Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who invented plastination and took a controversial exhibition of preserved human bodies around the world, has died aged 81. His institute for Plastination announced his death on Monday, saying he died in a hospital in Heidelberg on 24 July after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage. Von Hagens had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2008.
Body to be plastinated
In a statement, the Institute for Plastination said: “It is with deep sadness that the family and the Institute for Plastination announce the passing of Dr Gunther von Hagens, inventor of plastination and creator of the Body Worlds exhibitions.” A spokesperson for the Plastinarium museum in Guben, Germany, said von Hagens’s body “will definitely be plastinated, as this was always a long-held wish of his”, though where it would be displayed has not been decided. Von Hagens had written in the Guardian in 2018: “I could envisage my plastinated body standing in a welcoming pose at the entrance of an exhibition, or rendered into slices and distributed across various sites.”
Early life and escape from East Germany
Born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen in January 1945 in Skalmierzyce, Poland (then under German occupation as Alt-Skalden), he grew up in socialist East Germany. He took part in protests against the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 and was imprisoned the following year after trying to flee to the west. In 1970, West Germany paid 40,000 deutschmarks for his release as a political prisoner. In the west, he met and married his first wife, Cornelia von Hagens, adopting her surname.
Invention of plastination
Von Hagens developed his preservation technique in 1977 while working at the University of Heidelberg’s institute of pathology and anatomy. “Looking at specimens embedded in plastic – the most advanced preservation technique then available – I wondered why the plastic was poured around bodies rather than into them,” he wrote. Plastination involves extracting bodily fluids and soluble fat from a dead body and replacing them with resins, silicon rubbers and epoxies, creating rigid tissue that can be posed in lifelike positions.
Body Worlds exhibitions and controversy
From 1995, von Hagens toured the world with his Body Worlds exhibitions, displaying plastinated bodies in poses such as playing chess, exercising, or having sex. The shows became a global phenomenon, attracting more than 50 million visitors. Von Hagens curated them with his second wife, Angelina Whalley, and said they aimed to “democratise anatomy” and challenge taboos about death. Critics, however, accused the exhibitions of titillation, particularly regarding foetal specimens. Von Hagens insisted all bodies were donated for educational purposes. He cultivated a public persona of a fedora-and-leather-vest wearing figure, described by one review as “a cross between evil scientist and the television cliche of ghoulish murder-scene pathologist”.
Final years and views on death
As Parkinson’s disease reduced his motor skills and speech, von Hagens transferred organisational and financial duties to his wife and son, Rurik. In 2018, he wrote: “Sometimes, at this stage of my life and illness, I wish I could suspend my convictions and embrace the idea of a divinity and an afterlife. But I don’t think there is a continuum beyond death. Every deceased body I have seen has shown me the absence of the soul. I don’t believe anything is left of us after we die.”
