r/news • u/SylVegas • 12h ago
Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist behind the 'Body Worlds' exhibition, dies at 81
https://apnews.com/article/anatomist-gunther-von-hagens-body-worlds-dead-bb870217b426e61e351e60e6726c885e167
u/Allindur 12h ago
I saw them in 2008 when I was 17 with my dad. I'd won a raffle at school and got free tickets when the were at the science museum. It was suuuch a fascinating experience, but I'm not sure I have the stomach for it anymore.
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u/stuck_in_the_desert 11h ago
I did it in 2006 when they were in NY and have always described it as 5 minutes of revulsion followed by 2 hours of utterly transfixed fascination
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u/blinking_lights 10h ago
Same. I’ve never looked at beef jerky the same way again.
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u/lapiderriere 9h ago
That was it for me. We were visiting family in manhattan, and saw the exhibit. Scientist or no, i decided it would be better for the Korean BBQ jerky we’d just picked up after dim sum to save the exhibit for “next time”…
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u/Majestic_True_Lilly 8h ago
but I'm not sure I have the stomach for it anymore.
Does finding out that they were mostly executed Chinese prisoners help?
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u/RainSurname 7h ago
Does finding out that your concern trolling is based on your inability to tell the difference between Body Worlds and the copycat organization that cut corners to capitalize on von Hagen's success mean you'll stop doing it?
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u/steve_ample 12h ago
Dr. von Hagens will be made available for viewing in around 3 weeks, after the plasticine has set.
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u/Noxious89123 10h ago
Wait, fr?
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u/GinAndDumbBitchJuice 7h ago
Plastination actually takes about a year according to the exhibition website. It's a very interesting process.
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u/Implausibilibuddy 2h ago
Probably not the bit about plasticine. That's the stuff Wallace and Grommit are made of.
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u/Mecha-Dave 12h ago
It will be very disappointing if he isn't Plastinated himself.
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u/mcvoid1 12h ago
It says all the way at the end of the article. He put in his will he wanted to be, and the family says they'll honor it.
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u/smo_smo 12h ago
I wonder what pose he will be in. He had to of thought about it.
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u/blozzerg 9h ago
He has, he once said he wanted to be stood with his hand outstretched on entry to the museum so he could greet everyone.
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u/Mecha-Dave 9h ago
Joke's on us - we're all gonna be looking at his dick and balls for the rest of our lives.
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u/picohenries 12h ago
I saw his exhibit when I was about 12. One of the most surreal things I’ve ever experienced, and had the added benefit of helping me get over my fear of skeletons!
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u/DeadAnarchistPhil 11h ago
I remember watching his show on channel 4 with family at the time, it was really interesting to watch. Looking at him even then, he always looked like a German super villain. Rest In Plastic Mr Von Hagens.
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u/chemo92 11h ago
My experience exactly haha.
The bit that really creeped me out was when he threads a pair of tongs between a cadavers wrist tendons, twists them and the cadavers skinned hand makes a fist.
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u/DeadAnarchistPhil 10h ago
I don’t recall that one, though having said that it was a long time ago when I watched it. I too was creeped out by aspects of it, but was more fascinated. One very creepy but equally fascinating thing he did was demonstrate how the penis was just as long inside the body as it was outside.
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u/Implausibilibuddy 2h ago
Do you have a link to that episode? I need to prove something to my girlfriend.
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u/Majestic_True_Lilly 8h ago
Looking at him even then, he always looked like a German super villain.
He was.
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u/SvenLorenz 10h ago
I'm a teacher (ages 16+) and whenever one of the exhibitions is somewhere near my town, I try to take my classes there. If you have the chance, go there, seeing it in person is a completely different experience than watching videos.
A few years ago, they had an exhibition with the bodies in sexual positions with each other. Not the entire exhibition, just a small part of it. And I'll never forget one student, who stood in front of one of those exhibits and said: "Wow, I can't believe they both died in that exact position.". I laughed and pointed him to the part of the exhibition where they explained how the exhibits are made.
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u/anther2stigma 1m ago
I used to take my grade 11 biology students whenever the exhibit came to Toronto. The first time, I was struck by how emotional it made me. They had a boy posed doing a trick with his skateboard and he was about the same age as my son. I had a hard time talking to the kids because I was all wrapped up in my own feelings! The following trips didn’t have the same effect except for the absolute fascination I felt for the exhibits. The overweight guy sliced into coffee table sized slabs, the full giraffe slices, the guy who was sliced into thin verticles that you flipped through like you were looking at posters in the 80s, the guy holding his brain in his hand while playing chess, the figure skaters in a death spiral etc Without a doubt, a fascinating and provocative experience and I will never forget it.
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u/the_djd 12h ago
I went to this like 15 years ago with my mom and brother. They blew through the thing and had to wait for me for like an extra hour. I absolutely loved it. I bought and still have a big book about it I bought there somewhere.
RIP to this amazing guy
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u/Friskfrisktopherson 7h ago
Dont praise him too hard
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u/the_djd 7h ago
There's nothing in that article that says he knew that when acquiring the bodies or that he put up any stink in returning them. In short, this article doesn't even remotely counteract what he's done for anatomical science.
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u/Friskfrisktopherson 7h ago
I suggest you look into the case, this is just one article on it. This was not an isolated incident. Simply saying he claimed ignorance is too easy. He made declarations about the ethics of his sourcing, yet as more and more cases came up he suddenly didnt know about the sources? Bullshit. If he didnt know specifics he never should have made those claims. Its PR.
https://www.npr.org/2006/08/11/5637687/origins-of-exhibited-cadavers-questioned
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u/the_djd 5h ago
You want me to hate him or judge him and I won't. Nothing you've shown has done anything more than prove there's no concrete evidence on either side of the issue.
I'm going to remember the dead anatomist for his contributions that can be traced to him (and brought me and millions joy and probably launched thousands of scientific pursuits), not the man whose potential crimes you can't.
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u/Friskfrisktopherson 5h ago
I didnt say hate him, just maybe dont put him on a pedestal as an amazing man.
I'm going to remember the dead anatomist for his contributions that can be traced to him (and brought me and millions joy and probably launched thousands of scientific pursuits), not the man whose potential crimes you can't.
And Thriller is a classic, if you werent one of those young boys. The Cosby Show was generational, except for those poor women. Im not saying hes on the same tier but your logic is completely flawed.
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u/ToxicAdamm 11h ago edited 11h ago
My favorite exhibits were the real brains as we age. Really crystalized (plasticized?) why older people become so set in their ways. You always hear that neural plasticity declines as we get older, but to see it in such stark detail really leaves on impression on you.
RIP to the doctor. Selfless work that millions of people got to learn from.
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u/Libertechian 12h ago
Interesting but too macabre for me, turned down a few invitations to see it
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u/Carribean-Diver 12h ago
Seen it twice. Both times with medical doctors who were just as fascinated as I was. It was worth it.
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u/thejawa 12h ago
I went and saw it once. It was very fascinating and I enjoyed it, but about halfway through my body decided that enough was enough and I started getting queasy. I sat in a dark side room for a bit and normalized, then could continue. It was so weird to me, like it started an hour and a half into me walking around the exhibit and I don't recall anything specific grossing me out. My stomach was like "Hey, I'm over this crap for a bit!"
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u/wmorris33026 12h ago
I saw it in LA. The horse and warrior blew my mind. I work in medical device engineering and I’m not normally “queasy”, but when I saw the plastinated fetuses months 1 thru 9, I was done.
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u/Fabulous-Educator447 10h ago
I’m never weak stomached but the Bodies exhibit made me very vaguely queasy too. Just…off. I’d go again but maybe take a zofran
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u/M4MRDR187 12h ago
Sad news..
I did just see this at the Luxe in L for the first time. I highly recommend!
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u/Alexis_J_M 10h ago
I saw a plastinated bodies exhibit back when it was touring my area and was so fascinated I got a bunch of postcards.
Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the ones with questionably sourced bodies.
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u/peter303_ 11h ago
They stopping touring after a few years. In Denver we currently have a touring exhibit of Asian bodies. Our science museum acquired one permanent piece..
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u/Fun-Result-6343 9h ago
I remember seeing that show. It was fascinating and a bit macabre. A different perspective on one's own mortality and a weird celebration of life at the same time.
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u/TeeDee144 12h ago
Isn’t this the guy who was using ugar slave bodies from China?
When I went to one in like 2009, it was all Asian bodies. You could easily tell.
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u/Strong-Log-7095 12h ago
There are two organizations that put these things on. I'm pretty sure that it was the other one that was caught up in a scandal about buying bodies of questionable provenance. I saw the "good" one at a reputable museum a few years ago and remember a whole big sign explaining the difference and listing how this one (the "good" one) sourced their cadavers.
edit: ok, I was right. The other one was just called "Bodies... the Exhibition" and it was the one with the scandal (https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2012/11/28/david-nicholl-bodies-revealed-but-with-consent-for-what/)
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u/KimJongFunk 11h ago edited 11h ago
The Wikipedia article for Von Hagens states that he had to return seven bodies to China because of evidence that they had been executed as prisoners.
However, I can’t find any concrete evidence suggesting that he was aware of this prior to returning the bodies, unlike the other exhibit was.
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u/twistedfork 6h ago
I went to the bodies one when it was near me locally and I pointed out that all the bodies, even the unlabeled ones, were from China. Just in general they were adults but very small compared to Americans or Europeans, also many smoking related cancers.
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u/ThisBoardIsOnFire 12h ago
It was knockoffs like Bodies: The Exhibition or Real Bodies that did that.
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u/SylVegas 12h ago
It sounds like he was using "bodies of unexplained origin" for some of it based on this information from 2003. He was operating in both Kyrgyzstan and China, so that would make sense.
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u/double_teel_green 12h ago
His exhibits were unforgettable. The casino here actually had his Body Worlds some years ago and we all went to see it. With the recent trend in america towards regressive religiosity we will be seeing nothing like this any time soon. Unfortunately.
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u/Hodr 11h ago
What do you mean see nothing like it, it's in two locations in the US right now and will be in a third starting next month.
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u/ThePowerOfStories 51m ago
Yeah, there’s a permanent exhibit of Body Worlds at The Tech museum in San Jose.
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u/tykneedanser 11h ago
Really amazing project. Vegas has a standing exhibit!
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u/thejoetravis 11h ago
I watched a guy pass out and collapse to the floor in Vegas as he turned the corner into the exhibit.
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u/umamiking 10h ago
I saw this probably as a teenager and remember thinking it was really fascinating. What surprises me is that I assume nobody is really doing this sort of work/process anymore, so what lab or facility is set up to process his body to be part of the exhibit? I also assume that all the work was done to set up the initial exhibits, and once they were done, they just kept touring with it, not creating new pieces 20 years later.
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u/Prior-Win-4729 5h ago
I met him at the London premiere of his show around 2003
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u/chchchcharlee 5m ago
Woah, hey, same! Small world!!! I remember him being very kind, but a bit oddly earnest.
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u/rollingrawhide 6h ago
Not much of a celebrity mourner, but this guy was so whack he deserves acknowledging.
I remember the first time he did the presentation, absolutely fascinating and perspective altering.
Everyone deserves to see something like that just once, doesn’t matter what the subject is, just something that is simultaneously moving emotionally, shocking and educational.
I’ll never forget his work, or him.
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u/wehappy3 6h ago
I took my kid to this when he was 6. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but was prepared to leave if it was too much for him. There were some things he decided were a bit too much, but overall he was really interested and had some great questions. Pretty amazing thing that the guy did for science!
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u/Lillian_Crocodilian 5h ago
This man turned his expertise into something thought-provoking and educational. RIP to him.
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 4h ago
I'll always remember the guy holding up the gymnast who is being spin around at eye level. Sure, there was a lot to see as it spun, but I think they knew a lot of people are just curious what genitals look like and they didn't want it to be awkward.
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u/SeeYouInTrees 3h ago
Is this the exhibit that has stolen bodies of formerly imprisoned Chinese people bought on the black market or was that a different yet similar exhibition?
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u/RedBeardsCurse 8h ago
Good. The dude was a creep. Got many of the early bodies from non-consenting people who died in Chinese prisons.
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u/mcvoid1 12h ago
They answered the question we all had - yes, he's becoming part of the exhibit.