“Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch” (Man Machine) in the Berlin Medical Historical Museum of the Charité

On January 22, 2010, the world’s first Fritz Kahn exhibition, entitled “Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch” (Man Machine), opened in Berlin. The authors of the corresponding monograph enlisted Ulla Schmidt, the former Federal Minister of Health, as patroness. A large attendance of invited guests and press representatives gathered for the opening in the Berlin Medical Historical Museum of the Charité (University Hospital). More than 24,000 people visited the exhibition until its end on April 11, 2010.

“Fritz Kahn – Maschine Mensch” was one of the first events of the Berlin Science Year 2010 as well as of the 300th anniversary of the Charité. It was part of the exhibition series “Interventions”, which introduces art in a medical context. The show presented more than 100 of Kahn’s most interesting illustrations and occupied two unique spaces of the museum: the Rudolf-Virchow-Hall (Virchow’s collection of pathological-anatomical specimens) and the preserved ruin of a historical lecture hall. In the Rudolf-Virchow-Hall, the extraordinarily vivid images were shown next to pathological specimens. In the lecture hall, fantastic bodyscapes were presented opposite man-machine analogies of classical modernism.

The exhibition project was achieved through the cooperation of the siblings von Debschitz, who researched the life and work of Fritz Kahn together and published their findings in an highly illustrated monograph. Uta von Debschitz curated the exhibition, and Thilo von Debschitz designed the graphical representation. For international visitors and for future exhibitions abroad, all text and captions are provided in German and English.