Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum

The Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum (German Museum of the History of Medicine) is one of the most distinctive museums in Bavaria, housed in the former anatomy theatre of Ingolstadt's old university — a baroque building from 1723 with an unusual octagonal dissection room at its centre. The museum traces the history of medicine from antiquity to the modern era, with an impressive collection of instruments, anatomical models, pharmaceutical equipment, and documents.

The wax anatomical models in the collection are both beautiful and disturbing — 18th-century teaching tools of extraordinary craftsmanship, created at a time when cadavers were scarce and wax provided an alternative that could be preserved indefinitely. The pharmacy room, reconstructed from a historic Bavarian apothecary, is another highlight. The museum is well worth two hours for anyone with an interest in science history, and fascinating even for those who aren't.

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A story
The museum occupies the former anatomy theatre of the University of Ingolstadt, where students studied human dissection from the 17th century. Mary Shelley knew this history when she chose Ingolstadt as the location where Victor Frankenstein would pursue his anatomical experiments — and the building itself, with its circular dissection room, looks very much as one might imagine his laboratory.