Jul 27, 8:02 PM
The plastic anatomist: Gunther von Hagens and the commercialisation of death
The creator of the controversial "Body Worlds" exhibitions has died at 81, leaving strict instructions to become his own final display.
The man who spent decades turning the dead into plastic exhibits is about to become one himself. Gunther von Hagens, who passed away on Friday at the age of 81, leaves behind a legacy that thoroughly erased the boundary between anatomical education and morbid entertainment. His family and the Institute for Plastination confirmed his death, noting his final wish was to undergo his own preservation process. His family will respect and carry out this wish, they stated on Monday.
In the 1970s, the anatomist developed plastination, a method of replacing bodily fluids with hardening liquid plastic. This chemical intervention halted decay and allowed human tissue to be posed in theatrical, often athletic stances. What began as a scientific preservation technique quickly morphed into a highly profitable enterprise. By relying on volunteers who agreed to donate their bodies to his institute, von Hagens secured a steady supply of raw material for his travelling "Body Worlds" exhibitions.
Born Gunther Liebchen in 1945 in territory that is now western Poland, von Hagens built a distinctly unorthodox career. He took his preserved corpses on a global tour, debuting the collection in Japan in 1995 before hitting the American market with a Los Angeles exhibition in 2004.
Naturally, a traveling showcase of skinless human bodies drew intense outrage. When the exhibition arrived in Germany in 1997, local church leaders attempted to ban the display, citing fundamental violations of human dignity. Von Hagens, never one to shy away from a profitable controversy, easily dismissed such moral objections. He consistently framed his public autopsies and macabre tableaus as purely educational endeavours designed to demystify human anatomy. He maintained that his profession required him to actively discard societal taboos surrounding death, arguing that nothing is closer to humanity than its own flesh.
Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2010, the anatomist spent his final years facing his own physical decline. Now, having spent a lifetime commercialising the remains of others, von Hagens will undergo the very chemical process he invented. It is a perfectly cynical, yet entirely consistent finale for a man who managed to turn human mortality into a global museum attraction.
Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com
