Dr. Knoche and his “mummy factory” in the jungles of Venezuela

Mad scientists do not leave the walls of the university. The path to madness begins later and is different for everyone. Dr. Gottfried Knoche was a dedicated, highly trained physician who saved hundreds of lives during his career. But then something went wrong and the scientist became fascinated by death. He turned all the dead bodies he could reach into mummies. It all ended with the professor making a mummy from... himself.

Gottfried Knoche was born in 1813 in Germany, in the city of Halberstadt. He received a diploma from the prestigious University of Freiburg and began his medical practice. Then the successful physician married a girl from a wealthy family and led an unremarkable life. But at the age of 32, Knoche for some reason moved with his family to Venezuela.

The reason that prompted the doctor to change the comfortable Germany to the jungles of South America is unknown. There was a large German community in Venezuela, and the doctor became one of its indispensable members. The Knoche family bought a house in the town of La Guaira, near Caracas, the capital of the country. There he quickly became famous both among his fellow countrymen and local residents.

Gottfried Knoche began to be called in the Spanish manner “Señer Knoche.” The doctor launched a vigorous activity and soon began to be considered almost a saint. He restored the abandoned San Juan de Dios Hospital at his own expense and treated him free of charge. During the cholera epidemic, Knoche fearlessly saved lives, literally pulling hundreds of patients from the dead. Next to the selfless doctor there were always his wife and daughter, who worked in the clinic as ordinary nurses.

In 1859, a bloody civil war began in Venezuela. The reformers did not share power with the conservatives and more than 100 thousand people died in this struggle. Gottfried Knoche quickly converted the clinic into a hospital and continued to save lives. They say he worked miracles and nursed completely hopeless wounded people. But there were still deaths and the hospital morgue was always filled with bodies.

Death, hunger and destruction reigned in the country. Many corpses turned out to be unclaimed. It was then that strange things began to be noticed about the doctor. Late in the evening, he loaded the bodies into his cart and took them somewhere. In total, about 40 bodies disappeared from the morgue and rumors about this spread throughout the area. But Knoche’s authority was unshakable and no one suspected the doctor of anything bad.

They said that he buried the dead at his own expense and this made people respect the doctor even more. But sooner or later, such behavior should have alerted the residents of La Guaira. Various tales began to be invented about Knoch, including tales that he carried out terrible experiments on the dead and even learned to revive them. These stories were not groundless. No, the talented physician did not work on creating zombies. He became interested in mummification.

In the mid-1850s, Knoche acquired the Bueno Vista estate on the outskirts of Caracas. It was a wonderful place to relax, located in a picturesque valley between the mountains and the sea. A wonderful resort climate reigned there - the sea breeze dispersed the tropical heat, there were no swamps that spread malaria, and clouds of insects did not pester.

But the doctor did not plan to spend the weekend in Bueno Vista with his family. He bought the estate for work. Knoche equipped a scientific laboratory in the spacious house, and adapted the basements for storing bodies. The scientist got the idea to find a fundamentally new way to mummify corpses without removing the internal organs.

In the laboratory, the scientist created special chemical solutions that were pumped into dead bodies. As a result, he achieved success in his business and invented a composition that he himself called “serum.” Once in the circulatory system, it preserved soft tissue, effectively stopping decomposition. It is difficult to say how many experiments the doctor had to conduct before he made his discovery. But thanks to the war, he had enough material to work with, and the estate, surrounded by a high stone fence, carefully kept its secrets.

Knoche soon became interested in how his serum acted on living beings. The doctor injected it into the dogs and they died, but the decomposition process did not begin. He built a spacious mausoleum for mummies, the entrance of which was guarded by dead dogs. In the laboratory attached to this crypt, the doctor worked tirelessly, sometimes forgetting about sleep and food.

At first, only the mummies of soldiers were kept in the mausoleum. Later the bodies of his brother, son-in-law and daughter were found there. It is not known for sure whether they died a natural death or became experimental subjects of a completely crazy scientist. Knoche's vigorous activity led to the doctor's wife and son frantically packing up their things and fleeing to Europe.

The apotheosis of the mad scientist’s activity was his self-mummification. In 1901, Gottfried Knoche, who was already 88 years old, felt the end approaching. He was so passionate about his work that he decided not to miss the opportunity and turned himself into a mummy. He himself lay down on the table in the laboratory and demanded that his assistant Amalia Weissman inject serum into his vein. After Knoche passed into another world, Weissman placed his body in a place of honor in the mausoleum.

The doctor's assistant, Amalia Weissman, was left completely alone on the estate, surrounded by the incorruptible bodies of people and animals. The professor bequeathed all his property to her on the condition that she would become the custodian of the fruits of his labor. The woman lived completely alone for 20 years.

Since Hacienda Bueno Vista was notorious among the people, no one bothered the woman. Fear of Knoche, who during his lifetime was considered a necromancer and a vampire, forced people to avoid the terrible place. Weissman herself began to be called the “Witch of Avila”, attributing to her the most incredible abilities. They said that she knew the language of birds and animals, and in the house she was served by the dead, revived by the doctor.

It is not known exactly how Amalia ended her days. According to one version, she injected herself with the serum and lay down next to her boss in the mausoleum. According to another, Weissman, on the contrary, demanded that her body be cremated and her ashes scattered over the sea. After the estate was depopulated, people were still afraid to approach it for a long time.

But over time, the fear passed and looters began to visit the hacienda. In 1929, local authorities organized an expedition to Bueno Vista. They saw desolation and destruction. The jungle took over the courtyard and garden of the house, and the mausoleum was completely destroyed by vandals. Some of the bodies still lay in their sarcophagi behind glass, but many were damaged and scattered in the rooms of the house and around it.

There was no trace left of the laboratory - everything was stolen or turned into rubble. Of course, Dr. Knoche’s archive disappeared and the composition of his serum could not be unraveled. Over time, the estate turned into a place of pilgrimage for various suspicious personalities and simply those who like to tickle their nerves. But then officials came to their senses and added it to the list of state-protected objects.

Now Hacienda Bueno Vista is part of the El Avila National Park. The site is popular with tourists, who can see some of the surviving artifacts from Knoche's grisly collection. Of course, they do not look as impressive as they did when Knoche and Weissman were alive, because for many years they were outdoors under the influence of moisture and insects.

It is worth saying that Gottfried Knoche was not the only mummification enthusiast. The story of the American Karl Tanzler, who made the body of his beloved incorruptible, is well known. True, unlike “Senor Knoche”, this man was least interested in science.