[ExI] Non-European PhDs In Germany Find Use Of 'Doktor' Verboten

[John Grigg]

This Washington Post article tells of a Nazi-era law that present-day
Germany is still enforcing!  What the hell is going on??

John Grigg


"Non-European PhDs In Germany Find Use Of 'Doktor' Verboten"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031304353_2.html?referrer=emailarticle



BERLIN, March 13 -- Americans with PhDs beware: Telling people in
Germany<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/germany.html?nav=el>that
you're a doctor could land you in jail.

At least seven U.S. citizens working as researchers in Germany have faced
criminal probes in recent months for using the title "Dr." on their business
cards, Web sites and r¿sum¿s. They all hold doctoral degrees from elite
universities back home.

Under a little-known Nazi-era law, only people who earn PhDs or medical
degrees in Germany are allowed to use "Dr." as a courtesy title.

The law was modified in 2001 to extend the privilege to degree-holders from
any country in the European
Union<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/European+Union?tid=informline>.
But docs from the United States and anywhere else outside
Europe<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Europe?tid=informline>are
still forbidden to use the honorific. Violators can face a year behind
bars.

Ian Thomas Baldwin, a Cornell-educated researcher at the Max Planck
Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, has stopped calling himself "Dr."
ever since he was summoned for interrogation by police two months ago on
suspicion of "title abuse."

"Coming from the States, I had assumed that when you get a letter from the
criminal police, you've either murdered someone or embezzled something or
done something serious," said Baldwin, a molecular ecologist. "It is absurd.
It's totally absurd."

No one has questioned the legitimacy of his degree or whether he has the
right to conduct research here. But going by "Dr." is verboten. If he wants
to refer to his doctorate, German law dictates that he identify himself as
"Prof. Ian Thomas Baldwin, PhD, Cornell
University<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Cornell+University?tid=informline>
."

Baldwin confessed in a telephone interview that "there's no question I'm
guilty as charged." But he hopes prosecutors will give him a break.

In his defense, he noted that the Max Planck Institute has always addressed
him as "Prof. Dr. Baldwin" since it offered him a job a decade ago, and
nobody warned him he might be in legal peril if he did likewise.

The proper use of honorifics is no small matter in Germany, a society given
to formality where even longtime neighbors insist on addressing each other
using their surnames. Those with advanced degrees like to show them off, and
it is not uncommon to earn more than one. A male faculty member with two
PhDs can fully expect to be called "Herr Professor Dr. Dr. Schmidt," for
example.

In effect, forcing Americans to forsake their titles amounts to a social
demotion. "It's an indication of the hierarchization of German society,"
said Gary Smith, director of the American Academy in
Berlin<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Berlin?tid=informline>.
"Germans are much more status-conscious about these things, and the status
is real."

Smith holds a doctorate from Boston
University<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Boston+University?tid=informline>and
has tempted fate by answering to "Dr. Smith" during the two decades
he's
lived in Germany. He said he was told years ago that there is a legal way
for foreign PhDs and MDs to register for permission to use the appellation,
but he has never bothered.

"It wasn't worth the trouble of doing anything about it," he said. "It's
really an absurd situation in a globalized world."

The German doctor rule has been in effect since the 1930s, but it has been
only sporadically enforced in recent years.

That changed last fall, when an anonymous tipster filed a complaint with
federal prosecutors against seven Americans at the prestigious Max Planck
Society, which operates 80 scientific research institutes across Germany.
Federal authorities forwarded the complaint to prosecutors and police in at
least three states, who decided to take action.

Joerg Stolz, the chief prosecutor in the city of Jena, which is
investigating Baldwin and another researcher at the Max Planck Institute
there on suspicion of title abuse, said those two probes were "near
closure."

He said his office had recommended to a judge against filing charges. In
that event, he said, the matter would be referred to the Cultural Ministry
in the state of Thuringia, which could still decide whether a civil fine is
warranted.

Detlef Baer, a spokesman for the ministry, said officials planned to drop
both cases. "We spoke with the parties involved and determined they had no
criminal intent," he said. "They were given instructions as to how they can
refer to their titles," by citing the degree but not calling themselves
doctors.

Another American investigated by police is an astrophysicist with a
doctorate from Caltech<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/California+Institute+of+Technology?tid=informline>and
membership in the German Academy of Sciences.

The criminal investigations have alarmed higher education officials in
Germany, where U.S. researchers are in high demand and treated as blue-chip
recruits. Last week, state education ministers met in Berlin and recommended
that the law be modified so anyone holding a doctorate or medical degree
from America could be addressed as "Dr." without running afoul of the
police.

"This is a completely overdone, mad, absolutely ridiculous situation," said
Barbara Buchal-Hoever, head of Germany's central office for foreign
education. "We are talking about highly acclaimed researchers here. . . .
The people who have pressed charges must be gripers or troublemakers who
wanted to make a totally absurd point."

Even if the proposal is adopted, however, it would extend the privilege only
to people with degrees from about 200 U.S. universities accredited by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Anyone with a PhD from
Canada<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Canada?tid=informline>,
Japan<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/japan.html?nav=el>or
the rest of the non-European world would still be excluded.

For now, the old law remains on the books. It is unclear when, or if,
Germany's state parliaments will change it.

So the next time Dr. Condoleezza
Rice<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Condoleezza+Rice?tid=informline>(PhD,
University
of Denver<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/University+of+Denver?tid=informline>)
or even German-born Dr. Henry
Kissinger<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Henry+Kissinger?tid=informline>(PhD,
Harvard<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Harvard+University?tid=informline>)
pay a visit to Berlin, they may want to stick with the title "secretary of
state."
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