A crossdresser since childhood, Schmidt transitioned from Wolfgang to live full-time in his feminine identity as Beate after he had raped and murdered several women and an infant.

DE — Brandenburg. The “Pink Giant” or “Beast of Beelitz,” who had been cross-dressing in secret since childhood, is now accepted as a “woman” by the nation he once held in the grip of terror. An army veteran, ex-police officer and a crane operator by trade, the 6’2 man was a heavy-drinking, sticky-fingered, “xenophobic and right-wing radical” who celebrated Hitler’s birthday. He haunted forests and woods, capturing and raping women after and sometimes before he killed them. He often left pink lingerie atop victims’ bodies, which he discarded in landfills.

Boy Discovers Thrill of Cross-Dressing

Wolfgang Schmidt, born in 1966, wanted to be a girl since the age of three. He was six- or seven-years-old when he realized how “very excited” and “cozy” he felt to put on bras, panties and petticoats belonging to his mother, whom he claims was “cold-hearted.” The thrill increased when he wet, soiled or threw up on himself while wearing the clothing. The boy’s father discovered the dirty clothes hidden in the garden and barn, and his parents shamed him.

The boy continued masturbating in his mother’s clothing outside in hiding. At age eight, the behavior began transforming into an addictive fetish. If anyone approached his hiding place as he pleasured himself, he would hide the stolen undergarments. His mother found him naked from the waist down and soiled, and told her friends the boy was a “pig” who still messed himself.

Schmidt outside in women’s swimsuit

As he aged, Schmidt incorporated magazines he found in the trash that depicted women nude or engaged in porn. He graduated to using candles and wearing swimsuits and corsets during the sessions, and then to such full-time thrills as wearing women’s sweaters, and panties under his pants.

By age 23, the cross-dressing, vomiting, soiling, wetting and porn were not enough. Schmidt had urges to add a “female person” “who performs these actions with me” and would get “sexual.” He combed through junkyards on October 24, 1989, trying to find a doll. Failing that, he went in search of a woman that evening.

Compulsions Escalate to Rape & Murder of Women

Schmidt broke into the home where Edeltraut Nixdorf, aged 51, lived with her husband, and stole a bikini, panties and candles before he found her planting tulips in the garden. Calling the assailant, “Pig, bastard!” she fought him with a rake. He bludgeoned her, fracturing her skull and causing a tear to the brain, and choked her to death. Her husband, the prime suspect, committed suicide months later.

Seven months passed before Schmidt struck again. On May 24, 1990, he raped 45-year-old Christa Naujoks and strangled her with a cord. He would later testify that he had gone to the drunk woman’s aide, but “couldn’t stop myself.” He left his pink panties with her body in the landfill.

On March 13th, 1991, he encountered Inge Borkheide, aged 34, in the forest as she walked from a friend’s home. He delivered a kick to her face before raping her and stabbing her to death. Her corpse was discovered with feces on the face.

The crime frequency increased as the compulsions grew. On March 22, Schmidt came upon 44-year-old Tamara Petrowskaja in the woods pushing her three-month-old son, Stanislaw, in a stroller. He snatched the infant, and smashed him to death against a tree. He gagged the woman with pink panties and strangled her to death with a pink bra.

On April 5th, Schmidt saw two 12-year-old girls in a wooded area near a village church, and attempted to grab one. They fought him off and escaped, receiving stab wounds in the process. The girls were able to provide a description of the assailant to the police, who drew a composite sketch.

That same evening, Schmidt killed Talita Bremer, a 66-year-old pensioner who was asleep in her home. He raped the corpse.

On August 1 of that year, Schmidt was on the hunt for a woman when two male joggers came across him masturbating, wearing a bra under a jacket. Noticing he matched the police sketch, they detained him and brought him to police.

Schmidt told the court that murder was never his intention:

I just had to have the woman under my control. I wanted to force her to rest so as not to lose what I already had in principle. I never thought that I could kill her fatally. I just wanted living women.

He had thought each woman was only in his head, a figment of his imagination, until he saw the deaths reported in the newspaper, he said.

In 1992, the Pink Giant was sentenced to 15 years in prison and detention in a psychiatric hospital.

Compulsions Lead to Transition; Possible Rape of Fellow Transgender Rapist

While in custody, Schmidt came out of the closet, announcing he has perceived himself as female since childhood.

In 2001, the court granted his petition to be addressed as a woman and change his name to Beate.

Beate Schmidt is able to cross-dress in lockup.

In 2009, Schmidt was permitted to begin hormones in order to change his appearance to the more feminine look he craved. Due to the prohibitive cost of gender-affirming surgery, he has not been able to undergo the procedures requested.

A fellow transgender patient, Jens, claimed to have been raped in the shower by Schmidt on several occasions, and attempted suicide by swallowing blades in 2010. Jens is a male, former police officer who identifies as a woman and now uses the name Jasmin. Jens had been placed in the psychiatric hospital after raping a woman. These rape accusations against Schmidt were investigated, but no charges were brought due to lack of evidence.

Beate Schmidt in detention

The psychiatric hospital has by now relaxed restrictions on Schmidt, who has admitted that he is unpredictable, cannot control himself, and that it is best to remain in the psychiatric institution for the rest of his life.