MONOCULTURE – ARTEFACTS
image: (c) M HKA
Das Wunder des Lebens, 1935
De mensch. 'Het wonder, dat hij-zelve is'. Katalogus der tentoonstelling en 16 opstellen door professors en dokters in de geneeskunde (The human being. ‘The wonder he is’. Exhibition catalogue and 16 essays by professors and doctors of medicine), 1936
First edition
Collection M HKA, Antwerp
The Transparent Man also known as 'Der Träger des Lebens' (‘The Bearer of Life’), which was the main attraction of the lavishly designed Das Wunder des Lebens – a propaganda exhibition that took place in Berlin in 1935. The main idea of the exhibition was purely eugenicist – on both the protection of the physical body from diseases through the latest achievements of modern hygiene, and the maintenance of the so-called 'body' of German folk with the help of 'racial hygiene'. Within a few years, The Transparent Man became the symbol of German-specific understanding of man and health. It also served as a centrepiece to the traveling version of The Miracle of Life exhibition presented in Antwerp in 1936.