German anatomist drew the attention of the world with his "Body Worlds" exhibition, which he prepared by rendering dead bodies incorruptible with the "plastination" method.
Body Worlds, which presents an unforgettable experience that covers a special presentation of the human life cycle and aging from prenatal development and infancy to childhood and adolescence, adulthood and old age, whose main purpose is health education and which allows people to confront themselves, Body Worlds It is the only human anatomy exhibition where the internal organs are presented to the public.
In the exhibition, which includes more than 200 human body parts that have been rendered incorruptible by the "plastination" method discovered by the German scientist and anatomist Gunter Von Hagens, the muscles, vessels, and organs are presented in their pristine state, as they are inside the living body.
Gunther von Hagens (born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen; 10 January 1945) is a German anatomist who invented the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination. He has organized numerous Body Worlds public exhibitions and occasional live demonstrations of his and his colleagues' work, and has traveled worldwide to promote its educational value. The sourcing of biological specimens for his exhibits has been controversial, but he insists that informed consent was given before the death of donors, and extensive documentation of this has been made available.
The plastinates prepared at the Plastination Institute opened by Hagens were first exhibited in Japan in 1995. After the exhibition in Japan aroused great interest, the Body Worlds exhibition began to be carried all over the world.
Exploring the graceful form of the human body, showing how fragile it is under stress and illness, and how it attains tremendous strength when healthy, the exhibition has so far reached more than 30 million visitors in more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.
WHO IS DR. VON HAGENS?
Gunter von Hagens was born on January 10, 1945 in Skalmierzyce, Kalisch, Poland. Hagens, who went on a journey towards the German border with his family, who escaped from the Russian soldiers when he was only 5 days old, was able to escape the devastation of the war to East Germany with his family, thanks to his father's work as a cook in the German SS troops, and spent his childhood in this country. Staying in Berlin for many years, the family later moved to a small town called Greiz, where Hagens would grow up until he was 19.
Hages, a patient with a blood clotting disorder (Hamophilia), had to stay in the hospital for six months after a minor injury; During this period, his interest in medical science developed and after high school, he enrolled at the University of Jena Medical School. Hagens, who gained a political identity recognized at school due to his anti-Communist and anti-Socialist attitudes, was caught trying to escape from Germany after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969 and was imprisoned for nearly two years.
After being released from prison in 1970, Hagens completed his medical education and received his doctorate from Heidelberg University in 1975. Hagens, who worked in the fields of pathology and anatomy at this university for two years, gained his real fame thanks to the plastination method (covering dead tissues with plastic and using them for anatomy purposes), which he invented in 1977 and patented in 1978. Advancing this technique over the years, Hagens established the world's first Plastination Institute in Heidelberg in 1993.
The technique, which had limited use for 20 years after its initial invention, only worked on small parts of the body; this did not attract much attention outside of medical students. Hagens, who succeeded in preserving a whole dead human cadaver by fixing it with this method in the mid-1990s, opened his first exhibition in Japan in 1995.