Alias Anastasius

Catharina Margaretha Linck was born in Gehofen, Thuringia, in 1687. At 15 Linck took control of their life by breaking out of an orphanage and assuming a new identity as Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel, living life as a man from that moment on. They were subsequently drafted into the military, soon gained the reputation of a ladies’ man with the help of a "leather tool", deserted the army, were sentenced to death, managed to escape, married young Catharina Mühlhahn, for which they ended up in court and were finally sentenced to death. Anastasius was the last person born as biologically female to be executed in Europe for fornication with another woman in 1721.

Author duo Matter*Verse has written a new play about this complex historical character for director Fritzi Wartenberg.