Gottfried Knoche
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August Gottfried Knoche (17 March 1813,
Biography
In 1837, he studied at the
He was known as a charitable man, who treated poor patients without charge, and was considered fearless in his fight against a
From 1854 to 1856, he helped reestablish the old "Hospital San Juan de Dios".[2] Later, during the Federal War, when many bodies were brought from the battlefields, he became fascinated with the process of decomposition and began experimenting on unclaimed corpses, which he took on muleback to his laboratory at Buena Vista.[2] Soon, he devised a fluid that could be injected into the veins and preserve the cadaver without having to remove the organs.[3]
Many rumors about his experiments circulated, giving rise to a popular apocryphal anecdote: The family of Tomás Lander , a journalist and politician, heard about his fluid and asked him to mummify Lander. After finishing the process, with the corpse elegantly dressed and groomed, he placed it at a desk in the entryway of his (Lander's) house, where it remained for forty years, until President Antonio Guzmán Blanco had it interred on behalf of Lander's descendants. In fact, Lander died in 1845, long before Knoche is believed to have developed his formula. It may be a humorous way of explaining why Lander's body was not placed in the National Pantheon until 1884, or a sly commentary on his character by people who believed that he was nothing more than an "armchair revolutionary". The story could have been inspired by the well-known fate of Jeremy Bentham's corpse.
In preparation for Knoche's own death, he concocted the proper dosage and entrusted it to his nurse (and possibly cousin) Amalie Weismann. She carried out this commission faithfully, and remained at Buena Vista until her death in 1926 at the age of eighty-eight when, in accordance with her wishes, she was also placed in the mausoleum.[2] As she became more reclusive, locals began to refer to her as the "Witch of Ávila" and she was said to have the power to talk to birds.[3]
Legacy
His fluid is believed to have been based on an
Further reading
- Guillermo José Schael: "Brújula”: Desde los Welser al Doctor Knoche", in El Universal, March 1971.
- Gabriela Moreno: "Las momias criollas del doctor Knoche", in Todo en Domingo, (a magazine insert from El Nacional), 2 (60), pp. 46–48. November 2000.
References
- ^ Mitchell, Robbie (2023-01-12). "Gottfried Knoche: The Master of a Lost Embalming Art". Historic Mysteries. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
- ^ a b c d e f "El Doctor Knoche y las momias de El Ávila" @ the Doctor Knoche blog.
- ^ The History Channel.
External links
- "Dr.Knoche y sus Mumías", a website created by Miguel Jaramillo.
- "Doctor Knoche, el Vampiro de Galipan" by Ramón Urdaneta @ Venezuela y el Mundo (blog).
- "Tras la leyenda del Doctor Knoche: El Frankenstein del Caribe" @ TuZona (with a short video)
- Brief biography of Knoche in English @ Historic Tourism
- "De Lacte Mulierum" (On Women's Milk): Knoche's doctoral dissertation @ Google Books