{"id":364049,"date":"2026-08-02T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/this-man-turned-human-corpses-into-popular-museum-displays-now-the-creator-of-these-controversial-body-worlds-has-donated-his-own-body-to-science\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T19:16:00","slug":"this-man-turned-human-corpses-into-popular-museum-displays-now-the-creator-of-these-controversial-body-worlds-has-donated-his-own-body-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=364049","title":{"rendered":"This Man Turned Human Corpses Into Popular Museum Displays. Now, the Creator of These Controversial \u2018Body Worlds\u2019 Has Donated His Own Body to Science"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination, a method of preserving bodies by replacing their natural fluids with polymers, recently died at age 81<\/h2>\n
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Sonja Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

| Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gunther von Hagens wearing his signature black fedora
\n \u00a9 Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com<\/span>
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Just over 30 years<\/a> ago, Gunther von Hagens premiered \u201cBODY WORLDS<\/a>,\u201d a museum exhibition full of real, flayed human corpses that were posed and cross-sectioned. The anatomist had prepared the donated bodies through his own technique, \u201cplastination.\u201d He\u2019d switched their natural fluids for resins and elastomers<\/a>. For this, von Hagens earned the moniker \u201cDoctor Death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von Hagens died in July of a cerebral hemorrhage, after living for years with Parkinson\u2019s disease, reports the Guardian<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Mick O\u2019Hare. He was 81. At von Hagens\u2019 request, his own body will be plastinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cGunther wanted to give people the opportunity to look beneath the skin\u2014not out of sensationalism, but from the deep conviction that knowledge of one\u2019s own body can contribute to a more conscious, healthier, responsible life,\u201d says von Hagens\u2019 wife, curator and physician Angelina Whalley<\/a>, in a statement<\/a> from \u201cBODY WORLDS.\u201d \u201cHis work was scientific, educational and deeply humanistic. He enabled millions of people to see their own bodies in a new light.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Von Hagens working on the plastinate \u201cthe kneeling lady\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Von Hagens was born in 1945 in what\u2019s now western Poland, and he began medical school in communist East Germany. In 1970, he migrated to West Germany and continued his studies. As an anatomical assistant at the University of Heidelberg, von Hagens observed specimens preserved inside blocks of clear plastic, and he asked the curator whether the process could be flipped: Why not put the plastic inside the specimen?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018You are an idiot. You cannot do it,\u2019\u201d von Hagens recalled<\/a> on BBC\u2019s \u201cFriday Night With Jonathan Ross<\/a>\u201d in 2008. \u201cAnd this boggled my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1977, von Hagens had created his first plastinated specimen<\/a>: a kidney. According to \u201cBODY WORLDS<\/a>,\u201d he realized he\u2019d begun his life\u2019s work. Von Hagens then honed and expanded his methods over time.<\/p>\n

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Angelina Whalley, a physician and curator and von Hagens\u2019 wife, next to the plastinate \u201cfacing death\u201d<\/p>\n

Ines Huber<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The plastination process<\/a> begins with fixation\u2014pumping formaldehyde through a body\u2019s arteries to get rid of bacteria. Then, the body is dissected, removing skin, fatty and connective tissues. It is then soaked in an acetone bath, which gets rid of water and soluble fats. As von Hagens said on \u201cJonathan Ross,\u201d \u201cWithout water, no decay.\u201d Next, the body is placed in a bath of liquid polymer, like silicone rubber, polyester or epoxy resin. The acetone vaporizes, creating a vacuum, and polymer fills in all the microscopic gaps. Finally, the body is cured. The whole process takes about 1,500 working hours to complete.<\/p>\n

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A visitor examines plastinate \u201cthe jumping dancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fruits of von Hagens\u2019 labor premiered at Tokyo University in 1995, within the very first \u201cBODY WORLDS\u201d exhibition\u2014a collection of posed plastinated bodies. The exhibition began touring the world, attracting visitors and prompting critiques. In the early 2000s, for example, a rabbi<\/a> and a novelist<\/a> compared von Hagens\u2019 work to Nazi crimes, while a reverend said he \u201cplays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls,\u201d per the Associated Press<\/a>\u2019 Geir Moulson.<\/p>\n

An anatomist \u201cis forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead,\u201d von Hagens countered, per the AP. \u201cI touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Von Hagens and Whalley work on a plastinate.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gunther von Hagens\u2019 BODY WORLDS, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, the traveling exhibition was\u2014and remains\u2014wildly popular. Its organizers report that more than 58 million people<\/a> have gone to see it, in 42 different countries spanning six continents. There are permanent installations<\/a> in California, Germany and the Netherlands, and this year, it\u2019s showing temporarily in Melbourne<\/a> and Sydney<\/a> inAustralia.<\/p>\n

Von Hagens attributed the appeal of \u201cBODY WORLDS\u201d to humans\u2019 curiosity about themselves. \u201cBefore the exhibitions, when I used to give lectures, I noticed that the cleaning lady and the doorman were more interested than my colleagues,\u201d he told the Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Diane Haithman in 2004. \u201cThat is what makes plastination different\u2014they start to identify with the specimens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Gunther von Hagens Friday Night with Jonathan Ross<\/p>\n

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