The Berlin Senator for Justice Lena Kreck (left) will no longer use her professor title for the time being. This was announced by the Senate Justice Department on Friday. At the beginning of July, doubts arose as to whether Kreck was legally allowed to use her title. Although she has earned her academic degree, lawyers and scientists doubt whether she has held it long enough.
According to the Berlin Higher Education Act, a person must have worked as a professor for at least five years in order to be able to continue using the title after leaving the professorship. Kreck had only been a professor at the Evangelische Hochschule Berlin since October 2019 before she was appointed senator at the end of 2021.
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As early as July, the professor for copyright and media law at the Berlin University of Applied Science, Marcel Bisges, expressed doubts in the Tagesspiegel: “She could not have worked as a professor long enough and thus not have acquired the right to use the title after the end of her professorship to continue.” If Kreck is the unauthorized use of an academic title, there could also be a criminal offense.
Kreck himself continues to believe that he can legitimately use the title. “But I realize that there are other opinions,” said Kreck. In the current times of crisis, there are “more important things for a senator than having debates on her own behalf about different legal opinions on job titles”.
