Vienna court reverses gender change made before a women's prison sentence

Court reverses the gender change

A Vienna court has reversed the legal gender change of a convicted person who moved from male to female. The Vienna Administrative Court (Wiener Verwaltungsgericht) concluded that the change was made to serve a sentence in a women's prison and to provoke the justice authorities, according to reports published on 11 November 2026. The person, named in the reports as Waltraud P. and previously as Walter P., ran an hourly hotel and has several prior convictions. The latest conviction, for breaches of the NS-Verbotsgesetz, carries 20 months in prison. With the reversal, a men's prison becomes the likely place of detention.

The motive as the person described it

According to the court, the change in the register was completed in early 2025, which Spiegel Online places in February 2025. In an interview with the Kronen Zeitung, the person said the step had been taken because a prison sentence was imminent. The underlying sentence concerned fraud. The same person said they looked forward to the stir and scandal in the women's prison, and that the aim had been simply to irritate the justice system:

“Showering together with the women, walking together with the women, that is a wonderful thing.”

In a later interview the person spoke of feeling like a woman. A psychological expert found insufficient evidence for this, and the court stated that no case of transgender identity or gender incongruence had been presented, neither in February 2025 nor at present. The justice authorities rejected a request for an electronic ankle tag, so the men's prison remains a real prospect.

Appeal and the Liebich precedent

The lawyer told the German Press Agency (dpa) that an appeal would be lodged against the court's decision. She did not rule out an appeal on the rejected ankle tag either. The case resembles that of Marla Svenja Liebich, a German right-wing extremist. In 2023, while still registered as a man named Sven, Liebich was sentenced by the Halle local court (Amtsgericht Halle) to one and a half years in prison for incitement of hatred, defamation and insult. Before that sentence began, the gender entry was changed. Liebich fled and was arrested in the Czech Republic. After being transferred to Germany, Liebich was placed in the men's prison Zeithain in Saxony despite the female entry. By its own account, the Saalekreis district in Saxony-Anhalt has started legal steps toward a possible correction of that entry.