What’s in a Title for a Corpse Artist?

HEIDELBERG, Germany – A German anatomist whose exhibit of preserved corpses sparked international controversy received reduced fines Tuesday by a German administrative court for illegally using the title “professor.”

The Heidelberg administrative court found Gunther von Hagens guilty of misusing the title in four instances by not making it clear that it was earned in China, not Germany. He was fined $140,000.

Von Hagens was challenging an earlier ruling in which a lower Heidelberg court fined him $187,142 for the offense.

Although the fine was lessened, von Hagens said he felt he was being unjustly punished.

“I believe I am innocent,” he said.

The anatomist’s title was awarded by the Dalian Medical University in China. The complaint was originally filed by Heidelberg University, where he worked between 1974 and 1996.

The university argued that he wrongfully gave the impression that he had a German professor’s title, which requires a postdoctoral thesis.

Prosecutors had argued that he could only call himself a professor if he added the letters VRC – the German-language initials of “People’s Republic of China” – to indicate where the title was earned.

A second challenge to a January ruling on a similar case involving von Hagens is still pending.

Von Hagens’ Body Worlds show has generated curiosity and anger, drawing several million visitors in Japan, Korea, Britain, Germany and elsewhere. The exhibition, which includes a series of corpses tries to show how the muscles work, made its U.S. debut in Los Angeles last year.