Charlotte von Mahlsdorf

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (18 March 1928 – 30 April 2002) was a German transgender woman who founded the Gründerzeit Museum in Berlin-Mahlsdorf.

When a local mansion was due for demolition, von Mahlsdorf was allowed to live there, and its contents became the basis for her collection of everyday household items from the Gründerzeit period (c. 1870s). The museum became a popular meeting-point for East Berlin’s gay community, to the disapproval of the East German regime (Stasi).