Einstein’s brain competes at Frankfurt museum

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.