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BODY WORLDS Berlin was the first permanent museum dedicated wholly to the human body, opened in 2015 by Dr Gunther von Hagens and Dr Angelina Whalley, the husband-and-wife team behind the touring BODY WORLDS exhibitions that have drawn enormous crowds and considerable controversy around the world. It occupies the base of the Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz, an apt setting for one of the city's more unusual attractions. The exhibits are real human and animal specimens preserved by plastination, a technique von Hagens invented in the late 1970s in which bodily fluids and fats are replaced with reactive plastics, leaving the tissue dry, odourless and durable, able to be posed and dissected to reveal anatomy in extraordinary detail. The galleries lead visitors beneath the skin to show how muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organs are arranged and how the body's systems work together while a person stands, moves, breathes and ages. Whole-body plastinates are posed in lifelike attitudes, often mid-action, alongside isolated organs and cross-sections that illustrate the digestive tract, the nervous system and the cardiovascular network, as well as the effects of disease, smoking and lifestyle. Beyond the strictly anatomical, themed sections grouped as facets of life explore how social and emotional factors influence health. All the human specimens come from people who consented during their lifetime to donate their bodies for the education of doctors and the public, a point the museum stresses given the ethical debate the displays have always provoked. Explanatory text is provided in German and English, and the venue is open daily with a wheelchair-accessible route. The experience is intense and not for the squeamish, but many visitors find it genuinely illuminating, leaving with a sharper sense of their own anatomy. Combined with the TV Tower above it, it makes for a memorable, slightly macabre detour at the centre of Berlin. The exhibition has provoked debate wherever it has travelled, with critics questioning the dignity of displaying the dead and supporters praising its educational reach, and the museum addresses this directly through information on body donation and consent. Allow around ninety minutes, and be aware that some specimens, including those showing reproduction and disease, are frank and may unsettle younger or sensitive visitors. Combined with the TV Tower directly above and the bustle of Alexanderplatz outside, it makes a distinctive, thought-provoking stop in the very centre of the city.