Hailed by Der Spiegel as speaking to "the fate of a whole generation of German homosexuals," I Am My Own Woman is the exquisitely written autobiography of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, whose lifelong pursuits of sexual liberty and antique furniture offer a unique perspective on European history.  During World War II, von Mahlsdorf murdered his father, dubbed himself Charlotte (after this cross-dressing lesbian aunt's lover) and has lived openly as a transvestite since.  Dressed in high-heeled sandals and a good suit, Charlotte has collected furnishings from the Grunderzeit for half a century:  in the Third Reich, she "rescued" pieces from Jewish deportees; in the German Democratic Republic, she protected "bourgeois cultural assets" from the Stasi.  Now well past sixty, a quietly passionate, steadfast and serene figure, Charlotte shuns makeup, wearing the simplest frocks.  The Grunderzeit Museum - which Charlotte and her friends have defended against assault from skinheads - has become a symbol for the German lesbian and gay community.

"As a child, Lothar Berfelde loved to wear an apron and polish porcelain.  Given his druthers, he would have chosen to live quietly in the 19th century, perhaps as a housekeeper in a well-appointed home near Berlin.   Instead, his life took a bumpier course. . . . " - Time Magazine

"Like the late-1800s Grunderzeit bric-a-brac she privately collects and passionately dusts in her museum, Charlotte's been smacked and pawed for decades by a gallery of rogues and brutes . . . and she's resisted.  In drag. . . . It is not the transgendered soul that is perverse, but the situation in which it lives . . . " - The Village Voice