War Hero Max Dreyssig Buried After Decades on Museum Display

For almost 80 years, the skeleton of war hero Max Dreyssig remained on display in a museum, posed with one leg up on a small chair and a bird skeleton perched on his outstretched hand, until he was finally buried in Adelaide on Saturday.

Key Clinical Takeaways:

• Johann David Max Dreyssig died of stomach cancer at age 62 in 1913.
• His remains were reduced to a skeleton and sold to the South Australian Museum for £10 in 1920 by his physician, Professor Archibald Watson.

The 1913 Hospital Bedside and the £10 Museum Sale

Dreyssig passed away in a North Adelaide hospital in 1913 after receiving a stomach cancer diagnosis from Professor Archibald Watson, a University of Adelaide anatomy professor who had previously been arrested for murder and blackbirding in the South Pacific before escaping to Germany to study medicine. According to Anna Russo, the museum’s repatriation manager, body donation laws at the time did not permit individuals to bequeath their remains directly to their physicians. "We don’t know the conversations that Max had with Dr Watson on his deathbed in the North Adelaide hospital in 1913, but we do know what the laws were at that time, and we know that it wasn’t possible for people to donate their bodies to their doctors," Russo stated at the funeral.

Decades Behind Glass and the 2009 Diplomatic Complaint

Historical accounts from the Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia describe Dreyssig as a well-regarded iron and steel merchant, a Franco-Prussian War veteran who wore his Iron Cross with pride, and a familiar figure who once gave children donkey rides on Brighton beach. After the First World War, his skeleton likely remained in storage before being placed on public exhibition in 1942 during the Second World War to instruct students in human anatomy. Dr Ian Harmstorf, a historian and former president of the South Australian German Association, recounted that in 2009 a German visitor complained to the German government regarding the indignity of the display.

Ethical Reassessment and the West Terrace Cemetery Burial

The museum removed Dreyssig from public exhibition in 2019. Dr Rob Saint, chair of the museum’s board, acknowledged that past handling fell short of contemporary ethical standards. “Sadly, and as a disturbing example of the different scientific attitudes and museum practices at the time [which were] not even legal, his remains were treated as a specimen, an object of scientific interest, as an addition to the museum collection,” Saint said. Collaborating with the South Australian German Association to trace any remaining lineage—which concluded when the family line ended in 1960—organizers arranged a funeral at West Terrace Cemetery. A Lutheran pastor administered the last rites before the small casket, draped in the German flag, was lowered into the ground ahead of a memorial gathering at Adelaide’s German Club.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and scientific communication purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.