Dissection Show

Anatomist Gunther von Hagens made a name for himself dissecting corpses, "plastinating" them, and exhibiting them -- and their viscera -- doing everything from riding a horse to playing chess. Now, in the small town of Guben, on the Polish border, visitors to von Hagens' latest venture can see a group of corpses playing cards in a scene taken from the newest James Bond film, "Casino Royale."

Dubbed Dr. Death by the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, von Hagens' "Plastinarium," which opened to the public on Friday, is half workshop, half cadaver museum. To many, it is the height of morbidity. But to others in the town of Guben, where it has opened in a disused wool factory, it might be the ticket to at least a small economic revival after years of decline.

Guben may achieve renown or notoriety for cadavers in the future. But to residents, that's no worse than being known as a one-time industrial center that is now marked by sky-high unemployment and a fast-shrinking population, as young people leave for greener pastures further west.

There, in the four-story renovated factory he bought last year, von Hagens will preserve human bodies with polymers, a process he developed and dubbed "plastination." Thousands of plastinated body parts will then be sold to universities and medical institutes.

Visitors, meanwhile, can view human cadavers and body parts in various states and poses (including the Bond scene) as well as study corpses of animals, such as an elephant and a giraffe. The center's Web site says people will be exposed to the history of anatomical studies, including processes and specimens, such as "bone preparation, vascular casts, body slides, individual organ plastinates as well as whole-body plastinates."

The Plastinarium is expected to draw thousands daily, according to van Hagens, and provide up to 200 jobs in this town of 23,000 in which every fifth person is unemployed.

But that hasn't silenced critics who complain that van Hagens methods are immoral and unethical.

Bodies and commodities

Dozens turned out for the grand opening Thursday to protest the Plastinarium, singing "We Shall Overcome" and some holding placards that condemned the exhibition. "No economic development with corpses" read one.

Many of von Hagen's most vocal critics come from within the religious community. In Guben, a pastor, Michael Domke, has been a particularly vocal critic of van Hagens' center there.

"This is a place where human body parts are exploited as if they are commodities," he said. "Von Hagens wants to make money by exploiting the dead."

Still, many are thrilled that von Hagens has made the town his base, saying that the factory he bought sat empty in the years since reunification. The "plastinator," as he calls himself, has spent 2.5 million euros ($4.4 million) renovating the factory.

"Thousands of people inquired for the 41 jobs we have filled so far. Polls show that 80 percent of Guben's residents are behind this," he said, referring to a TNS Emnid poll von Hagens' institute commissioned. Around 78 percent of the 3,000 respondents supported a permanent exhibit of plastinated corpses, against 21 percent who rejected the idea.

Von Hagens said he invited critics to come take a look but they have so far rejected his offer.

"I understand why it makes some people uncomfortable," he added. "It forces people to confront our own mortality which is not easy."

Courting controversy

Von Hagens is no stranger to controversy. It was during his time as a researcher at the University of Heidelberg, in 1977, that he developed a method of preserving cadavers. The process replaces body fluids with an odorless, plastic polymer.

Eventually, von Hagens noticed that preserved body parts or even whole bodies might be interesting to the public at large. He began assembling cadavers in various poses -- playing basketball or chess -- with organs and muscles visible. His traveling exhibition, Body Worlds, inflamed church officials and some municipal authorities where the exhibits were held who called them immoral and disrespectful to the dead.

But despite the protests and occasional prayer vigils, almost 20 million viewers have seen his exhibits in Germany, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Austria, South Korea and the United States since the mid-1990s.

"The goal has always been to use the corpses as an instrument to increase awareness and knowledge of anatomy," von Hagens said. "We are trying to democratize anatomy."

But others see money being made off of pure sensationalism that has little to do with science or edification.

"It is one thing to create an exhibit of anatomy to educate the public," said Werner Schlaeke, director of the German Pathologists Association. "But to pose corpses with cigarettes in their mouth or playing chess is not of educational value -- it is entertainment, done for money and publicity and it is shameful."

Under fire

Von Hagens has had to also defend his techniques for acquiring cadavers for plastination.

In 2001, he was accused of using a body from a Russian prison camp, a charge he denied and was eventually dropped. Two years later, he appeared before the Kyrgyzstan parliament to answer charges of obtaining bodies illegally from central Asian state hospitals and prisons. Von Hagens operates a plastination center both in the Kyrgyzstani capital, Bishkek, and in China.

In 2004 in Germany, he faced allegations of tax evasion, falsifying credentials and using the bodies of condemned Chinese prisoners without their consent. He was fined for using the title "professor" but acquitted on all other charges.

The bottom line

Von Hagens may come with controversy, but many say that is irrelevant for a town such as Guben and its unemployed residents, such as Ilona Wolfram.

A former nurse, Wolfram worked in the former textile factory where the Plastinarium has been established until it closed in 1991 and has been unemployed ever since. Now she is going back to the factory and to a steady job.

"I don't have a problem with handling body parts of dead people," she told the Berliner Zeitung. "It's a job and there is nothing wrong with it."