Gunther von Hagens is a German anatomist who invented the technique for preserving biological
tissue specimens called plastination.
Early life He was born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen in Skalmierzyce
near Kalisz, Reichsgau Wartheland in central Poland. At the age of five days his parents
took him on a six-month trek west to escape the imminent Soviet occupation. Gunther grew
up in East Germany. The family lived briefly in Berlin and its vicinity, before finally
settling in Greiz, a small town where von Hagens remained until age nineteen.
A haemophiliac, as a child he spent six months in hospital after being injured. This stimulated
an interest in medical science and in 1965 he commenced studies in medicine at the University
of Jena. While at the university, von Hagens began to question Communism and Socialism,
and widened his knowledge of politics by gathering information from non-communist news sources.
He participated in student protests against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact
troops. In January 1969, disguised as a vacationing student, von Hagens made his way across Bulgaria
and Hungary, and on 8 January attempted to cross the Czechoslovakian border into Austria.
He failed, but made a second attempt the next day, at another location along the border.
He was arrested and punished with two years in jail.
West Germany bought his freedom in 1970. Hagens continued his medical studies in Lübeck and
received a doctorate in 1975 from the University of Heidelberg.
Career He worked at the University in the Institutes
of Anatomy and Pathology as a lecturer for 22 years.
Dr von Hagens is best known for his plastination technique, which he invented in 1977 and patented
in the following year. Subsequently, he developed the technique further, and founded the Institute
of Plastination in Heidelberg in 1993. He has been visiting professor in Dalian, China
since 1996, where he runs a plastination center, and also directs a plastination center at
the State Medical Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Since 2004 he is also guest professor at New
York University College of Dentistry. For the first 20 years plastination was used
to preserve small specimens for medical study. It was not until the early 1990s that the
equipment was developed to make it possible to plastinate whole body specimens, each specimen
taking up to 1,500 person-hours to prepare. The first exhibition of whole bodies was displayed
in Japan in 1995. Over the next two years, von Hagens developed the Body Worlds exhibition,
showing whole bodies plastinated in lifelike poses and dissected to show various structures
and systems of human anatomy, which has since met with public interest and controversy in
more than 50 cities around the world. Religious groups, including representatives
of the Catholic Church and some Rabbis, have objected the display of human remains, stating
that it is inconsistent with reverence towards the human body.
The exhibition, and von Hagens' subsequent exhibitions Body Worlds 2, 3 and 4, have received
more than 26 million visitors all over the world.
To produce specimens for the Body Worlds exhibition, von Hagens employs 340 people at five laboratories
in four different countries. Each laboratory is categorized by speciality, with the China
laboratory focusing on animal specimens. The giraffe which appeared in "Body Worlds 3 & The
Story of the Heart" was one of the most difficult specimens to create. The giraffe took three
years to complete – 10 times longer than it takes to prepare a human body. Ten people
were required to move the giraffe because its final weight, like all specimens after
plastination, was equal to its original. The Body Worlds exhibits were featured in
a supposed Miami exhibition in the 2006 film Casino Royale, although the actual location
for the exterior shots was the Ministry of Transport in Prague. Von Hagens himself makes
a cameo appearance, and can be seen leading a tour past where James Bond kills a villain.
Von Hagens has developed new body sectioning methods that yield very thin slices, which
can then be plastinated. The slices can be used for anatomy studies. He is also developing
similar techniques for larger specimens such as an elephant. He works in a concealed laboratory,
with an entrance behind a movable staircase, where he developed his wafer plastination
techniques. Personal life
Von Hagens is an atheist. He is married to Angelina Whalley, the Creative Director of
the Body Worlds exhibitions. He has three children from his first marriage and also
retains the surname von Hagens, which is that of his first wife. When appearing in public,
even when performing anatomical dissections, von Hagens always wears a black fedora.
Von Hagens has said that his grand goal is the founding of a "Museum of Man" where exhibits
of human anatomy can be permanently shown. He is on record as commenting that after death
he plans to donate plastinated wafers of his body to several universities, so that in death
he can teach at several locations, something that he cannot do while alive. In January
2011, he announced that he was dying from Parkinson's disease and that after his death
his wife would plastinate his body and put his preserved corpse on display as part of
the Body Worlds exhibitions. Controversy
In 2002 von Hagens performed the first public autopsy in the UK in 170 years, to a sell-out
audience of 500 people in a London theatre. Prior to performing the autopsy, von Hagens
had received a letter from Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, the British government official
responsible for regulating the educational use of cadavers. The letter warned von Hagens
that performing a public autopsy would be a criminal act under section 11 of the Anatomy
Act 1984. The show was attended by officers from the Metropolitan Police, but they did
not intervene and the dissection was performed in full. The autopsy was shown in November
2002 on the UK's Channel 4 television channel; it resulted in over 130 complaints, an OFCOM
record, but the Independent Television Commission ruled that the programme had not been sensationalist
and had not broken broadcasting rules. A planned public dissection in Munich was cancelled.
In 2003 TV Production Company Mentorn proposed a documentary called Futurehuman in which
von Hagens would perform a series of modifications on a corpse to demonstrate 'improvements'
to human anatomy. The controversy was sparked when the company, with von Hagens, appealed
publicly for a terminally-ill person to donate his body for the project. The documentary
was cancelled after the body donor pulled out.
In February 2004, the German Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed earlier reports by the German
TV station ARD that von Hagens had offered a one-time payment and a lifelong pension
to Alexander Sizonenko if he would agree to have his body transferred to the Institute
of Plastination after his death. Sizonenko, reported to be one of the world's tallest
men at 2.48 m, who formerly played basketball for the Soviet Union and was later plagued
by numerous health problems until his death in 2012, declined the offer.
After several legal challenges to the Body Worlds exhibit in Germany, in the Summer of
2004 von Hagens announced it would be leaving the country. From 2004 onwards the exhibitions
toured North America, returning to Europe in 2007 with an exhibition in Manchester,
UK and ending in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2011. Television appearances
In 2005 Channel 4 screened four programmes entitled Anatomy for Beginners, featuring
von Hagens and pathology professor John Lee dissecting a number of cadavers and discussing
the structure and function of many of the body's parts.
A four-part follow-up series entitled Autopsy: Life and Death aired on Channel 4 in 2006,
in which von Hagens and Lee discussed common fatal diseases with the aid of dissections.
In November 2007, another series of 3 programmes was shown entitled Autopsy: Emergency Room,
showing what happens when the body is injured, and featuring presentations by the British
Red Cross. In 2009 History Channel broadcast a series
called Strange Rituals with eleven episodes. The first episode titled Last Rites featured
von Hagens and his plastination method to preserve bodies.
On Easter Sunday 2012 the UK's Channel 4 showed a programme entitled "Crucifixion" in which
von Hagens created his interpretation of the crucifixion of Jesus. The documentary examined
the enduring iconic image of the Crucifix. A number of donors were used for the plastination
of blood vessels to create the main structure of the body. At the end of the programme von
Hagen announced that he did not expect to see the final work of art due to his ill health.
Legal accusations In 2002 there were legal proceedings against
a senior pathologist and coroner in Siberia regarding a shipment of 56 corpses to Heidelberg.
The police maintained that the Novosibirsk coroner, Vladimir Novosylov, had sold the
bodies illegally to buyers outside of Russia. Von Hagens was not charged in the case, but
was called as a witness against Novosylov. The authorities stopped the shipment of bodies
and the agreement between Novosibirsk and von Hagens was terminated.
In October 2003, a parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan investigated accusations that
von Hagens had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric
institutions and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, some without prior notification of the families.
Von Hagens himself testified at the meeting; he said he had received nine corpses from
Kyrgyzstan hospitals, none had been used for the Body Worlds exhibition, and that he was
neither involved with nor responsible for the notification of families.
In 2003, an animal rights organization filed a complaint alleging that von Hagens did not
have proper papers for a gorilla he had plastinated. He had received the cadaver from the Hanover
Zoo, where the animal had died. German authorities demanded the removal of the gorilla during
the 2004 exhibition in Frankfurt, but von Hagens prevailed in court and the animal was
restored. In 2003, the University of Heidelberg filed
a criminal complaint against von Hagens, claiming that he had misrepresented himself as a professor
from a German university in a Chinese document, and that he had failed to state the foreign
origin of his title in Germany. After a trial, he received a fine in March 2004. On 25 April
2005, a Heidelberg court imposed a fine of 108,000 euros for one count of using an academic
title that he was not entitled to, but acquitted him on four other counts. On appeal a higher
court in September 2006 reduced the penalty to a warning with a suspended fine of 50,000
euros, which under German law is not deemed a prior criminal conviction. In 2007 the charge
of title misuse was finally dismissed by the Federal Court of Justice of Germany in Karlsruhe.
Von Hagens has a guest professorship from Dalian Medical University and an honorary
professorship from Kyrgyz State Medical Academy. He is also a Guest Professor at the New York
University College of Dentistry. In January 2004, the German news magazine
Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired some corpses from executed prisoners in China;
he countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies and went on to cremate several
of the disputed cadavers. German prosecutors declined to press charges,
and von Hagens was granted an interim injunction against Der Spiegel in March 2005, preventing
the magazine from claiming that Body Worlds contain the bodies of executed prisoners.
See also Body Worlds
References
Further reading Whalley, Angelina. Pushing the Limits. Arts
& Sciences. ISBN 3-937256-07-5. Whalley, Angelina; Josef Wetz, Franz. Der
Grenzgänger: Begegnungen mit Gunther von Hagens. Heidelberg: Arts & Sciences. ISBN 3-937256-01-6.
OCLC 70873993. von Hagens, Gunther; Whalley, Angelina. Body
Worlds The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. Arts & Sciences. ISBN 3-937256-04-0.
OCLC 300398359. von Hagens, Gunther. "No Skeletons in the
Closet – Facts, Background and Conclusions". Wetz, Franz Josef; Tag, Brigitte. Schöne
neue Körperwelten: der Streit um die Ausstellung. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. ISBN 3-608-94311-0.
OCLC 47118365. da Fonseca, Liselotte Hermes. "Wachsfigur-Mensch-Plastinat.
Uber die Mitteilbarkeit von Sehen, Nennen und Wissen". Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift
für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 73: 43–68. ISSN 0012-0936.
Doms, Misia Sophia. "Die Ausstellung 'Körperwelten' und der Umgang mit der endlichen Leiblichkeit".
Volkskunde in Rheinland-Pfalz 17: 62–108. da Fonseca, Liselotte Hermes; Kliche, Thomas.
"Verführerische Leichen – verbotener Verfall. 'Körperwelten' als gesellschaftliches Schlüsselereignis.
Perspektiven Politischer Psychologie". Deutsches Ärzteblatt 104.
Kleinschmidt, Nina; Wagner, Henri. Endlich unsterblich?: Gunther von Hagens – Schöpfer
der Körperwelten. Lübbe. ISBN 3-404-60493-8. OCLC 47712310.
Peuker, Torsten; Schulz, Christian. Der über Leichen geht. Gunther von Hagens und seine
"Körperwelten". Berlin: Links. ISBN 978-3-86153-332-0. OCLC 57066637.
Patents U.S.
Patent 4,205,059 Animal and vegetal tissues permanently preserved by synthetic resin impregnation,
filed November 1977, issued May 1980 U.S. Patent 4,278,701 Animal and vegetal tissues
permanently preserved by synthetic resin impregnation, filed November 1979, issued July 1981
U.S. Patent 4,320,157 Method for preserving large sections of biological tissue with polymers,
filed August 1980, issued March 1982 External links
Official Site of Gunther von Hagens "Watchdog clears TV autopsy". BBC News. 27
January 2003. Retrieved 8 May 2009. Schulte-Sasse, Linda. "Advise and Consent:
On the Americanization of Body Worlds". BioSocieties 1: 369–384. doi:10.1017/S1745855206004017.
"Annals of Necrophilia: Body Worlds Strikes Again". Der Spiegel. 5 May 2009. Retrieved
7 May 2009. Ulaby, Neda; von Hagens, Gunther;. Cadaver
Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow. National Public Radio. Retrieved 30 March
2007. Ulaby, Neda; von Hagens, Gunther;. Origins
of Exhibited Cadavers Questioned. National Public Radio. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
Gunther von Hagens at the Internet Movie Database