Now showing at Charité's Berlin Medizinhistorisches Museum is an extraordinary exhibition about doctor and science writer Fritz Kahn. Searching for a way to make the mysterious inner workings of the human body understandable to a wide audience in the 1920’s, Kahn hit upon a perfect metaphor: modern-machines. Although he had no artistic ability, Kahn was able to hire a group of talented illustrators to complete his vision by giving them detailed instruction. The resulting five-volume series, Das Leben des Menschen, was an international hit, no doubt serving as inspiration for Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis as well as a groundbreaking album from influential German electronic band Kraftwerk many years later. Kahn’s book gave legions of artists and designers something to dream on, and educated future generations of doctors and scientists about the wonders of man.Unfortunately Kahn’s success ended abruptly with the rise of the Nazis. He was expelled from Germany in the 1930’s due to being—you guessed it—a Jew. With help from fellow émigré Albert Einstein, Kahn was able to come to America to continue his career. Meanwhile, he had to look one while the Nazis first burned his books, and then appropriated them, adding anti-Semitic language and plagiarizing his ideas to serve their own purposes. Luckily, his worked lived on thanks to its playfulness, complexity, and originality. Forgotten for many years, Fritz Kahn is now celebrated in this exhibition and the book that accompanies it. His story of initial success, subsequent exile, and recent rediscovery is a perfect example of what Berlin Revival seeks to highlight and celebrate.
Read about Fritz Kahn and see some of his astounding illustrations here. If you’re in Berlin from now until April 11, 2010, see the exhibition here.
Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine (Dream Anatomy Gallery)
