Plastinarium

Tourist attractions

Description

In the former factory of woolen cloth (Ger.: Gubener Wolle), on an area of over 2,500 m², is located the Guben’s biggest exhibition area - the Plastinarium. This unique museum is at the same time a scientific center, providing visitors with an insight into the organic structure of humans and animals body parts performed using so called plastination - a technique of preparing a corpse. A total of 150 individual human organs and about 15 plastinates of the entire human body are available for viewing.

The main exhibition is a stationary anatomical exhibition called "BODY WORLDS. The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies”, showing the plastinates of the entire human body. One of its most famous and parallel also more controversial parts is the so-called glass laboratory: a place where the next phases of processing the deceased into plastinate can be followed in the real time. Before starting to see this exhibition, the visitor must first pass through a special room, prepared to check the level of sensitivity to the disassembly of human remains.

The Plastinarium is a facility directly related to the Heidelberg Plastination Institute, run by Dr. Gunther von Hagens, whose motivation to establish the museum was to change people's attitudes towards death.

Historical background

The exhibition has its roots in the work of Dr. Gunther von Hagens, who wanted to change people's general approach to anatomy and human body as a sacrum. The very first exhibition, organized in 1996, combined a process of preparing bodies, called plastination which was created by von Hagens himself, and the artistic way of presenting human organs. The event turned out to be a great success, attracting 50 million visitors worldwide. A few years later, the idea of setting up a stationary exhibition was born. Originally the so-called Plastinarium was meant to be establish in 2005 in the Polish town of Sieniawa Żarska in the Lubuskie Province. Despite the possibility of employing about 300 people, due to the opposition of the local community, the local authorities did not grant the investor permission to build the museum. In located 90 kilometers away Guben van Hagens was able to obtain such an opportunity and opened his first exhibition in the walls of a former wool cloth factory on November 17, 2006.