Gunther von Hagens, known for his displays of preserved human
corpses stripped of skin and dissected, wants to build a laboratory and
warehouse in conservative and staunchly Catholic Poland to mass-produce
his art, local officials told Reuters recently.
Von Hagens has already bought land and industrial buildings in the
small, western Polish town of Sieniawa Zarska, population 1,150, near
the German border. He appointed his father, 88-year-old Gerhard
Liebchen, to set up the project: storing bodies and preparing them for
plastination, which replaces body fluids with plastics in order to
preserve them.
"His father told us what he plans to do here -- Von Hagen plans to
open a plastination factory of human bodies," senior town official
Andrzej Chwiedacz told Reuters. "Von Hagen's father is trying to
convince us and our people why it is good for our town."
The venture promises to eventually employ up to 300 people in the
new EU country, where labor costs are far less than in Germany and
unemployment reaches up to 18 percent.
Allegations of abuse
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Fueling the fireBut things became trickier after German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported
last month that Liebchen "appeared to be actively involved" in the SS
and helped carry out Nazi repression of Poles during World War II. The
magazine also published a list of 60 people deported in 1940 from the
southwestern town of Skalmierzyce to concentration camps allegedly
based on a list compiled by Liebchen.
The Polish authorities
announced they would examine the allegations, after which von Hagen
said his father would no longer play a role in the project.
I have only learned of these accusations, including the suggestion
that my father was in the SS, in the last few days," he said in a
statement to AFP. "In view of the historical responsibility of
Germany…it is essential for me that my company be free of any
suspicion."
No stranger to controversy
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: instructive or macabreThe
plastination process, invented by von Hagens, is the craft of
preserving human bodies by replacing the natural body fluids with solid
plastic. Plastination both preserves tissues and gives rigidity,
enabling the corpse and the organs to be displayed in exhibitions.
Employing the process, von Hagens created his "Body Worlds"
exhibition made up of 175 body parts and 25 corpses, including the
bisected body of a pregnant woman with her womb cut open to reveal the
fetus.
Though millions have visited his exhibitions, others have criticized
the exhibitions as macabre, exploitive and called him a "modern-day
Frankenstein."
He has also faced probes in several countries for breaching laws in
his handling of corpses where authorities tried but failed to stop his
exhibitions. Last year, German prosecutors became interested after
allegations arose accusing him of obtaining and using the bodies of
executed prisoners in China.
On March 22, von Hagens goes again
before a Heidelberg court on charges of illegally using the title of
professor, which he received in China. He has called the charges
"absurd."