Birth Place

As I was enrolling at TU Darmstadt 3.5 years ago, I filled out a some form about my person. Among other questions, I was asked to specify my place of Birth. I wrote "Moscow". I had three good reasons to do so. Firstly, it is true. Secondly, That's what my passport says. Thirdly, it's quite a famous city and you should not be supposed to specify the country when you name it. It turned out, I was wrong.

As I was about to receive my graduation diploma, the following problem arose. In the English version, I was described as "born in Schweden". That would make two errors in the same word. I complained, and my diploma was sent away to some higher bureaucratic offices. From there, I was informed that the source of the confusion was my bad handwriting. Somehow, they thought "Moscaw" would be a city in Sweden. Did anyone ever heard of such a city? Well, at least Google Maps didn't. Instead, it would try to help you out: "Did you mean: Russian Federation, Moscow". But of course I understand them. They don't use Google Maps. And I agree, it's really confusing. In such an international university as TU Darmstadt, I'm surely the first student to hold a dual citizenship.

Anyway, all problems are solvable. I was asked to go come to the university office and show my passport. Now they believe I am born in Russia. But I am afraid this did not solve the second problem. If that's correct, the next version of my diploma would put me as "born is Rußland". As they told me, the text was generated automatically, so they weren't really able to change it. Surely, I am the first student at TU Darmstadt who asks for an English version of the diploma.