## Facts

- A person registered male at birth was medically diagnosed as transsexual, lived socially as a woman for years, and underwent hormone treatment and gender-affirming genital surgery.
- The person sought rectification of the birth register under § 47(1) of the Civil Status Act to change the recorded sex from male to female.
- A local court initially granted the application; intermediate appellate proceedings produced conflicting outcomes.
- The Federal Court of Justice ultimately denied the change, reasoning that civil-status sex is fixed at birth and can be corrected only if the original entry was wrong when made.
- The person filed a constitutional complaint alleging that refusal to correct the register violated the general right of personality, read with human dignity, and equality guarantees.

## Issues

1. Whether the constitutional protection of personality and human dignity requires civil-status law to permit correction of the recorded sex for a transsexual person where medical evidence shows irreversibility and gender-affirming surgery has been performed.
2. Whether § 47(1) of the Civil Status Act must be interpreted to treat the birth-register sex entry as materially incorrect once it no longer matches the person’s legally relevant sex.
3. Whether the public interest in stable, certain civil-status records justifies denying legal recognition in such circumstances.

## Decision

- The Federal Constitutional Court set aside the Federal Court of Justice decision and remanded for reconsideration under constitutionally required standards.
- The Court held that Art. 2(1) in conjunction with Art. 1(1) of the Basic Law requires correction of the birth-register sex entry for a transsexual person when medical science establishes an irreversible condition and surgery has been carried out.
- The Court did not invalidate § 47(1); it required a constitution-conforming interpretation permitting correction in the specified circumstances.
- The state was ordered to reimburse the complainant’s necessary expenses.

## Legal Principles

- Human dignity and the general right of personality protect a person’s core identity, including gender identity, and require legal respect for that identity in civil-status determinations.
- Civil-status registers serve legal certainty but must remain truthful to the person’s legally relevant status; an entry can become materially incorrect when it no longer corresponds to the person’s recognized social and psychological sex.
- When irreversibility is medically established and gender-affirming surgery has occurred, denying correction imposes severe harm on personal development and social participation that outweighs the state’s interest in static records.
- Courts must interpret civil-status correction provisions in a manner consistent with constitutional rights and may not treat birth anatomy as an absolute determinant when constitutional protections require recognition.

## Conclusion

The Court required civil-status authorities and courts to recognize post-transition legal sex in narrowly defined circumstances, holding that dignity and personality rights compel correction of the birth-register sex entry for an irreversible transsexual person after gender-affirming surgery.


Transsexuals Case I (Transsexuelle I), 49 BVerfGE 286 (Fed. Const. Ct. 1978)