1926 Kahn Lithograph 'The Human as an Industrial Palace'

A visually stunning work of popular science, this is Fritz Kahn's 1926 unforgettable representation of the human body as an 'industrial palace.' It is perhaps the best-known work of Kahn, who was a master of infographics.

A Closer Look

Similar to an anatomical schematic, the human body is displayed with its various organs and systems labeled, but with each represented by a machine or series of machines. Numbers denote stages in the process of respiration and circulation (beginning with the inhalation of oxygen and ending with exhalation of carbonic acid), while letters indicate stages in digestion, the conversion of energy, and the functioning of organs. Different 'rooms' of the 'industrial palace' contain their respective organs, including the liver (leber), heart (herz), stomach (magen), colon (darm), kidney (niere), and so on. The brain is presented as a complex set of machines and electrical wires, with different control centers for the body's organs and systems. Throughout, 'workers' lift chemical compounds and run the machines, while 'managers' and switchboard operators make decisions and coordinate functions in the brain (this vertical spatial differentiation between workers and managers is reminiscent of the opening scenes of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, another great cultural product of Weimar Germany, released one year after Kahn's infographic).

Medicine for the Masses

A prolific writer, Kahn was known for making complex scientific concepts and information accessible to a wider audience, especially through his conceptualization of illustrations that used metaphors to explain the human body. These works were so effective that they had international currency. 'Der Mensch als Industriepalast' has had a particularly strong and lasting appeal, spawning unauthorized reproductions and imitations, including a poster published in Shanghai in 1933 titled 'The Human Body is Like a Factory' (人體好像工廠).

Publication History and Census

This work was conceived by Fritz Kahn and appeared as a supplement to the second volume (1926) of his Das Leben des Menschen, published in five volumes between 1922 and 1931. It was printed by Fricke and Co. and published by Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, both of Stuttgart. It is only independently cataloged by the New York Public Library, while the entire five-volume work is more widespread. As mentioned above, several official and unofficial translations of 'Der Mensch als Industriepalast' were produced in the years after the original's publication, including several English editions (titled 'The Human Factory'). Both the German original and the English translation are scarce to the market.