Gunther von Hagens
Born	January 10, 1945 (1945-01-10) (age 62) Skalmierzyce, Kalisch, Poland
Occupation	Anatomist
Spouse	Angelina Whalley

Gunther von Hagens (b. Gunther Liebchen, January 10, 1945) is a controversial German anatomist who invented the plastination technique to preserve specimen and is heavily involved in its promotion. He developed the Body Worlds exhibition of human bodies and body parts. Von Hagens has a distinct German accent, and wears a black hat during his instructional cadaver dissection videos. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 368 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (422 × 688 pixel, file size: 229 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) As a matter of courtesy the photographer (Túrelio) prefers to be notified of any use of this image outside of Wikimedia projects. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland_corrected_(bordered). ... Mediaeval seal of the city of Kalisz Downtown Kalisz with church and town halls towers visible Adam Asnyks college Kalisz (pronounce: [kaliʃ]) (German: Kalisch) is a city in central Poland with 109,800 inhabitants (1995). ... Motto: Młode Duchem Nastarsze Miasto w Polsce Voivodship Greater Poland Municipal government Rada Miejska Kalisz Mayor Janusz Pęcherz Area 88 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 160 149 - -/km² Founded City rights - - Latitude Longitude 51°45 N 18°04 E Area code +48 62 Car plates PK... Anatomical drawing of the human muscles from the Encyclopédie. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Anatomical drawing of the human muscles from the Encyclopédie. ... // Image:Body blog. ... Body Worlds (German title: Körperwelten) is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures. ... A cadaver is a dead body. ...

Biography

He was born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen in Skalmierzyce near Kalisz, in western Poland during the occupation by the German Reichsgau Wartheland. To escape the imminent Soviet occupation, his parents placed the five-day-old infant in a laundry basket and began a six-month trek west by horse wagon. His father Gerhard Liebchen had been a Nazi official who served in the German SS.^[1] Gunther grew up in East Germany. The family lived briefly in Berlin and its vicinity, before finally settling in Greiz, a small town where von Hagens remained until age nineteen. Mediaeval seal of the city of Kalisz Downtown Kalisz with church and town halls towers visible Adam Asnyks college Kalisz (pronounce: [kaliʃ]) (German: Kalisch) is a city in central Poland with 109,800 inhabitants (1995). ... Kalisz (pronounce: [kaliʃ]) is a city in central Poland with 109,800 inhabitants (1995). ... Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazi German government to the largest subdivision of the territory of Greater Poland which was directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939. ... Soviet redirects here. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... The   (German for Protective Squadron), abbreviated (Runic) or SS (Latin), was a large security and military organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany. ... GDR redirects here. ...

Dr.Gunther Von Hagens.

A hemophiliac, as a child he spent six months in hospital after cutting himself. This stimulated an interest in medicine, and in 1965 he commenced studies in medicine at the University of Jena. He was arrested after political protests and an attempt to escape to West Germany. West Germany bought his freedom in 1970 and he continued his medical studies in Lübeck, and received a doctorate in 1975 from the University of Heidelberg. There he would work at the Institutes of Anatomy and Pathology as a lecturer for twenty years. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Haemophilia or hemophilia is the name of any of several hereditary genetic illnesses that impair the bodys ability to control bleeding. ... medicines, see medication and pharmacology. ... Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (FSU) is located in Jena, Thuringia in Germany and was named for the German writer Friedrich Schiller. ... Lübeck ( pronunc. ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) was established in the town of Heidelberg in the Rhineland in 1386. ...

Dr von Hagens is best known for his plastination technique, which he invented in 1977 and patented in the following year. Subsequently, he developed the technique further, and founded the Institute of Plastination in Heidelberg in 1993. He has been visiting professor in Dalian, China since 1996, where he runs a plastination center, and also directs a plastination center at the State Medical Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Since 2004 he is also guest professor at New York University, College of Dentistry. // Image:Body blog. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which... Dalian (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dàlián; Japanese: Dairen; Russian: Далянь, Dalian or Дальний, Dalny) is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. ... Bishkek cityscape Bishkek (Бишкек) is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. ... New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ...

Von Hagens developed the Body Worlds exhibition, showing numerous cadavers plastinated in various poses and dissected to various degrees. The exhibition went on tour in 1995, and has met with public interest and controversy in numerous cities around the world since. Critics contend that the exhibition is sensationalist and that the artistic, lifelike poses into which the plastinated cadavers have been fixed is degrading and disrespectful. The show, and von Hagens' subsequent exhibition Body Worlds II, are nevertheless very popular; von Hagens says that they have received over 15 million visitors. His newest exhibit, "Body Worlds III," was presented at Science World in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

After several legal challenges to the Bodyworlds exhibit in Germany, in the Summer of 2004 von Hagens announced it would be leaving the country permanently.

In 2002 von Hagens performed the first public autopsy in the UK for 170 years, to a sell-out audience of 500 people in a London theatre. Prior to performing the autopsy, von Hagens had received a letter from Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, the British government official responsible for regulating the educational use of cadavers. The letter warned von Hagens that performing a public autopsy would be a criminal act under section 9 of the 1984 Anatomy Act. The show was attended by officers from the Metropolitan Police, but they did not intervene and the dissection was performed in full. The autopsy was shown in November 2002 on the UK's Channel 4 television channel; it resulted in over 130 complaints, but the Independent Television Commission ruled that the program had not been sensationalist and had not broken broadcasting rules. A planned public dissection in Munich was cancelled. Post-mortem, postmortem and post mortem redirect here. ... It has been suggested that Channel Four Television Corporation be merged into this article or section. ... The ITC has been superseded as the British commercial television regulator by Ofcom (the Office of Communications). ...

In 2005 Channel 4 screened four programs entitled Anatomy for Beginners, featuring von Hagens and pathology professor John Lee dissecting a number of cadavers and discussing the structure and function of many of the body's parts. A four part follow-up series entitled Autopsy: Life and Death aired on Channel 4 in 2006, in which von Hagens and Lee discussed diseases with the aid of dissections. In March 2006 a spokesman for Channel 4 announced that the station hoped to commission further programmes involving von Hagens, and was in discussion about possible formats. Professor John Lee John Andre Lee is an English consultant histopathologist at Rotherham General Hospital and clinical professor of pathology at Hull York Medical School. ...

Von Hagens is married to Angelina Whalley; he has three children from his first marriage and also retains the surname von Hagens which is that of his first wife. When appearing in public, even when performing anatomical dissections, von Hagens always wears his trademark black fedora. A fedora, which in this case has been pinched at the front and being worn pushed back on the head, with the front of the brim bent down over the eyes. ...

Von Hagens has said that his grand goal is the founding of a "Museum of Man" where exhibits of human anatomy can be permanently shown. He does not seem to be deterred by the controversies that have dogged his work, and has often made detailed public statements about his positions.

Legal accusations

Von Hagens has a guest professorship from Dalian Medical University and a honorary professorship from Bishkek State Medical Academy. In publications, he often uses the title "Professor". In 2003, the University of Heidelberg filed a criminal complaint against him, claiming that he had misrepresented himself as a professor from a German university in a Chinese document, and that he had failed to state the foreign origin of his title in Germany. After a trial, he received a fine in March 2004. On April 25, 2005, a Heidelberg court sentenced him to a fine of 108,000 euros (equivalent to a prison term of 90 days at the daily income assessed by the court) for one count of using an academic title that he was not entitled to, but acquitted him on four other counts. On appeal a higher court in September 2006 reduced the penalty to a warning with a suspended fine of 50,000 euro, which under German law is not deemed a prior criminal conviction. Dalian Medical University (大连医科大学) is a university in Dalian, Liaoning, China under the provincial government. ... April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (116th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ISO 4217 Code EUR User(s) Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Vatican City Inflation 1. ... ISO 4217 Code EUR User(s) Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Vatican City Inflation 1. ...

In 2003, an animal rights organization filed a complaint alleging that von Hagens did not have proper papers about a gorilla he had plastinated. He had received the cadaver from the Hanover Zoo, where the animal had died. German authorities demanded the removal of the gorilla during the 2004 exhibition in Frankfurt, but von Hagens prevailed in court and the animal was restored. Type species Troglodytes gorilla Savage, 1847 distribution of Gorilla Species Gorilla gorilla Gorilla beringei The gorilla, the largest of the living primates, is a ground-dwelling omnivore that inhabits the forests of Africa. ... Hanover Zoo in Hanover, Germany, is one of the top German zoos with a number of unique highlights, for example: Sambezi: Visitors travel in small boats for about 15 minutes along an artificial African river with a trading post. ...

Hamburg prosecutors investigated charges of disturbing the dead, based on his photographing plastinated corpses late at night all over Hamburg.

There were legal proceedings against von Hagens in Siberia regarding a shipment of 56 corpses to Heidelberg. Siberian Federal District (darker red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) arctic northeast Siberia Udachnaya pipe Siberia (Russian: , Sibir; Tatar: ) is a vast region of Russia constituting almost all of Northern Asia and comprising a large part of the Euro-Asian Steppe. ...

In October 2003, a parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan investigated accusations that von Hagens had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric institutions and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, some without prior notification of the families. Von Hagens himself testified at the meeting; he said he had received nine corpses from Kyrgyzstan hospitals, none had been used for the Body Worlds exhibition, and that he was not involved with nor responsible for the notification of families.

In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired some corpses from executed prisoners in China; he countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies and went on to cremate several of the disputed cadavers. German prosecutors declined to press charges, and Von Hagens was granted an interim injunction against Der Spiegel in March 2005, preventing the magazine from claiming that Body Worlds contain the bodies of executed prisoners. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In February 2004, the German Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed earlier reports by the German TV station ARD that von Hagens had offered a one-time payment and a life-long pension to Alexander Sizonenko if he would agree to have his body transferred to the Institute of Plastination after his death. Sizonenko, reported to be one of the world's tallest men at 2.39 m, formerly played basketball for the Soviet Union and is now plagued by numerous health problems. He declined the offer. The Süddeutsche Zeitung is a leading German quality newspaper. ... The principal German public national TV channel. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005. ...

See also

• Expulsion of Germans after World War II

Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the forced migration of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ...

Patents

• U.S. Patent 4,205,059  Animal and vegetal tissues permanently preserved by synthetic resin impregnation, filed November 1977, issued May 1980
• U.S. Patent 4,278,701  Animal and vegetal tissues permanently preserved by synthetic resin impregnation, filed November 1979, issued July 1981
• U.S. Patent 4,320,157  Method for preserving large sections of biological tissue with polymers, filed August 1980, issued March 1982

Further reading

• Nina Kleinschmidt and Henri Wagner: Endlich unsterblich? Gunther von Hagens - Schöpfer der Körperwelten. Bastei Lübbe, 2000, ISBN 3-86153-332-4. A very sympathetic biography of Gunther von Hagens, in German.

• Torsten Peuker and Christian Schulz: Der über Leichen geht. Gunther von Hagens und seine "Körperwelten". Links, 2004, ISBN ISBN 3-404-60493-8. A very unsympathetic biography of Gunther von Hagens, in German.

References

2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini era. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ...

External links

• Official Site of Gunther von Hagens
• BBC report: "Controversial autopsy goes ahead"
• BBC report: "The plastination professor"
• BBC report on ITC's ruling on the autopsy TV program
• Channel 4's page on Anatomy for Beginners, with photos of the dissections
• Biography, by the Chicago Tribune, 31 July 2005
• Salon.com: "I See Dead People", 5 June 2005
• NPR Audio: "Cadaver Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow", 10 August 2006

• Ulaby, Neda; von Hagens, Gunther;. (2006, August 11). Origins of Exhibited Cadavers Questioned (.MP3) [Audio]. National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. Scene occurs at 0:00:00-0:03:00.