German Museum Plans Walk-Through Model of Albert Einstein’s Brain

Image by getty images
BERLIN — The German branch of Friends of Hebrew University is working to ensure that a model of Einstein’s brain that is big enough to walk through will be created at a local museum.
The Senckenberg Museum for Natural Sciences in Frankfurt is seeking public input for its brain project. People can vote online until Wednesday, June 29, on whose brain they’d prefer to explore at the museum, which is planning a modernization and expansion.
Visitors to the museum’s website can choose among the brains of Einstein, primatologist Jane Goodall, German soccer star Karl-Heinz “Charly“ Körbel, and “themselves” – by voting to have their own brain scanned for the exhibit.
The German branch of Friends of Hebrew University has jumped into the fray, urging people to spread the word and vote for Einstein, a founder of both the university and of its fundraising arm.
The Senckenberg Society for Natural Sciences was founded in 1817, and its largest museum is nearly as old, a museum spokesperson said. She added that she knew of no other “walk-in” brain sculptures. There is a walk-in heart in the children’s museum in the German city of Fulda.
The project is a brainchild of the Hertie Foundation, a museum sponsor, and Museum General Director Volker Mosbrugger.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV How the Hebrew Bible helped me write He-Man (and a Salvation Army special)
-
Opinion As Israelis in New York, we’re horrified by ICE’s detention of one of our Palestinian partners in peace
-
Fast Forward Dozens of members of UK’s largest Jewish group sign letter condemning war in Gaza
-
Culture Actor Ben Platt says his Jewish identity is ‘not defined’ by Israel, showing a gap between him and his influential family
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.