Dora Ratjen: The Athlete Who Lived a Dual Identity

In the complex world of international athletics, stories of triumph and defeat are commonplace, but few are as remarkable as that of Dora Ratjen.

Ratjen was born male but raised female and competed on the German women's track team. At the 1938 European Athletics Championships, Ratjen, still competing as female, set a world record in the high jump. It was during a subsequent train journey to Cologne that Ratjen's true identity was uncovered. A physician was called, and after an examination declared:

“...secondary sexual characteristics unquestionably male. This person is indisputably to be regarded as a man.”

The physician also noted that the genitalia had a “coarse scarred stripe from the tip of the penis to the rear,” and expressed doubt that sexual intercourse would be possible with this anatomy. The description bears resemblance to the outcome of a mika operation, a practice among some Aboriginal Australian groups where the urethra is slit along the penis. It is possible that Ratjen had a form of hypospadias at birth, along with cryptorchidism, which may have caused the midwife to mistake the genitalia for a vulva and the infant to be raised as female, a misidentification that persisted without expert medical examination for years.

Thus, on 21 September 1938, the life of 19-year-old sportswoman Dora Ratjen ended, and Heinrich Ratjen's began. Although celebrated as a female athlete for five years, Dora experienced a sense of relief following the revelation: “Ratjen admits defiantly to being happy that now everything is out in the open. He has been expecting this moment for quite a long time, for he was quite clear in his own mind that one day taking part in sport as a woman would no longer be possible.” With this revelation, the authorities had no choice but to disclose the truth, which appeared in the next edition of Der Leichtathlet under the headline “Dora Ratjen without titles or records. No longer eligible for Women’s competitions.” The article further explained: “As a result of a medical examination it has been established that Dora Ratjen cannot be admitted to female competitions. Germany has requested the international athletics federation, via the Fachamt Leichtathletik in the DRL [bodies responsible for German sports], to erase the world record from the lists and remove the title of European champion. The Reichssportführer has put into force regulations which will make repetition of such a case in Germany impossible once and for all.”

Ratjen was born in Erichshof, near Bremen, to a family described as “simple folk.” In 1938, Heinrich Ratjen, Dora’s father, recalled: “When the child was born the midwife called over to me: Heini, it’s a boy! But five minutes later she said to me: It is a girl, after all.” Nine months later, when the child, named Dora, fell ill, a doctor examined the child’s genitalia and, according to Heinrich, remarked, “Let it be. You can’t do anything about it anyway.”

Although the family already had three daughters, sexuality was not openly discussed, and there was no reason for the parents to doubt their child's assigned gender. As a result, Dora was raised as a girl. Ratjen explained to the police: “So I wore girl’s clothes from my childhood onwards. Starting in my eleventh or twelfth year I was already beginning to be aware that I was not a girl, but a man. But I never asked my parents why, if I was a man, I had to wear women’s clothes.” It was mostly the sense of shame that kept Ratjen from disclosing the truth. From the age of 18, Ratjen had to shave every other day to maintain the appearance of a woman, but found solace in believing that they “were a hermaphrodite and had to accept that fate.”

On Dora Ratjen’s final journey as a woman, she wore a grey two-piece suit, skin-coloured tights, and light-coloured ladies' shoes. On 21 September 1938, she boarded an express train from Vienna to Cologne. Just days earlier, at the European Athletics Championships in Vienna, she had won gold for the German Reich by clearing 1.70 metres in the high jump, setting a new world record.

Around noon, the train stopped at Magdeburg station, and Ratjen stepped onto the platform to stretch her legs. A policeman approached her, requesting identification. A ticket inspector had informed Detective Sergeant Sömmering that a woman on the train appeared to be a man. The officer noticed the athlete's hairy hands and, unsatisfied with the identification presented from the European Championships, asked Ratjen to take her bag from the train and accompany him to the police station. The detective insisted on determining Ratjen’s true sex, even threatening a physical examination. When Ratjen asked, “And if I resist?” the officer responded that such refusal would be obstruction. After a moment's hesitation, Ratjen admitted to being a man. Mugshots were taken, the case details were recorded, and preliminary proceedings were initiated, charging Ratjen with fraud.

After the exposure of Dora Ratjen's true identity in 1938, Heinrich Ratjen’s life changed dramatically. Following the police investigation and public unmasking, Ratjen was barred from competing in women’s athletics. The German authorities, particularly the Reichssportführer (the head of Nazi Germany’s sports administration), ensured that Ratjen's records were erased, and steps were taken to prevent similar cases in the future. The scandal faded into obscurity, and Heinrich Ratjen withdrew from the public eye.

In the years following the incident, Ratjen lived a quiet and private life, far removed from the international athletics scene. He returned to working in his family’s bar and distanced himself from the fame he had briefly experienced as an athlete. Ratjen reportedly avoided discussing his past in public and sought to live a simple life in post-war Germany.

One rare insight into his later years comes from an interview Ratjen gave to Der Spiegel in 1957, where he recounted the events that led to his discovery and how he had felt forced to live as a woman. In this interview, he described himself as a victim of circumstance, stating that the German authorities had compelled him to compete as a woman for political reasons, although no direct evidence supports the claim that he was deliberately used as part of a propaganda scheme. Ratjen maintained that he had always known he was male but had felt trapped in the role assigned to him.

Beyond that, Ratjen lived out his days in relative anonymity. He passed away on 22 April 2008 at the age of 89.

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