How to change the footnote symbol of \thanks in KOMA-script?

Question

By default, KOMA-script uses a star (*) symbol for the first occurence of the \thanks command, which is typically used to denote affiliations of authors.

I don't like the star and would like to change it to maybe a dagger (†) or some other symbol of my choice. I don't think any kind of option is mentioned in the documentation, but maybe someone knows a solution anyway?

\documentclass[a6paper]{scrreprt}
\title{Title needed to compile}
\author{John Doe\thanks{Blackacre University}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

Answer 1

You can use footmisc together with KOMA-Script classes, if you redo the \deffootnote of the KOMA-Script classes documented in the manual, after loading footmisc:

\documentclass[a6paper]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[symbol]{footmisc}
\deffootnote[1em]{1.5em}{1em}{%
\textsuperscript{\thefootnotemark}%
}
\DefineFNsymbols*{noasterisk}{
   {\TextOrMath \textdagger \dagger}%
   {\TextOrMath \textdaggerdbl \ddagger}%
   {\TextOrMath \textsection  \mathsection}%
   {\TextOrMath \textparagraph \mathparagraph}%
   {\TextOrMath \textbardbl \|}%
   {\TextOrMath {\textdagger\textdagger}{\dagger\dagger}}%
   {\TextOrMath {\textdaggerdbl\textdaggerdbl}{\ddagger\ddagger}}%
}
\setfnsymbol{noasterisk}
\title{Title needed to compile}
\author{John Doe\thanks{Blackacre University}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

Answer 2

Unfortunately, KoMa classes don't seem to be compatible with footmisc, that would allow for defining your own style for footnote symbols.

You can change the definition of \@fnsymbol in order to remove the asterisks.

\documentclass[a6paper]{scrreprt}
\makeatletter
% latex.ltx, line 8262:
\def@fnsymbol#1{%
   \ifcase#1\or
   %\TextOrMath\textasteriskcentered \or
   \TextOrMath \textdagger \dagger\or
   \TextOrMath \textdaggerdbl \ddagger \or
   \TextOrMath \textsection  \mathsection\or
   \TextOrMath \textparagraph \mathparagraph\or
   \TextOrMath \textbardbl |\or
   %\TextOrMath {\textasteriskcentered\textasteriskcentered}{*}\or
   \TextOrMath {\textdagger\textdagger}{\dagger\dagger}\or
   \TextOrMath {\textdaggerdbl\textdaggerdbl}{\ddagger\ddagger}\else
   @ctrerr \fi
}
\makeatother
\title{Title needed to compile}
\author{John Doe\thanks{Blackacre University}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

With a standard class:

\documentclass[titlepage]{book}
\usepackage[a6paper]{geometry}
\usepackage[symbol]{footmisc}
\DefineFNsymbols*{noasterisk}{
   {\TextOrMath \textdagger \dagger}%
   {\TextOrMath \textdaggerdbl \ddagger}%
   {\TextOrMath \textsection  \mathsection}%
   {\TextOrMath \textparagraph \mathparagraph}%
   {\TextOrMath \textbardbl |}%
   {\TextOrMath {\textdagger\textdagger}{\dagger\dagger}}%
   {\TextOrMath {\textdaggerdbl\textdaggerdbl}{\ddagger\ddagger}}%
}
\setfnsymbol{noasterisk}
\title{Title needed to compile}
\author{John Doe\thanks{Blackacre University}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

Answer 3

As suggested by Ingmar in a comment, from this answer I found that a simple \stepcounter{footnote} does the trick.

\documentclass[a6paper]{scrreprt}
\title{Title needed to compile}
\author{John Doe\stepcounter{footnote}\thanks{Blackacre University}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}