motion by the SPD politicians Claus Arndt and Rolf Meinecke, which called on the federal government to draft a law according to which persons who had undergone hormone administration and gender reassignment surgery should be allowed to change their personal status.

Finally the Transsexuellengesetz TSG (Transsexual Law) was passed in 1980 by the West German Bundestag permitting the required legal changes (with a few restrictions).

Around this time Südel’s relationship broke up. He stopped working with the association that he had founded, and retired as an activist – his contribution to the TSG being his major accomplishment. He already had Mormon friends, and he became increasingly involved with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

In his later years, Gert-Christian Südel lived in Bern, Switzerland. In Spring 2014 he hosted Niki Trauthwein. She video-interviewed him for 8½ hours, and he gave her two plastic bags containing the documents of his life. He died of an illness later that year, and Trauthwein published her biography of him in 2020.

• Hans Bürger-Prinz, Heinrich Albrecht, Hans Giese. Zur Phänomenologie des Transvestitismus bei Männern. Stuttgart : F Enke Verlag, 1953.
• Alfred Vohrer(dir). Inspektor Perrak greift ein. Scr: Manfred Purzer, with Horst Tapperet as Konnissar Perrak, and Ramonita Vargas and Angie Stardust. West Germany 84 mins 1970. Perrack of the Hamburg police investigates the murder of a trans sex worker. IMDB.
• Niki Trauthwein. „Wege aus der Isolation: Emanzipatorische Bestrebungen und strukturelle Organisation in den Jahren 1945 bis 1980“. In Auf nach Casablanca? Lebensrealitäten transgeschlechtlicher Menschen zwischen 1945 und 1980. Landesstelle für Gleichbehandlung − gegen Diskriminierung (LADS), 2018.
• „Der trans Pionier Gert-Christian Südel“. Stinknormal, 3.April 2019. Online.
• Niki Trauthwein. Peter Pan in Hamburg: Gert-Christian Südel: Transpionier, Aktivist und Überlebenskünstler. LIT Verlag, 2020.
• „Ein Buch für den deutschen Transpionier!“. de, 14.Mai 2020. Online.

HKW