Gunther von Hagens, the visionary behind the controversial Body Worlds exhibitions, has died at the age of 81.
He was famously nicknamed “Doctor Death” for his work in plastination—a method of replacing body fluids with polymers so that preserved specimens remain lifelike.
The artist’s family confirmed that he had requested his body be plastinated after death, and they plan to honor that wish.
The exhibitions drew more than 58 million visitors worldwide, yet they were frequently derided by religious groups and others who argued they turned death into a spectacle.
Von Hagens died on Friday after being admitted to a Heidelberg clinic with a brain haemorrhage. He had battled Parkinson’s disease for nearly two decades.
Born in Nazi‑occupied Poland during the final months of World War II, he grew up in communist East Germany before fleeing to the West in 1970. He developed the plastination process shortly thereafter, which soon found use in universities and research.
His Body Worlds shows began touring globally in the late 1990s, turning anatomy into a public spectacle and earning him headlines for daring move such as the first fully‑public autopsy on television in London in 2002.
While critics accused the exposé of voyeurism and profit‑making from death, many colleagues called him a pioneer, researcher, and inventor, saying he made anatomy accessible to “the general public.”
