Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is minister of defence in Angela Merkel’s cabinet and was, until recently, also Germany’s most popular politician. He is young, good-looking and a self-proclaimed acid-rock fan. Now he is being charged with plagiarism: The Christian Democrat politician allegedly duplicated passages from newspaper articles, conference proceedings and grey literature for his PhD thesis, without giving proper references.
As the Süddeutsche Zeitung and other German media report, Guttenberg’s 475-page thesis, on constitutional development in the United States and the European Union, contains sections of text identical to a 2003 essay by Klara Obermüller in the weekend edition of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and to the written version of a talk given in 2004 by political scientist Wilfried Marxer at the Liechtenstein Institute in Bendern in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The thesis, published in 2009 by academic publishers Duncker & Humblot, also contains a brief passage almost identical to material from the website of the US Diplomatic Mission to Germany.
The apparent duplications were first discovered last weekend by Andreas Fischer-Lescano, a Bremen-based professor of law, who had carried out a random google search of terms and phrases in Guttenberg’s book.
Guttenberg, 39, was already a member of the German parliament in 2006 when he had submitted his thesis to the University of Bayreuth. He subsequently received a PhD summa cum laude from the university’s faculty of law.
The university’s ombudsman for good scientific practise, Diethelm Kippel, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the plagiarism allegations will be investigated. If confirmed, Guttenberg could face withdrawal of his PhD degree. Guttenberg is quoted as saying to have produced his thesis “to the best of my knowledge and belief.”
It is not the first time that suspicion of academic misconduct has reached government spheres. In 2009, Nature revealed extensive plagiarism in scientific publications by members of the Iranian cabinet, including science minister Kamran Daneshjou and transport minister Hamid Behbahani.
Image: Laurence Chaperon. Federal government.