Leseprobe

JULIA BIENHOLZ-RADTKE AND MARIA LÖRZEL HISTORY OF THE PRODUCTION OF THE TRANSPARENT FIGURES 1945–2000 The manufacture of the Transparent Humans and Animals at the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden (DHMD) has already been described extensively from various perspectives. The focus was thereby mostly on the “creation history” 1 of the so-called Transparent Humans in the 1920s. 2 In contrast, the production that took place for decades after 1945 has received scant consideration to date. 3 This perspective was broadened in the context of the research project “Transparent Figures – Exhibition Icons of the 20th Century.” To this purpose, interviews were conducted with current and former employ- ees of the “Transparent Figures” workshop, 4 stock was taken of the materials and tools still found in the workshop 5 and corresponding archival research was undertaken. On this basis, the manufacturing history can for the first time be traced up to the year 2000, when production of the Transparent Figures at the DHMD was permanent- ly discontinued. The idea of manufacturing transparent body models for health-related exhibitions can be traced back to the founder of the DHMD, Karl August Lingner (1861–1916). He had already pursued the idea of re- constructing a human being from glass prior to the opening of the 1st International Hygiene Exhibition in 1911 and the founding of the mu- seum in 1912, in cooperation with, among others, the glass construc- tion company Schott – a plan that ultimately failed. 6 However, the wish for such a model persevered. In 1913, Lingner submitted a pa- tent for a “Process for the artificial representation of the external form and the internal structure of natural objects” 7 , which precisely descri- bed a method for shaping transparent materials for the manufacture of a transparent body model illuminated from within. 8 In it, the plastic cellulose nitrate (CN, “celluloid”) was considered as a possible ma- terial, along with glass and gelatine. The enthusiasm with which the executives at the DHMD greeted the newly available thermoplastics cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate (CA, “Cellon”) is also made clear in an article that appeared in 1919 by the scientific director of the DHMD at the time, Friedrich Woithe. He wrote, probably with a view to cellulose acetate and with a mention of the applied for patent: INTRODUCTION EARLY PLASTICS IN THE MUSEUM ‹ Fig. 3 Surviving remainders of the “Transparent Figures” workshop in the DHMD, 2021. Shown is the thermo- forming system for the moulding of the plastic parts 19