Thousands Flock To Berlin Exhibition Of Preserved Corpses

BERLIN (dpa) – Visitors stand transfixed before the array of skinless, dissected corpses, talking in hushed tones – worried, perhaps, they might suddenly come alive again and start talking.

Daily, thousands of people flock to the “Koerperwelten” (Body Worlds) exhibition in Berlin, organised by Professor Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist, a show, which has stirred angry protests from the Roman Catholic Church in Berlin.

The exhibition in the converted halls of a railway station, both shocks and fascinates, with its display of “plastinated” corpses in striking poses. Some 200 corpses in all, in various stages of dismemberment, are on view to the public.

One plastinated corpse is seen in a spectacular pose, astride a preserved horse, while another, reveals a crouching pregnant woman, with an eight-month-old fetus inside her distended belly. In a victory pose, a third corpse brandishes a sword.

The preservation technique was pioneered by von Hagens, who heads the Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination. He’s been making use of the technique to prepare body specimens for medical institutes since 1978.

It involves replacing water and fat in human tissue with plastics such as epoxy and silicone. The method has enabled thousands of bodies to be left for medical research and science in the past 20 years, and has never raised any serious objections.

But all that changed when Professor Hagens decided to go on a nationwide tour with an exhibition of his “plastinated” corpses. The Roman Catholic Church objected on ethical and religious grounds

The rector of Berlin’s Catholic Academy, the Rev. Ernst Pulsfort, slammed the exhibition, suggesting it was sensationalist and an affront to human dignity.

He recently appeared on a television programme to denounce von Hagens for his parade of corpses in public.

The medical scientist was “playing with corpses like children play with dolls,” he said, when attacking the fact that corpses in the show were manipulated into certain stances, with one even depicted playing chess.

The Rev. Pulsfort recently conducted a requiem for those whose corpses and dismembered body parts were being displayed at the “Koerperwelten” exhibition.

Ahead of the requiem, Roman Catholic officials had already attacked the show’s “lack of piety”, undignified breaking of sacred taboos, and violation of the peace of the death – allegations which von Hagen staunchly refutes.

The medical professor says many Christians are among donors bequeathing their bodies to his facility. More than 3,300 people have signed up and the institute has been receiving a supply of bodies at the rate of one every ten days.

Among visitors impressed by the exhibition are Gisela and Heinrich Buch, who live in Berlin’s Rudow district. “I first saw several of Prof. von Hagens’ ‘plastinated’ corpses on display two years ago at the “Kronprinzenpalais” in Berlin. “I found them brilliant.”

On leaving the show, she picked up a brochure giving details on how to become a body donor. Since then, she has agreed on her death to allow her corpse to be preserved and put on display at the Heidelberg Institute.

Husband Heinrich, 58, an ex-computer engineer, hesitated at first, but has now also agreed to donate his body to the Institute when he dies. Equipped with body donor “passes”, the couple were given free entrance to the Berlin show in mid-week.

The couple were introduced to Professor von Hagens who warmly shook their hands and posed with them for a photograph. “It’s good to know the person to whom one has entrusted your dead body,” observed Gisela Buch, with an impish smile, on leaving the show.