Mark Benecke (born 26 August 1970 ) is a German forensic biologist.

Career

Science

Benecke has worked on the identification of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun's dental remains in Moscow (as well as a skull fragment claimed to be Hitler's). Notably, he argued (in line with early investigator Hugh Trevor-Roper) that body water would hinder an open-air cremation. Historians such as Anton Joachimsthaler have cited an alleged cremation as explaining why nothing more than the dental remains of Hitler and Braun were found, but scientific studies support Benecke's logic, as does Hitler forensics expert Philippe Charlier. The dental remains include part of the jawbone, which was sundered around the alveolar process and only partly burnt. (Mark Felton explains that the corpses the Soviets identified as the couple's were probably a German fraud.) Benecke is the only forensic scientist to work on the case of Colombian serial killer and rapist Luis Garavito. Some of Benecke's forensic cases have been covered by the National Geographic Channel and the History Channel. Benecke has published several best-selling popular science books about the biology of aging, criminal cases and forensic biology. He is a member of the editorial board of the Annals of Improbable Research (Cambridge, US), guest editor for Forensic Science International (Forensic Entomology Special Issue) and scientific advisor to the German skeptic organization GWUP, where he publishes skeptical articles on various topics, including his attempt to explain alleged signs of vampirism. In 2001, Benecke was editor of the Forensic Science International special issue on forensic entomology. In 2004, he was the guest editor of Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology for the Forensic Entomology Special Issue).

Other ventures

In 2011, Benecke featured as a vocalist on Sara Noxx's cover of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' song "Where the Wild Roses Grow". In 2020, together with Bianca Stücker, he published a Leonard Cohen tribute cover album. Using the pseudonym "Belcanto Bene", Benecke was a member of the German punk band Die Blonden Burschen between 1989 and 2000. In 2010, Benecke was candidate for the office of prime minister for Germany's largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, for the satirical political party Die PARTEI. Since 2010, he is chairman of Die PARTEI in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Personal life

Benecke was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria. After receiving a Dr. rer. medic. at Cologne University in 1997, he worked in the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Manhattan, New York, from 1997 to 1999. , he works internationally on forensic cases as a freelance expert witness. He also teaches at various police academies and acts as a visiting professor to universities in Germany, England, Vietnam, Colombia, and the Philippines. He was married to the criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke.

Books

Sources