Leseprobe

THE “THE TRANSPARENT MAN” EXHIBITION GROUP In 1925, the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden (DHMD) presented a new exhibition group under the title “The Transparent Man”, which was to function as a special attraction of the (travelling) exhibitions of the museum over a period of years. This was a composi- tion of prepared specimens of human body parts presented in light boxes, which were based on a procedure of the anatomist Wer- ner Spalteholz (1861–1940) and had already been shown in 1911 at the 1st International Hygiene Exhibition as an innovation. The pre- pared specimens produced with the Spalte- holz method had a special visual appeal, which exhibition organisers knew to exploit: they appeared transparent. In order to achieve this effect, the respective body part was saturated with a liquid that had the same average refraction index as this. The labora- tory technician and model maker of the DHMD, Franz Tschackert (1887–1958), fur- ther refined the process and as a result also produced injection specimens. 1 The pre- pared specimens were backlit in the light boxes, which further emphasised their trans- parency. In this way, the structure and func- tion of the human body, its internal organs, bones and joints became comprehensible for visitors. Only a handful of photographs in the col- lection of the DHMD provide insight into the content and manner of presentation of the group in the mid-1920s. After these exhibi- tion pieces could be seen for the first time at the Hygiene Exhibition in Vienna at the end of April 1925, “The Transparent Man” was shown as of September 1925 as part of the exhibi- tion “Heredity, Procreation, Racial Hygiene and Venereal Diseases” in the exhibition hall of the DHMD at the Dresden Zwingerteich (Zwinger pond). 2 The exhibition group stood in a dark booth separated from the rest of the hall, the entrance to which was flanked by two ancient statues. After 1925, the new exhibition group was regularly used in health exhibitions of the DHMD and thus enjoyed a high recognition value. 3 Parallel with this, the teaching mate- rials company of the museum offered Spal- teholz prepared specimens for sale. Already in the mid-1920s, those responsi- ble at the DHMD apparently planned to inte- grate a transparent full body figure – the Transparent Man – into the ensemble and to present it at the Great Exhibition for Health Care, Social Welfare and Physical Exercise (GeSoLei) in 1926 in Düsseldorf, which, how- ever, was not realised due to technical prob- lems. 4 Only with the opening of the museum building in 1930 was a complete figure made of plastic, the Transparent Man, added to the ensemble and staged to great effect within the in-house exhibition of the DHMD. JBR Fig. 102 Booth of the exhibition group “The Transparent Man” in Dresden, photograph, 1925, inv. no. 2009/218.29 Fig. 103 Backlit prepared specimens of human body parts in the exhibition group “The Transparent Man” in Dresden, photograph, 1925, inv. no. 2009/218.30 198