Hamburg's schools in focus: Future of human remains in education!

Hamburg's schools in focus: Future of human remains in education!

On August 20, 2025, the “Human Remains” project was launched, which is being carried out in schools in Hamburg to promote a comprehensive discussion of human remains. According to the University of Hamburg, around 40% of secondary schools in the Hanseatic city have biology collections that contain such remains. The initiative aims to support teachers and enable students to play an active role in researching the topic.

The project will provide a new teacher guide containing detailed instructions on how to handle human remains. In addition to a description of the situation, this also contains a historical, legal and scientific ethics classification. The publication also offers suggestions on how the topic can be addressed in a school context. The students are encouraged to be actively involved in decision-making about the collection and its components.

The role of the “HUMANS” project

The “HUMANS” project took place between 2022 and 2023 and involved the participation of three school groups who used non-invasive methods to study human remains. The basics of provenance research were taught in workshops, and the students were able to work with the support of scientists, including PD Dr. Eilin Jopp-van Well and Ralph Höger, gain valuable experience.

The initiative is a cooperation between several institutions, such as the University of Hamburg, the Institute for Forensic Medicine (UKE), the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), the Hamburg School Museum and the State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development. For one year, the financial support came from the Authority for Science, Research, Equality and Districts as part of the state innovation funding “Science for Society”.

Challenges and innovation approaches

A central concern of the project is the investigation of the origin of the human remains, which is often unclear as they were often used as teaching aids in historical school collections, but without sufficient documentation about their origin. The project leaders, Daniel Bein and Dr. Antje Nagel, emphasize the need for clear guidelines to regulate the handling of these sensitive materials.

Additional individual extensions to the program, such as visits to funeral homes, are also part of the discussion on the topic. The learning goal is for students to learn how to work scientifically by deciding for themselves whether they want to research in the areas of history, religion, philosophy, ethics, forensics or sociology.

After the project is completed, the plan is to continue to support the process of dealing with Human Remains in schools. The handout, which is intended to be a valuable resource for teachers, will be available free of charge on the websites of the State Institute for Teacher Training, the LIB and the University Museum.

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