Plastic fantastic: Professor Gunther von Hagens

Gunther von Hagens's controversial Bodyworlds exhibition is busy touring the globe, but what drives this pioneering man? Nigel Lane finds out

Gunther von Hagens's interest in all things three dimensional began when, as a child, he'd build cardboard aeroplanes in East Germany. He was also greatly excited by having a neighbour who was a sculptor.

At the age of six, he was in hospital for six months with haemophilia A. He remembers: "One day my head felt really heavy. I touched my forehead, and it was full of blood under the skin. Eventually, I was taken to the operating room where I heard the doctors say that they thought I would die." This was obviously a frightening experience, but it influenced his future decision to study medicine.

At 16, however, he was deemed "not clever enough" to continue in mainstream education so he started work. He recalls: "I was a hospital elevator attendant, postman, and later an assistant male nurse." His nursing job fuelled his interest in medicine, and it soon became clear to him that he did not want to be a nurse forever.

After many hours at night school, he was eventually accepted for medical school at Jena University in 1965. It was just as well that he was accustomed to hard work as he had to continue working as a nurse in the evenings to finance his studies. His main interests were biochemistry, anatomy, and psychology. An obvious career path did not present itself straight away, so he contemplated becoming a psychiatrist because he enjoyed talking to people.

But in 1968 he was arrested for distributing leaflets protesting against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. During his time in an East German prison he learnt about social intelligence and developed the art of being able to talk with anyone he came across, from the other inmates to the cleaning ladies.

After his release he continued his studies at the University of Lübeck in West Germany and completed his medical degree in 1973. He sat a doctorate in anaesthetics and emergency medicine at Heidelberg University but soon realised anaesthetics wasn't for him: "You must always be alert, and your mind cannot wander even though there is not always active input." He found that his mind did wander, and so he began working at the institutes of pathology and anatomy. Almost immediately, handling specimens captured his imagination; his dream was to find a new way to present anatomy.

By January 1977 he invented the basics of plastination, a technique where body parts could be dehydrated and filled with polymer resin, making them more robust and manageable than conventional formaldehyde specimens. He admits: "Plastination fitted with my interests in chemistry, technology, and body aesthetics and also suited my three dimensional mind."

Gunther's only hobby was ballroom dancing, and it was during his dance routines that he learnt to appreciate how subtle alterations in pose can create strikingly different images. The only way he could finance his invention was by becoming an entrepreneur. He explains: "I financed it from my own business, which was selling polymers, vacuum chambers, and gloves as well as impregnating conveyor belts, exotic wood, etc." One of the main benefits of this was that he could remain independent and did not have to conform. He had previously been caught between capitalism and socialism in East Germany, and now he was stuck between anatomy and art. "I must have a subconscious talent to put myself in a position where I can look in both directions," he explains.

Plastination was not an overnight success. It was not until 1988, when a local health insurance company asked for specimens for a health campaign, that the public became more interested. "Within two weeks, 15 000 people had seen the exhibition," he recalls. In 1990 he completed the first whole body specimen, and in 1993 he founded the Institute for Plastination in a shabby old garage in Heidelberg. This was a big financial risk: "My wife was not happy with it at all, and most of my friends forecast bankruptcy. I had to tread a difficult path between commercial necessity on one side and high quality scientific research on the other." He always followed his own beliefs: working hard, believing in yourself, and living for the moment. He also thrived on controversy: "Being controversial is more useful to society than agreement."

In 1996 he was invited to become a visiting professor at the School of Medicine in Dalian, China. He now lives there and has a research institute. One of the main reasons that he chose to work in the Far East was the Chinese expertise in anatomy and people's interest and respect for his work. He is also the director of the Plastination Centre in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and has received an honorary professorship from the State Medical Academy.

WWW/BODYWORLDS.COM

His devotion to plastination means that he has little time to relax. He finds further ideas for his models by learning Chinese, visiting conferences on biological enzymes, studying waste water management, and reading sports journals. He says: "What I do is very diverse. I have no distinction between my private and professional life. My profession is my hobby."

His dream is to build a permanent whole body museum in Mannheim, Heidelberg, or Berlin in the next 10 years. Naturally, when he dies he wishes to be plastinated.

Nigel Lane, fifth year medical student, Bristol University,
Email: email

Bodyworlds exhibition: Atlantis Gallery, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL until 29 September 2002

See p290 this month to read about the history of anatomy art. Also see studentBMJ May 2002 to read one medical student's view on the exhibition. Körperwelten was reviewed in studentBMJ Nov 2001.

Go to www.bodyworlds.com to find out where the exhibition is touring to next.

studentBMJ 2002;10:259-302 August ISSN 0966-6494