Obituaries

Body Worlds Creator Gunther von Hagens Dies at 81 After Brain Haemorrhage

Published on 31 Jul 2026

Gunther von Hagens, German anatomist and inventor of plastination, died on 24 July 2026 at age 81 in Heidelberg, Germany.
He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on 23 July 2026.
He invented plastination in 1977, a technique that replaces body fluids with plastic for long-term preservation.
Body Worlds exhibitions, which display preserved human bodies, began in Japan in 1995 and have been seen by over 58 million people.
He founded the Plastinarium in Guben, Germany, in 2006.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008, he lived with the progressive neurological disorder for many years.

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