German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who enjoyed worldwide success and controversy with exhibitions of human and animal corpses, has died, his team said Monday, specifying that he himself will be “plastinated”, his conservation technique.
“It is with deep sadness that his family and the Plastination Institute announce the death of Doctor Gunther von Hagens, inventor of plastination and creator of the Body Worlds exhibitions, on July 24, 2026, at the age of 81,” she said in a press release.
Von Hagens, nicknamed “Doctor Death”, had invented, to preserve human tissues, a method called “plastination” which consists of removing water and fat from the tissues and replacing them with silicone or epoxy resin.
He then exhibited the bodies of animals and humans in different postures, allowing us to see muscles, skeletons, organs. Controversial exhibitions around the world, which have sometimes faced calls for bans.
“Iconoclastic and sometimes controversial thinker”
“Gunther von Hagens had expressed the wish that his body be destined for plastination after his death. His family announced that they would respect and implement this wish,” the press release further indicates.
His team emphasizes that his exhibitions made “anatomy accessible to the general public”, encouraging “reflection on health, disease, lifestyles and mortality”, noting that he was both “a pioneer, a researcher, an inventor” and an “iconoclastic and sometimes controversial thinker”.
The permanent exhibition on Alexanderplatz, opened in 2015 at the foot of the Berlin Television Tower, was opposed by the authorities of the central district of the capital who took the matter to court, judging the project to be contrary to regional laws on burial. But justice proved them wrong.
In Moscow too, the authorities launched an investigation in 2021, estimating that the exhibition could violate “moral values” and Russian legislation.
Died after a “long and serious illness”, according to his team, Von Hagens had grown up in the GDR. He was imprisoned there for trying to flee the communist regime, before later managing to reach West Germany.
According to the press release announcing his death, this medical graduate invented his plastination process in 1977 at the University of Heidelberg.
Its Body Worlds exhibitions, Körperwelten in German, have been seen by more than 58 million visitors, according to the same source.
