<\/p>\n
BERLIN<\/strong> \u2013 Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who generated both fascination and revulsion around the globe with his \u201cBody Worlds\u201d exhibits of preserved human corpses, has died. He was 81.<\/p>\n Von Hagens’ family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday. A statement they issued on Monday gave no further details. Von Hagens had announced in 2010 that he was living with Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n Von Hagens trod a fine line between science, entertainment and commerce with his touring exhibits, as well as headline-grabbing actions such as a public autopsy.<\/p>\n At the heart of von Hagens\u2019 work was the so-called plastination process \u2014 replacing body fluids with liquid plastic that then hardens. That technique, which he started developing in the 1970s, prevented decay, left tissues intact and allowed him to display preserved corpses and their inner organs.<\/p>\n The resulting exhibition, \u201cBody Worlds,\u201d first went on show in Japan in 1995. <\/p>\n Two years later, the collection of partly skinless corpses went on display in von Hagens\u2019 homeland, overcoming an attempt by local church leaders to block its opening on the grounds that it was disrespectful. Von Hagens said he was helping viewers understand how their bodies work. <\/p>\n The anatomist \u201cis forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead,\u201d von Hagens said of his work.<\/p>\n \u201cI touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The shows used the corpses of people who agreed to donate their bodies for plastination. Critics argued that von Hagens bordered on sensationalism with his works, which included a corpse riding a plastinated horse, and a pregnant woman with an eight-month-old fetus inside.<\/p>\n Von Hagens \u201cplays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls,\u201d the Rev. Ernst Pulsfort, spiritual rector of Berlin\u2019s Catholic Academy, said when the show first opened in the German capital in 2001. He argued that it catered to a \u201cpublic lust for sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n During a \u201cBody Worlds\u201d show in London in 2002, the anatomist \u2014 wearing, as ever, his trademark black fedora \u2014 conducted Britain\u2019s first public autopsy in 170 years before a sellout crowd of hundreds, defying government warnings that it might be illegal.<\/p>\n Von Hagens declared it a \u201chuge success.\u201d The British Medical Association\u2019s head of ethics, Dr. Michael Wilkes, said it was \u201cdegrading and disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cBody Worlds\u201d exhibits were shown in several American cities after making their U.S. debut in Los Angeles in 2004.<\/p>\n Von Hagens’ \u201cPlastinarium,\u201d where bodies are prepared, opened in the eastern German town of Guben in 2006.<\/p>\n The anatomist was born Gunther Liebchen on Jan. 10, 1945, in what is now western Poland. <\/p>\n He went to medical school in Jena in East Germany, but increasingly questioned the communist system and made a failed attempt to flee to the West. He was detained before West Germany bought his freedom in 1970, a regular practice at the time.<\/p>\n He continued his medical studies at the University of Luebeck and, in the 1970s, began working at Heidelberg University\u2019s pathology and anatomy institute. He married a former classmate, Cornelia von Hagens, and took her surname.<\/p>\n His second wife, Angelina Whalley, heads his Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination and curates his exhibitions, and he had three children from his first marriage.<\/p>\n Monday’s statement said it was von Hagens’ wish that his body be made available for plastination and \u201chis family will respect and carry out this wish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.clickondetroit.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BERLIN \u2013 Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who generated both fascination and revulsion around the globe with his \u201cBody Worlds\u201d exhibits of preserved human corpses, has died. He was 81. Von Hagens’ family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday. A statement they issued on Monday gave no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2519039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[497380,497379,21741,497384,497383,497381,497382,380206,22814],"class_list":["post-2519037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-angelina-whalley","tag-cornelia-von-hagens","tag-entertainment","tag-ernst-pulsfort","tag-gunther-liebchen","tag-gunther-von-hagens","tag-michael-wilkes","tag-science","tag-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Gunther-von-Hagens-the-German-anatomist-behind-the-Body-Worlds.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519040,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519037\/revisions\/2519040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2519039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}