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June 2011[]

June 11, 2011[]

  • Spiegel Online: Guttenberg 'Moving Abroad for At Least Two Years' "After months of hiding from the spotlight, Germany's fallen former defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is ready for his next big move -- abroad. The conservative is preparing to leave the country and rethink his career following the plagiarism allegations that stalled his promising political trajectory."

June 2, 2011[]


May 2011[]

May 28, 2011[]

  • IP Osgoode: GuttenPlag; German Politican Brought Down By Anonymous Internet Activists (Taylor Venderhelm) "The allegations against Guttenberg first gained public attention following a newspaper article by Andreas Fischer-Lescano, a law professor at the University of Bremen, which questioned the minister’s dissertation. From there, an anonymous online group banded together and began dissecting the material while posting their findings on online forums. As the movement grew, the group utilized an online wiki aptly named the GuttenPlag. The wiki was created by a leader in online plagiarism-hunting, a doctoral candidate with a background in online gaming who goes under the pseudonym “PlagDoc.” Along with Tim Bartel, an employee of Wikia, the two have been instrumental in organizing the online effort to analyze Guttenberg’s dissertation".


May 24, 2011[]

  • EurActiv: Austrian commissioner faces plagiarism accusations "Former German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a rising political star who was seen as Chancellor Angela Merkel's political heir, was forced to resign at the beginning of 2011 over a plagiarism scandal. A coalition of citizens and academics had accused him of lifting large sections of his doctoral thesis from outside sources without referencing the information."


May 23, 2011[]

  • Financial News: The tragedy of "Herr zu Googleberg" (Giles Turner) "It seems that Guttenberg, now called zu Googleberg by the German press, failed miserably in managing either one, let alone both. But while I was choosing between trying to understand the concept of Gesinnungsethik and choosing another glass of Riesling, my companion informed me the problem was not about the ethics of plagiarism, but about how the perpetrators are being apprehended." – Hinweis: Paywall
  • the Trumpet.com: Guttenberg Returns! (Ron Fraser) "With the dust hardly settled on the leftists’ efforts to publicize apparent plagiarizing in Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s doctoral thesis resulting in his voluntary stepping aside from all political offices, his imminent return to politics is already being forecast by the German press. He is being especially encouraged to do so by party colleagues."
  • Walker's World: Walker's World: Yes, we camp (Martin Walker) "This year, the popular Minister of Defense Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to resign his post after he was found to have taken large sections of his Bayreuth University doctoral thesis from other people's work, including newspaper articles, without having sourced the information."


May 12, 2011[]

  • Spiegel Online: Two Scalps In One Day - Germany's Anti-Plagiarism Activists On A Roll (Intellpuke) "The online community of anti-plagiarism activists in Germany are going from strength to strength. Their efforts to uncover academic cheating caused a leading FDP politician to resign on Wednesday, and also led a German university to strip the daughter of a former state governor of her Ph.D. The whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks has been described as the world's most dangerous website. But for German politicians at least, other collaborative wiki-based projects appear to pose a far greater threat. The GuttenPlag Wiki project managed to bring down the conservative rising star Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in March. He resigned as German defense minister after the collaborative website uncovered widespread plagiarism in his Ph.D thesis."
  • THE CHRONICLE: Band of Academic-Plagiarism Sleuths Undoes German Politicians (Aisha Labi) "A handful of bloggers began looking into Mr. Guttenberg's dissertation and posting their findings in a variety of online forums. As their output grew, it became clear that they would need a more hospitable venue than so many disparate sites or even the Google document that had been created, which allowed access to only about 100 people. The original creator of the site where they ended up collaborating,GuttenPlag Wiki, was a doctoral candidate with a background in online gaming, through which he was familiar with the collaborative wikia format, said Mr. Bartel. Like many who have been active in the online plagiarism-hunting effort, that person, who goes by the handle PlagDoc, prefers to remain pseudonymous. At the start, said Mr. Bartel, he and PlagDoc were the only two GuttenPlag participants. By the end of the site's first day in operation, about 20 people were active online. 'It's pretty hard to say the exact number of people that are involved,' said Mr. Bartel. Because there is no requirement for participants to sign up, some flit in and out of the forum while others are active on a regular basis. 'Some people don't come back, some people just sign in to fix a typo, some people join every day and work for several hours.'"


May 11, 2011[]

  • m&c: Inquiry clears German university over Guttenberg plagiarism (dpa) "The panel at the University of Bayreuth ruled that the doctoral supervisor, Peter Haeberle, could not have recognized the plagiarism when he read the thesis because it was woven together from many sources. But it said there had been no grounds for Haeberle to award first-class, or 'summa cum laude' honours to the dissertation.'We saw a problem with this,' said Stephan Rixen, chairman of the panel. The thesis had not been 'so original' and the panel could not see why Haeberle had given it such a high mark. Haeberle, who is now retired, was otherwise blameless."
  • Science3.0: A good day for transparency Daniel Mietchen, a contributor of GuttenPlag, summarizes the events of May 11th which was a very successful day for transparency in Germany and as well a special day for the GuttenPlag/VroniPlag activists.
  • The Local: University plagiarism report slams Guttenberg "The chances for former defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to return quickly to German politics seemed effectively buried on Wednesday after his alma mater said his thesis was full of other people’s work that he had deliberately copied."


May 9, 2011[]

  • The Telegraph: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg plagarism: The anonymous internet activists hunting plagarism "The so-called 'plagiarism hunters' helped rock the German political establishment last month when popular defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned after he admitted to copying part of his doctoral dissertation. 'In a way, it's kind of a hobby seeing how good the dissertations are in question of authenticity,' said Debora Weber-Wulff, a professor of media and computing at the HTW science university in Berlin."
  • The Telegraph: Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg: A profile (Matthew Day) "Before being brought down by the plagiarism scandal at the height of his fame, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was Germany's most popular politician, with opinion polls giving 70 per cent approval ratings."


May 7, 2011[]

  • Quazen: University Slams Former Government Minister with Guilty of Fraud Verdict (Lucas Dié) "University of Bayreuth has published its finding on the plagiarism allegations surrounding former Minister for Defence of Germany Baron Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg. Unsurprisingly, it gives a verdict of guilty on zu Guttenberg’s doctoral thesis while blithely ignoring the incompetence and possible collusion of its own staff."


May 6, 2011[]



May 4, 2011[]

  • crowdsourcing.org: The Age of Transparency: The Crowd as a Watchdog (Claudia Pelzer) "...This site should be well known, especially since it has been covered extensively by the media in Germany. It was set up to detect plagiarism in the dissertation (of now former) Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and in six weeks found nearly 1,200 instances of plagiarism (representing over 80% of the entire publication). The founder of the Guttenplag wiki, called 'PlagDoc', is unknown. In February 2011 he released a Google Doc to the public with the dissertation review process and an invitation to participate via Twitter. After the document was overloaded because of the great rush, he transferred the information collected to Wikia. Subsequently, two interim reports and a graphical representation have been published, which has fueled public debate and ultimately brought the case to the government’s attention."


April 2011[]


April 26, 2011[]

  • The Independent: German plagiarism scandal widens (Tony Paterson in Berlin) "It has since emerged that the allegations against Mrs Koch-Mehrin are being made by a largely anonymous group called VroniPlag, the same organisation which pursued, exposed and effectively dismissed Mr zu Guttenberg with its plagiarism accusations."
  • Reuters Canada: "Plagarism hunters" plague German politicans´ (Paul Casciato) "The so-called "plagiarism hunters" helped rock the German political establishment last month when popular Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned after he admitted to copying part of his doctoral dissertation."


April 25, 2011[]

  • theTrumpet.com: A Plague on Your Doctorate (Ron Fraser) "Two things set us wondering when the group that has since become known as Vroniplag exposed unattributed quotations in the doctoral dissertations of three high-profile people in German society, two of them being popular politicians—ex-Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a prominent Free Democratic politician—the third being Veronica Sass, the lawyer daughter of one of Germany’s most well-known elder statesmen, Bavarian Edmund Stoiber."


April 24, 2011[]

  • New York Times: The Whiff of Plagiarism Again Hits German Elite (Christopher F. Schuetze) "A report by a University of Bayreuth commission charged with investigating the contention that Mr. Guttenberg cobbled together his doctoral thesis from other works without citing them is scheduled to be released this week."


April 21, 2011[]



April 1, 2011[]

  • Case About Bird Flu: Guttenberg and the Faust syndrome (Jane Burgermeister) "...Anyone just needs to glance at the Guttenplag website and see that there is hardly a single page without a passage that has not been lifted from another source. The opening paragraphs are copied word for word from a major newspaper. [...] In fact, a kingly 63.8% of the text is plagiarized. How could on earth can Guttenberg, therefore, expect anyone to believe this plagiarism was an accident?"
  • theTrumpet.com: Plagiarism—First Guttenberg, Then Stoiber? (Ron Fraser) ">Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,< quoth Marcellus in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Thinking people could be forgiven for thinking the same in reference to Germany concerning allegations of the plagiarism of doctoral theses attached to two names famous in German politics."


March 2011[]


March 29, 2011[]



March 28, 2011[]

  • AlertNet: ANALYSIS-Merkel to blame for rout but leadership not at risk Mappus, the prime minister of Germany's rich state Baden-Wurttemberg has lost the regional elections. In regard to his lost he said "a blend of domestic and external events led to his defeat". Mappus "gave a snapshot of a floundering German conservative government that recently lost its biggest star -- Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who quit as defence minister over a plagiarism case -- and appears increasingly out of touch with the public."You know what the key words are: Stuttgart 21, energy consensus, the resignation of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the terrible events in Japan and many others," said Mappus."


March 26, 2011[]

  • stltoday.com (USA): Founder sees Wikipedia as an exercise in global democracy (Marlon A. Walker) Jimmy Wales joined a discussion at Washington University yesterday - "He also gave a glimpse into Wikia, a free web-hosting site where people can create wikis, or bunches of interlinked web pages using more simplified coding. A wiki was used recently to determine exactly how much of German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's doctoral dissertation was the product of plagiarism. Those who worked on that wiki found information on more than two-thirds of the document had been lifted from other sources, Wales said." After news began to spread of the wiki, it went from "zero to a million page views," Wales said."


March 23, 011[]

  • The Vermont CYNIC (USA): No News Is Celeb News (Max Krieger) "In Germany, the current scandal is not a drugged-up TV star spouting random catch phrases, but an impassioned debate over academic dishonesty." (...) "Every news channel, magazine and talk show is inundated not with remarks about Germany's pop stars, but about academic honesty and accountability to the people. I think our media could stand to take a serious lesson from this." (...) "It is the media's responsibility to expose the public to actual news, not obnoxious, useless and brain-draining malarkey."


March 21, 2011[]



March 20, 2011[]



March 14, 2011[]

  • Reuters: PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - March 14 "A plagiarism scandal cost Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg his job as defense minister of Germany. It also laid bare a scramble for influence in the German news media in the post-Gutenberg era, in which the Internet has usurped the primacy of the printing press."


March 13, 2011[]



March 12, 2011[]



March 11, 2011[]

  • Executive Intelligence Review: Global Mass Strike Spreads; Glass-Steagall Only Solution (Nancy Spannaus) "When it was revealed that German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg had plagiarized significant parts of the doctoral dissertation for which he was awarded a doctorate in 2007, and his political cronies continued, despite such blatant fraud, to defend him, more than 50,000 members of Germany's scientific-academic community spontaneously signed a petition online, calling for his instant dismissal or resignation."
  • History News Network: Academic Plagarism Brings Down German Defense Minister (Dónal O’Sullivan) "Faced with mounting protests from legal scholars and the public about alleged plagiarized passages in his doctoral dissertation, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has resigned. The University of Bayreuth, where Guttenberg had graduated with top honors (summa cum laude) in 2007, had earlier stripped him of his title as more and more details about copied pages had come to light. 39-year-old Guttenberg, seen as a rising star in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, had attempted to ride out the storm by giving up his Ph.D., claiming that professional and private obligations had caused him to be 'too casual with the sources.' He defended himself by saying that he had written the dissertation over a period of seven years while working as a deputy and being a father of two daughters."


March 10, 2011[]

  • EuropeanVoice.com: ‘I did it my way' "Among the unfortunates suffering collateral damage from the plagiarism allegations that forced Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to resign as defence minister of Germany is Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for regional policy."
  • nature: Notes on a scandal "Events this month have shown that government stances on academic misbehaviour differ wildly. (...) German citizens looked to the Internet to discover the extent of Guttenberg's plagiarism, which turned out to be quite shameless."


March 9, 2011[]

  • nature: Notes on a scandal "Events this month have shown that government stances on academic misbehaviour differ wildly. (...) German citizens looked to the Internet to discover the extent of Guttenberg's plagiarism, which turned out to be quite shameless."
  • University World News: GERMANY: PhD row ex-minister faces charges after resignation "However, the topic also became the focus of a new website, GuttenPlag Wikia, which has been enjoying up to 1.8 million page visits a day. With everyone able to check the facts surrounding the beleaguered baron and criticism building up in the academic community, even politicians belonging to the ruling Christian Democratic Union began to speak out."


March 8, 2011[]

  • thesocietypages.org (Sociological Images): Another Case of Dissertation Plagiarism by a Public Official (Gwen Sharp) "...In this case, however, status didn’t outweigh the plagiarism. The University of Bayreuth, where he earned his J.D. degree, revoked it; over 20,000 academics signed a petition to Chancellor Merkel complaining about her continued support for Guttenberg; and he ultimately resigned."


March 7, 2011[]

  • Global Times (China) Throw the book at cheaters among academia "In another development, German defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned last Tuesday after being found guilty of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation. [...] But until the cheaters pay their huge prices and the tippers are protected and honored, we will still see more scandals sprout up."
  • History News Network: Academic Plagarism Brings Down German Defense Minister (Dónal O’Sullivan) "Apparently, Guttenberg liked Casper’s speech at the fiftieth anniversary of the German Constitutional Court in 2001 so much that he copied entire sentences into his own work, again without specifying his source." [...] When the accusations started to surface, hundreds of net activists began to search for lifted passages and found literally hundreds of examples where Guttenberg had utilized dubious citation methods. [...] The Internet facilitated the minister’s disgrace as activists used sophisticated search tools to uncover the missing sources. A special wiki website titled “GuttenPlag” (http://de.guttenplag.wikia.com/wiki/Plagiate) invited anyone to help, eventually identifying plagiarized passages in over 75 percent of Guttenberg’s dissertation."
  • New York Times A Folly That Can Cost a Reputation — or Not "'I suspect that if this had happened in France there would have been much less of a fuss,' said Wolfgang Mackiewicz, professor of English philology at the Free University of Berlin. 'Of course no one will say ‘Plagiarism is fine.’ But in Germany we are perhaps extra-strict,' he said. 'In this country a degree is part of a person’s name. It appears on your passport.'"
  • theTrumpet.com: The Messiah Complex "Today’s Germany, restless as it is, yet with a newfound confidence in its nationality, seeks for the hero to lead it. For a moment it seemed Germany had found that hero in the form of Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg."


March 6, 2011[]



March 5, 2011[]

  • Financial Times: Merkel moves to end Guttenberg fallout (kostenlose Anmeldung erforderlich zum Lesen) "What is less clear is whether the popular support for Mr zu Guttenberg will dissipate, or become yet another destabilising factor for Ms Merkel, the second most popular politician after her former defence minister."
  • Irish Times: Plagiarism "The website GuttenPlag Wiki says it has detected plagiaristic “lifts” on 324 of the dissertation’s 407 pages and is finding more by the day. Bayreuth University has stripped him of his doctoral title and zu Guttenberg, who resigned his post, admits to “serious mistakes” which had “unconsciously” found their way into his text. Coincidentally, a new anti-Gadafy front has opened up in the London School of Economics where the doctoral thesis written by his son Seif al-Islam is also being checked for plagiarism following complaints by online activists. Now one of the major challenges of academe, plagiarism is claiming high-profile political casualties."
  • The New York Times: London Economics School to Investigate Dealings With Libya "The Times of London reported on a leaked diplomatic cable posted on the WikiLeaks Web site noting that the university had agreed to run a training program for elite Libyan civil servants for $3.6 million. The inquiry the university announced Friday is also expected to examine accusations that portions of Mr. Qaddafi’s 2007 doctoral dissertation may have been plagiarized or ghost-written." (Anm. des Pressespiegels: bereits vorherige Woche wurde eine Ankündgigung in England gemacht, ein Wiki zu dieser Doktorarbeit zu starten. Mittlerweile wurde das Wiki gegründet und ist hier erreichbar)


March 4, 2011[]

  • CHINA DAILY: Machiavellian economics (Harold James) "Did German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg have to tell the truth about the massive plagiarism that pervaded his doctoral thesis, or could a lie be justified because he was performing an important government job?"
  • sciencemediawatch: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigns after being heavily criticised of plagiarism in this doctoral thesis (Anka Lindemann) "There was finally to much criticism: On Tuesday 1 March, the now former German defence minister declared in a short statement to the press that he would give up his ministerial post. In the statement, he said that through the growing pressure on him he finally 'reached the boundaries of his strength'. Over the weekend, the criticism of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had reached a new dimension. Not only did previous loyal party fellows and coalition partners start to openly criticise the behaviour of zu Guttenberg, but also the scientific community."
  • Shenzhen Daily (VR China): From chancellor hopeful to Dr. Googleberg "GERMAN Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s resignation Tuesday was a dramatic fall from grace for one of the rising stars of the nation’s political stage. Regularly voted the country’s most popular politician, the 39-year-old baron was forced to quit Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet amid a deepening political row triggered by allegations that he had plagiarized part of his doctorate thesis. As Guttenberg and Merkel tried to tough it out, the University of Bayreuth last week revoked the doctorate. Media nicknamed the minister 'Dr. Googleberg' and 'Dr. Cut and Paste'. 'It’s the most painful step of my life,' Guttenberg said announcing he was standing down. Internet activists brought Guttenberg down over the past two weeks by exposing his 2006 Ph.D. dissertation (a comparison of U.S. and European constitutions that got him a Doctor of Law degree) as blatantly faked."


March 3, 2011[]

  • The Australian': Plagiarism's a new meaning for 'good copy' (David Aaronovitch) "Men tend to be good at putting different aspects of their lives in separate compartments - the worker, the husband, the lover, the hobbyist. Even so, I find it almost impossible to accept that a person prepared to cheat on the way to a doctorate is also someone you can be led by."
  • BBC Radio 4: A very German obsession with titles and royalty (Stephen Evans) "German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned after admitting copying large parts of his doctoral thesis. But why was he so keen to be a doctor in the first place?"
  • CHINA DAILY: Machiavellian economics (Harold James) "Did German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg have to tell the truth about the massive plagiarism that pervaded his doctoral thesis, or could a lie be justified because he was performing an important government job?"
  • Christian Science Monitor: Copy that: Plagiarism charges unseat Germany's 'superstar' Defense minister "On Feb. 16, a German newspaper reported that parts of the thesis appeared to draw on articles in other newspapers, a US State Department website, and other essays without attribution. That news led to the development of a website, GuttenPlag Wiki, that made it possible for others to read the dissertation and discuss it."
  • Financial Times: Plagiarists are copycat criminals (Chris Cook) "Plagiarism scandals are like buses: you wait ages for one, then a couple turn up looking suspiciously similar. Two major cases have hit the headlines."


March 2, 2011[]

  • Dar Al Hayat: The German... "Criminal" (Ghassan Charbel) "Should we be surprised after hearing these successive explosions? They are the fruit of a long period of contempt towards people, logic, truth, and justice. Arabs are entitled to ask how many light years does the Arab world need until a scandal in it becomes of the same fabric as that of the German 'criminal'."
  • IRISHTIMES.com: Plagiarism claims force minister from government (Derek Scally) "AFTER A meteoric rise, Berlin’s popular defence minister Karl- Theodor zu Guttenberg crashed to earth yesterday in spectacular fashion. Mr zu Guttenberg caught chancellor Angela Merkel off guard yesterday with his sudden resignation after failing to shake off allegations that he plagiarised large sections of his doctoral thesis. Mr zu Guttenberg (39), a member of a prominent aristocratic family, said he was standing down 'as a matter of decorum'. 'This is the most painful step I’ve taken in my life ... but I cannot meet the high expectations I have set for myself,' the minister said in a quavering voice. 'I thank the chancellor for her support but I have reached the limits of my strength.' Two weeks ago, he dismissed as 'abstruse' the initial allegations that his 2006 dissertation contained a large amount of unattributed material. However, as an online co-operative called GuttenPlag Wiki discovered new uncited passages on an hourly basis, he was forced to concede that 'serious mistakes' had 'unconsciously' found their way into his text. The minister continued to deny charges of plagiarism, even after his alma mater, Bayreuth University, stripped him of his academic title. GuttenPlag Wiki said yesterday it had detected plagiarism on 324 of the dissertation’s 407 pages."
  • The Wall Street Journal: German Minister Quits Over Scandal (MARCUS WALKER and PATRICK MCGROARTY) "BERLIN—Germany's most-popular politician resigned from government over a plagiarism scandal that has exposed German class divisions and severely embarrassed Chancellor Angela Merkel. Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a charismatic Bavarian aristocrat who charmed the electorate and was widely seen as a future chancellor, announced his withdrawal from politics on Tuesday amid a mounting controversy over his doctoral thesis, which has been exposed as heavily plagiarized."


March 1, 2011[]

  • The Economist: zu Guttenberg resigns - Teflon no more "...If his rocket-like rise resembled Barack Obama’s, his fall was reminiscent of Hosni Mubarak’s. Reports of plagiarism first appeared in the newspapers, but they gained momentum on the internet. Online sleuths posted their findings on GuttenPlag Wiki, a website. An interim report found that more than a fifth of the text had been copied without attribution. Furious doctoral students wrote an open letter, signed by thousands, to Mrs Merkel demanding that she sack Mr zu Guttenberg."
  • Huffington Post: Karl Theodor Zu Guttenberg, German Defense Minister, Resigns Amid Plagiarism Scandal (Juergen Baetz contributed to this report) "Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg announced his decision days after Bayreuth University revoked his doctoral title. It said he had violated academic standards in his thesis by failing to sufficiently credit some of his sources. Guttenberg, who initially called the allegations "absurd," later admitted "grave mistakes" but denied having deliberately deceived anyone."
  • IrishTimes.com: German defence minister resigns (Reuters) "German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned today after admitting to copying part of a doctoral dissertation, depriving chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives of one of their brightest stars.[...]"
  • m&c news: PROFILE: Guttenberg: from chancellor hopeful to Dr Googleberg (Andrew McCathie) "Berlin - German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's resignation Tuesday was a dramatic fall from grace for one of the rising stars of the nation's political stage. Regularly voted the country's most popular politician, the 39-year-old baron was forced to quit Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet amid a deepening political row triggered by allegations that he had plagiarised part of his doctorate thesis."
  • The Economist: Teflon no more "Online sleuths posted their findings on GuttenPlag Wiki, a website. An interim report found that more than a fifth of the text had been copied without attribution."


February 2011[]


February 27, 2011[]

  • University World News: GERMANY: 'Cheating Baron' allegation dogs minister' (Michel Gardner) "Such is the impact of the scandal that even the dramatic events in the Middle East and North Africa have been somewhat pushed to the side in the German media. Opposition parties have called for zu Guttenberg's resignation."


February 26, 2011[]

  • Quazen: University Revokes Minister’s Ph.d (Lucas Dié) "The University of Bayreuth revoked German Minister of Defence Baron Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg’s right to carry the title Doctor of Law. University authorities thereby have reacted to claims accusing the minister of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis."


February 25, 2011[]

  • The Philadelphia Trumpet (USA): The Week in Review „The German media — especially the English-language media — are quick to attack Guttenberg. But don’t be fooled by the flood of negative headlines — he is still very popular with the German people.“


February 24, 2011[]

  • IrishTimes.com: University strips German minister of his doctorate (Derek Scally in Berlin) "THE GERMAN defence minister rejected opposition claims he was a “liar and a cheat” but has admitted writing an “obviously problematic” doctoral thesis. But yesterday the minister’s alma mater, the University of Bayreuth, stripped him of his doctor title, five years after awarding it summa cum laude – the highest grade."
  • m&c news: University: Inquiry against German defence minister to continue (DPA) "The troubles of German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who was stripped of his doctoral degree, are not over yet. His university said Thursday it was still investigating him for alleged cheating. Ruediger Bormann, president of the University of Bayreuth, said Guttenberg's 2006 thesis contained parts that were copied."
  • Socyberty: Minister Hands Back His Title (Lucas Dié) "Germany’s Minister of Defence Baron Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg handed back his doctor title received from Bayreuth University in 2007. His decision was the last in a series of serious blunders he produced over his plagiarised doctor’s thesis."
  • ZEENEWS.COM: University strips German defence minister of degree (IANS) "Berlin: The University of Bayreuth stripped German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg of his degree on Wednesday, a week after the disclosure that parts of his doctoral thesis were copied. Ruediger Bormann, the university president, announced the ruling hours after the postgraduate committee of the law and economy faculty met."


February 23, 2011[]

  • The Independent: German minister renounces PhD after accusations of plagiarism (Tony Paterson) "Germany's popular conservative defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has been forced to publicly renounce his title as a doctor of law amid mounting allegations that he plagiarised vast sections of his university thesis."
  • presstvmobile.com: German minister grilled over plagiarism "Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is the star of German politics. The 39-year-old defence minister outshines all with his ever-high popularity ratings, a favourite with the tabloids and the yellow press, of royal blood, a man of action, well mannered and educated. In parliament he now had to answer allegations that he had plagiarized a major portion of his doctoral thesis." (including VIDEO)
  • Socyberty: What is Guttenplag? (Lucas Dié) "Guttenplag is a wiki website written in German. It was founded and set up on February 17th, 2010, amidst a scandal involving the doctoral thesis submitted by Baron Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg. The scandal had been initiated when Professor Andreas Fischer-Lescano from the University of Bremen exposed eight extensive plagiarisms contained therein."
  • The Wall Street Journal: University Pulls German Defense Minister's Doctoral Degree (PATRICK MCGROARTY) "Opposition lawmakers sought to entangle German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the plagiarism scandal embroiling her defense minister, even as the public seemed largely willing to forgive him for borrowing large sections of his doctoral thesis without attribution. Meanwhile, the University of Bayreuth, where Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg received his doctoral degree in 2007, considered his scholarly transgressions serious enough that it revoked the doctorate Wednesday evening. University president Rüdiger Bormann said a panel of professors unanimously agreed 'that Mr. zu Guttenberg violated his academic duty to a substantial degree'."


February 22, 2011[]



February 21, 2011[]

  • The Guardian: German minister temporarily drops doctoral title amid plagiarism inquiry (Helen Pidd) "Germany's embattled defence minister said he would stop calling himself 'Dr' pending the outcome of a plagiarism investigation into his PhD. But if Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a baron, thought he would extinguish the scandal with that gesture, he was sorely mistaken. A stream of new allegations have emerged that call into question whether he did any original research for his doctorate from the University of Bayreuth, which he completed in 2006 when already an MP."
  • NewsFlavor: Guttenplag Leaks on German Minister (Lucas Dié) "German Minister of Defence zu Guttenberg was caught out cheating in his dissertation when acquiring a doctorate at the University of Bayreuth. A Wikileaks like page called Guttenplag has started to collect further incidents of plagiarism to be found in the published dissertation by zu Guttenberg."
  • PEP-NET: The Googleberg Affair (John Heaven) "Germany’s Defence Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, has temporarily forgone his PhD following accusations that his thesis is shot through with plagiarism, including unacknowledge quotations from newspapers and other politicians. Some jokers have been selling pared-down keyboards stripped of all but the CTRL, A, C and V keys, necessary to perform the ‘select all’, ‘copy’and ‘paste’ operations; essential weapons in any plagiarist’s arsenal."


February 20, 2011[]

  • NewsFlavour: Is Germany’s Minister of Defence a Plagiarist? (Lucas Dié) "Germany’s Minister of Defence got under friendly fire from the University of Bremen over the dissertation he handed in at the University of Bayreuth. Allegations of plagiarism and abuse of copyright are rife in the public domain and with German police. A criminal investigation has been launched."


February 19, 2011[]



February 18, 2011[]

  • IRISHTIMES.com: German minister admits PhD >errors< "Germany's defence minister apologised for errors in his doctoral thesis today, saying he never intended to cheat. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany's most popular politician and a potential future chancellor, now faces a criminal investigation for a plagiarism scandal putting his credibility on the line. He has been accused by newspapers of copying passages of his law dissertation without correctly attributing them in footnotes or bibliography.The scandal, dubbed 'Copygate', escalated today when public prosecutors in Bayreuth, where Mr Guttenberg wrote his law dissertation, said he was under criminal investigation for copyright infringement and signing a false affidavit."


February 17, 2011[]



February 16, 2011[]