Now elderly, she runs the Gründerzeit Museum, fulfilling her dream of living as a woman from the turn of the 20th century.

Life was difficult for Charlotte, growing up as Lothar Berfelde in Nazi Germany during World War II.

An effeminate boy, Lothar enjoyed cleaning and dusting at the home of a benevolent great uncle; an early desire to live as a woman finally found an outlet on a vacation to Eastern Prussia in the household of "aunt" Luise, a transgender man, who allows the youth to try out female outfits and dress at home as a girl, and giving Lothar the book The Transvestite by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld to read.

Back in Berlin, after the death of a great uncle, the young Lothar is found at the complete mercy of his brutal father.

Working as a domestic in the household of Herbert von Zitzenau, an elderly equestrian officer, she is seduced by her employer and they start a sexual relationship.

In 1989 the elderly Charlotte, very much active, takes a role in the first East German gay film: Heiner Carow's Coming Out.

In 1992 her labor is recognized when she receives the Cross of the Order of Merit from the government for furthering the cause of sexual freedom.