Body worlds: a look under the skin or death as a show?

Body worlds: a look under the skin or death as a show?

Vienna, Österreich - Gunther von Hagens, the dazzling inventor of the controversial “body world” exhibitions, celebrates his 80th birthday on January 10, 2025. His iconic exhibitions with plastinated corpses have fascinated million from visitors worldwide since 1996 and let them look deeply under the skin. The exhibitions that attracted more than 50 million people show body parts and organs in action -packed scenes that arouse interest in the human body. "People visit the exhibition primarily because of their interest in our own body, because nothing is closer to us," said von Hagens in a conversation with the "Frankfurter Rundschau", as on vienna.at is.

But his art also gets a lot of criticism. Many accuse him of promoting voyeurism and a commercial interest in death. A famous corpse show in London met with violent resistance. Despite the controversy, Hagens remains steadfast and sees his work as a way to make anatomy and science accessible to the general public. "A certain portion of voyeurism is self -contested by anatomical preparations", he justifies his work, confirms on Munzinger.de .

from Hagens, born as Gunther Gerhard Liebchen, grew up in a time and in a family that strongly shaped him. After escaping with the mother from the Russian troops in World War II and a life in the GDR, where he spent political detention in 1969, he found his way into medicine. His groundbreaking invention of plastination around 1977 revolutionized the anatomy and led it to a global sensation from the universities. Today the business of his son Rurik von Hagens is running successfully, while he himself has respected his art and science, even if he has been struggling with Parkinson's since 2008.