Marla Svenja Liebich [X @MarlaSvenjaL / Yonhap]
Marla Svenja Liebich [X @MarlaSvenjaL / Yonhap]

A German neo-Nazi figure notorious for anti-LGBTQ hatred changed her legal gender to female before beginning a prison sentence — but ended up in a men's facility.

Local media including the weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that the Saxony state Justice Ministry placed far-right activist Marla Svenja Liebich, 55, in Zeithain Prison, which houses male inmates, on Wednesday evening after receiving her from Czech Republic authorities.

Liebich had fled to the Czech Republic in August last year ahead of her imprisonment, was extradited to Germany on Tuesday and briefly held at Chemnitz Women's Prison. The Chemnitz facility determined it could not accommodate her, citing safety concerns for other female inmates. Saxony Justice Minister Constanze Geiert said she was glad the prison "quickly clarified the situation and did not get drawn into the spectacle."

Liebich is a neo-Nazi known for anti-LGBTQ hatred, including calling participants at LGBTQ festivals "parasites of society." She was sentenced in 2023 to one year and six months in prison on charges of incitement to hatred, defamation and insult.

She used Germany's Gender Self-Determination Act, which took effect in November 2024, to change her legal gender to female and adopt the feminine name Marla Svenja. Authorities, recognizing her new legal status as a woman, ordered her to report to Chemnitz Women's Prison in August last year to serve her sentence. She defied that order and fled to the Czech Republic before being apprehended.

While in Czech custody, she was held at Pilsen Prison, which houses mostly male inmates. In Czech court proceedings, she argued her life could be at risk if she were returned to Germany and placed in a men's prison.

The Gender Self-Determination Act was introduced in response to criticism that the previous process for changing legal gender — which required court approval and psychiatric evaluation — violated the rights of LGBTQ people. Under the new law, a person can change their legal gender simply by filing a declaration at a registry office, without court approval. However, Liebich's decision to legally become a woman drew accusations that she had exploited the law to mock the LGBTQ community, given her long record of denouncing it.

The controversy surrounding her gender change and imprisonment has amplified calls to revise the law. The state governments of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt called on the federal government to amend the legislation to require a review process in cases where abuse of the law — as in Liebich's case — is clear. A total of 28,364 people had changed their legal gender under the law as of March this year.


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