BERLIN--No one is more revered in German literature than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, so it was with some surprise that a leading German newspaper broke the news Thursday that the national hero had been secretly exhumed about 30 years ago.

The macabre revelation--published on the front page of the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung--came as Germany prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Goethe's birth later this year, on Aug. 28.

The Thuringia state culture minister, Gerd Schuchardt, demanded an investigation into the report, and the foundation that oversees the Goethe archives, where the newspaper found the files detailing the exhumation, went into damage control.

Juergen Seifert, the head of the Weimar Classics Foundation, confirmed that scientists in East Germany removed Goethe's remains from his Weimar tomb in 1970, but he denied that it was done surreptitiously.

The purpose, he said, was to preserve the remains for posterity.

(source: Associated Press; reported by Colleen Barry; March 20, 1999)