I Am My Own Woman

I Am My Own Woman German Ich bin meine eigene Frau is a 1992 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film, a documentarydrama, follows the life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an East German transsexual who survived the Nazis the repression of the Communists and helped start the German gay liberation movement. The film is based on Mahlsdorfs autobiography Ich bin meine eigene Frau, published in 1992, published in English as I Am My Own Woman 1995 and I Am My Own Wife 2004.

Life was difficult for Charlotte growing up as Lothar Berfelde, in Nazi Germany during World War II. An effeminate boy, he enjoyed cleaning and dusting at the home of her benevolent great uncle. His early desire to live as woman finally found an outlet when he was sent on vacation to Eastern Prussia in the household of her aunt Luise, herself a member of the third sex. A female to male transsexual, aunt Luise surprises her nephew trying out female outfits. She allows the youth to dress at home as a girl and gives him to read the book The Transvestite by Dr Magnus Hirshfeld. She also respects the boys privacy when she finds her nephew having sex in the barn with a farm boy.Back in Berlin, after the death of his great uncle, the young Lothar, found himself at the complete mercy of his brutal father. Trying to save his mother and himself from his father punishments and threats, Lothar bludgeons his father to death, a crime for which he is psychiatrically evaluated and imprisoned. The defeat of Germany during the war and the allied invasion sets the boy free. Wandering through the street of Berlin, he barely escapes to be killed as a deserted by German soldiers. ........

Source: Wikipedia