Berlin: Berlin Technical University has awarded a doctorate to an 88-year-old man whose studies were obstructed by the Nazis, the weekly newspaper Die Zeit has reported.

Dimitri Stein submitted his thesis on electrical engineering in 1943 but university authorities refused him an oral examination because he had Jewish ancestry.

His professor arranged him a hiding place and he survived the Second World War, emigrating to the United States where he worked as an academic and engineer and went into business.

Stein said he asked in the 1950s if could be examined but received a rude rejection. When he asked again in 2006, professors were ashamed and set to work to right the old wrong before it was too late.

This month, Stein answered probing questions about his thesis with the examiners orienting themselves to the state of the art in the 1940s, and passed.

The university's chief, Kurt Kutzler, conferred the doctorate in person. IANS