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Michael Tsokos (* January 23rd, 1967 in Kiel) is a German forensic doctor and professor at the Charité – Berlin University of Medicine. From 2007 to 2023, he headed the Charité's Institute for Forensic Medicine (German: Institut für Rechtsmedizin). At the same time since 2007, he headed the Landesinstitut für gerichtliche und soziale Medizin (English: State Institute for Judicial and Social Medicine) in Moabit.

As an ambassador for the Deutscher Kinderverein (English: German Children's Association), Tsokos also publicly draws attention to child abuse and advocates against the downplay of more trivial mistreatment.

Tsokos published numerous books in the genres of non-fiction, thriller, and true crime with some made in cooperation with other authors or experts. His bestsellers include Abgeschnitten (English: Cut Off) (with Sebastian Fitzek) and the non-fiction book Die Zeichen des Todes (English: The Signs of Death) both published by Buchreport.

Tsokos devoted himself to a new genre in 2024 by publishing the historical fiction novel Heinz Labensky - und seine Sicht auf die Dinge (English: Heinz Labensky - and His View of Things). The book, which he published together with his wife Anja, became a bestseller.

Childhood and youth
Tsokos is the son of a Greek ship officer († 2023) and a German doctor († 2023). Even as a child, he was interested in bog bodies and natural sciences. As a result, he initially wanted to study either marine biology or archaeology.

Tsokos attended high school in Kronshagen near Kiel. According to his own statements, he was a bad student and passed the Abitur in 1986 with a 3.0. Through the Test für Medizinische Studiengänge (TMS) (English: Test for Medical Studies), in which he came in second best in the country, he received the opportunity to study medicine immediately after his time in the German Armed Forces (German: Bundeswehr).

Study and specialization
After taking the Abitur, Tsokos voluntarily served in the German Armed Forces for 2 years as a temporary soldier. After his service in Braunschweig, he studied medicine from 1988 to 1995 at Kiel University and specialized in postmortal evidence of infectious diseases. His dissertation in 1995 was titled Die Methanolkinetik unter Gabe des H2-Rezeptorenblockers Ranitidin (English: Methanol Kinetics under the Administration of the H2 Receptor Antagonist Ranitidine).

Until 1997, he was a medical intern at both a specialist clinic for psychiatry located in Neustadt in Holstein and the Pathologisch-Bakteriologischen Institut (English: Pathological-Bacteriological Institute) at the Städtisches Krankenhaus Kiel (English: Municipal Hospital of Kiel). In 1995 he received his license to practice medicine. He later received the recognition for his specialty as a forensic doctor in 2000.

From 1998 to 1999, he was involved in the exhumation and identification of corpses from mass graves in Bosnia and Kosovo on behalf of the Federal Criminal Office of Germany.

Shortly after in 2001, he received his habilitation at the University of Hamburg with the thesis, written in English, titled ''Postmortem diagnosis of sepsis. Postmortem markers of sepsis in human autopsy specimens with respect to medico-legal implications of infection-associated fatalities and forensic argumentation concerning causality''. In which Tsokos demonstrated the relevance of examining heart blood for postmortal evidence of sepsis.

Teaching, collaborations, and public appearance
In the same year he received his habilitation, he was awarded with a venia legendi in forensic medicine. In 2003 he was appointed as an official senior medical officer for life. From 2004 he worked on behalf of the Federal Criminal Police Office to help identify German tsunami victims in Thailand. Until 2006, Tsokos was a senior physician at the Oberarzt an der Hamburger Rechtsmedizin (English: Hamburg Forensic Medicine Department). After teaching as a private lecturer at the University of Hamburg for several years, he was appointed as a professor.

At the age of 39, Tsokos was appointed to Berlin to take over the management of the State Institute for Judicial and Social Medicine (LI GerMed) and the position of institute head for the Charité's Institute of Forensic Medicine (IfR Charité) in January 2007. He succeeded the previous head of both institutes Volkmar Schneider. At the end of 2023, he transferred the management of IfR Charité to Lars Oesterhelweg. He is still in charge of LI GerMed and would like to continue to work as a guest scientist at the Charité.

In May 2009, Tsokos put forward the theory that an anonymous drowned body in the cellars of the Charité possibly belonged to Rosa Luxemburg, who was murdered by Freikorps members.

At the request of the Egyptian government, Tsokos was commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office from 2012 to 2016 to train Egyptian forensic doctors as part of the German-Egyptian transformation partnership. Together with the IfR Charité, a training program was launched that had Egyptian forensic doctors and toxicologists attend intensive ten-day courses in Berlin. Since 2017, Tsokos was entrusted by the Federal Foreign Office with the training of Moroccan forensic doctors and toxicologists. The project ran until 2019.

In June 2017, Tsokos was commissioned by Interpol to investigate the mysterious death of Jean-Marie Benoît Balla, the bishop of the Cameroonian diocese of Bafia, following a request for administrative assistance from the Cameroonian public prosecutor's office. Balla died in Cameroon at the beginning of June under unexplained circumstances. Two autopsies had already revealed signs of torture and severe violent impacts on the bishop's body. Tsokos then traveled to Yaoundé, Cameroon, and was able to prove with a new autopsy and his subsequent investigations that Balla had drowned, contrary to the murder theory postulated by the Cameroonian Bishops' Conference.

Media presence
From 2008 to 2010, Tsokos wrote for the  Tagesspiegel's monthly column called Professor Tsokos ermittelt (English: Professor Tsokos Investigates). In 2012 he hosted the science documentary Suche nach Mister X – Das Forensik-Experiment (English: Search for Mister X-The Forensic Experiment) for National Geographic. The eight episodes of the series were broadcasted weekly from July 4th, 2012 to August 22nd, 2012. The thriller Abgeschnitten (English Cut Off), which he wrote together with Sebastian Fitzek, was published in the autumn of 2013. At the beginning of February 2013, Michael Tsokos stood in front of the camera together with Jan Josef Liefers for the film adaptation of the thriller Die letzte Instanz (English: The Last Instance) by Elisabeth Herrmann. Tsokos starred as himself in a television production set in Berlin for ZDF. On October 29th, 2013, Michael Tsokos opened the Hamburger Krimifestival (English: Hamburg Thriller Festival) at Kampnagel with a reading from his book Die Klaviatur des Death (English: ''The Keyboard of Death)

In collaboration with the forensic doctor and specialist Saskia Guddat (now Saskia Etzold), Michael Tsokos published the pamphlet Deutschland misshandelt seine Kinder (English: Germany Mistreats Its Children) at the beginning of 2014. The experts complained about the fact that around 160 children in Germany die annually from the consequences of physical abuse, which is particularly due to the "collective denial" of the problem. The Family Minister at the time Manuela Schwesig reacted publicly by calling for a culture of more awareness and prevention.

Since September 2014, Michael Tsokos has been regularly seen in the RBB-thriller Vier Unschuldige und ein Todesfall (English: Four Innocents and One Death) as a forensic medical expert. In the same year, Tsokos also appeared in the ZDF documentary Strafsache Jesus - Der Faktencheck mit Petra Gerster (English: Criminal Case Jesus - Checking the Facts with Petra Gerster).

In 2015, he said in an interview that he had seen at least 200,000 dead people. In the summer of 2017, the program Dem Tod auf der Spur – Die Fälle des Prof. Tsokos (English: On the Trail of Death - The Cases of Dr. Tsokos) hosted by Tsokos was broadcasted in 4 weekly episodes on Sat.1. It is based on Tsokos' book of the same name. In March 2018, Tsokos' true crime thriller Zersetzt (English: Decomposed) was filmed in Berlin and Budapest with Tim Bergmann as the main role of forensic doctor Fred Abel. It was broadcasted on Sat.1 December 11th, 2018. Dietmar Bär, Claude Oliver Rudolph and Harald Schrott played supporting roles.

Tsokos, together with Jan Josef Liefers, carried out postmortem examinations of real cases in the show Obduktion – Echte Fälle mit Tsokos und Liefers (English: Autopsy - Real Cases with Tsokos and Liefers). The first season was broadcasted in January 2021.

As a forensic doctor, Tsokos, again together with Jan Josef Liefers, examined the circumstances of the death Whitney Houston, a singer who died in 2012, in a documentary for RTL in 2022. The atypical circumstances were re-analyzed by Tsokos and Liefers with the fact of Houston being found facedown in the bathtub playing a special role. The called-in toxicologist Frank Mußhoff also publicly expressed his doubts that it could have been an accident. Overall, Tsokos is convinced that the circumstances of her death point a homicide, even though no corresponding investigations were initiated at the time.