This is a slightly edited transcript of a contribution I made to Pod Delusion 76.

News from Germany! Our Defense Minister has lost his job, because he plagiarized his PhD thesis. This affair has dominated the German news for the past few weeks. It is a remarkable story of arrogance, ignorance, the value of academia, and – once again – the power of the internet.

So, who is this guy, and why did anyone in Germany care? Karl-Theodor Baron of Guttenberg is (or rather was) the 39 year old shooting star of Germany’s conservative party. His family is a noble lineage from Franconia in Southern Germany, going back to the 12th century. Their estate is estimated to be worth 400 million Euros. Karl-Theodor has never held any ‘proper’ job that is worth mentioning, but he eventually got into politics. After all, this is what his family is known for.

Guttenberg’s great-uncle was part of the conservative opposition against Hitler and was murdered by the Gestapo for being associated with an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler in ‘44. Karl-Theodor’s grandfather, after whom he is christened, was a respected Secretary in the German Government in the ‘70s. Karl-Theodor is also married to Stephanie von Bismarck-Schönhausen, a great-great-granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck, the famous Chancellor of the German Empire. So, the man has quite some legacy to live up to, and for some time he seemed to do rather well.

Guttenberg, like his late grandfather, is member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. In 2002, at the age of 30, he became a Member of Parliament for his local council of Kulmbach. He kept the seat in the general election three years later and then got first prominent party posts in Berlin, mainly concerned with Foreign Affairs and Defense. When the Minister for Economic Affairs unexpectedly stepped down in early 2009 in the midst of the economic crisis, Angela Merkel asked Guttenberg to take over. So, at the age of 37, he became the then youngest ever minister in German history.

As Economy Minister, Guttenberg got public credit for opposing government bail-outs of several companies that struggled during the crisis, including Opel, the German sister brand of Vauxhall. However, he was never able to convince the rest of the cabinet, and the bail-outs went ahead anyway. Nevertheless, as of Summer 2009, he was the third-most-trusted politician in Germany, and the most-trusted Minister for Economy in German history.

Unsurprisingly, in the general election of autumn 2009, Guttenberg was re-elected as MP for Kulmbach again, then with a remarkable 68% majority, the best result of any personally elected MP in Germany. Following this election, he became Defense Minister. In this role, he managed to keep the balance between starting a much-needed reform of the armed forces with the aim to downsize them, and still providing enough credit and support to their missions abroad, especially in Afghanistan. As of Summer 2010, Guttenberg was one of the very few conservative hopefuls and seen as serious contender for succeeding Angela Merkel as German Chancellor. But then came February 2011.

Guttenberg had studied law at the University of Bayreuth (the city of Wagner fame), finishing in ‘99 with the First State Examination. He never continued with the practical placements that are required to do the Second and final State Examination. This means he has a degree in law, but is not allowed to practice as a solicitor, barrister, persecutor or judge in Germany. He still went on to do a doctorate in law which he finally got in 2007. His thesis is entitled “Constitution and constitutional treaty. Stages of constitutional development in the US and the European Union”. For this thesis he got the best possible mark, a “summa cum laude”.

In early 2011, while preparing a review of Guttenberg’s thesis, a law professor from Bremen University stumbles across some paragraphs he recognizes from a different publication, but that are not marked as quotes in Guttenberg’s thesis. The discovery goes public on Wednesday, 16 February, with an article by Süddeutsche Zeitung. The issue, like everything surrounding Guttenberg, receives widespread interest. Some journalists immediately dig deeper, and they quickly find more dubious passages, including the very first paragraphs of the thesis introduction, that were clearly lifted from a newspaper article, again without giving due credit to the source. The university announces that they will start a formal investigation.

I still think Guttenberg had the opportunity to bury the whole affair that very day, if he had quickly admitted mistakes and abandoned his academic title. But he does the opposite: He says the allegations of plagiarism are “simply absurd”, and that he is willing to check again whether he had accidentally missed to highlight some references amongst the over 400 pages of text and twelve-hundred footnotes, in order to correct them in a new edition. He belittles what has been found so far, and the seriousness of the allegations. That pisses off some academics. A bad idea in times of social networks.

Positively put, the internet was willing to lend Guttenberg a hand. On Tuesday, the very next day, “Guttenplag Wiki.org” goes online, as a central hub for coordinating and documenting the results of a crowd-sourced analysis of the whole thesis. Its contributors find more and more plagiarized passages by the hour.

Guttenberg panics. Every Friday the Government’s regular press conference takes place. But instead of appearing here, Guttenberg meets a few selected journalists and TV crews at the ministry at the very same time, unannounced and not coordinated with the Government’s press office. He makes a statement in which he admits that during the 7 years of doing his doctorate in parallel to his political career, he may have partly lost oversight over his sources, but again denies any intentional plagiarism. He volunteers not to use his academic title for the time being, while the University is investigating the matter. This very unusual behavior pisses off the journalists at the regular press conference, and they leave in protest. This again pisses off the press office.

Over the weekend, more and more commentators speculate if this affair could cost Guttenberg his job. Also, amongst both quoted and unquoted sources for the thesis, journalists find publications of the parliament’s research service. MPs are only allowed to use this service for parliamentary matters. This fact pisses off parliament officials, and they launch an investigation.

On Monday, 21 February, Angela Merkel, herself a PhD in Physics, makes a statement of support, highlighting that she hired Guttenberg not as a scientific advisor but as Minister of Defense, and not for his PhD, but for his competence in leading the ministry. So, she basically says, this is not a big deal, and there are more important things. Quite some people disagree.

A few hours later Guttenplag Wiki publishes a first update. In less than a week the internet crowd has identified and documented plagiarized sections on 270 pages of the thesis, accounting for at least 20% of the text.

That evening Guttenberg speaks at a party event in attendance of several conservative politicians who themselves have persisted through affairs and plunders by sheer stubbornness. In a very feisty speech, he again admits mistakes, and since those mistakes are “not in line with the scientific codex” he announces to drop his PhD altogether. In fact, he formally asks the university to renounce the title, even before they have concluded their investigation. Still, he again denies any intentional plagiarism, and accuses press and political opponents of a witch hunt. As if his PhD thesis were more important than, for example, the three recent German casualties in Afghanistan that almost got unnoticed by the press due to the coverage of his affair. And, without question, he is adamant to remain in office.

The following days Guttenberg has to endure questioning in several parliamentary sessions, but without any immediate effect. His supporters hope that by waiving his right to the academic title the whole issue is to end soon. In fact, the university very quickly follows Guttenberg’s request, and renounces his PhD, without further investigation, by using a questionable shortcut in the regulations. They do not give any verdict whether they think Guttenberg’s scientific misconduct was intentional or not. It appears as if they want to get out of this as quickly as possible, too, as more details have surfaced that puts their handling of Guttenberg in a different light as well. For example, Guttenberg’s first degree had only received a “satisfactory” grade, which usually is not enough to be accepted for PhD studies. Guttenberg could only pursue his PhD with a special exemption by the faculty dean. Furthermore, the university received about 750,000 Euros funding from Guttenberg’s family estate during the time of his doctorate. Obviously, there is no connection.

Now, all this pisses off more academics including fellow legal experts. One of the most outspoken critics is law professor Oliver Lepsius, incidentally the thesis supervisor’s successor at the University of Bayreuth. He publicly and repeatedly calls Guttenberg “a fraud”. More and more academics reprimand Guttenberg, the chancellor, the conservative party and the parliament for not taking the matter serious enough. Representatives of almost all academic associations demand consequences. They even point out that in 2010 in a very similar case, a lower-level conservative party official who had plagiarized his PhD thesis was immediately relieved of his office. An open letter to Angela Merkel is signed by more than 60,000 PhD students and researchers, in which they call her behavior and comments on the affair “a ridicule of all scientific personnel and PhD students”. Eventually even conservative Science Minister Annette Schavan speaks out against Guttenberg. She feels deeply embarrassed by her fellow minister’s behavior, and fully agrees with the scientists’ anger.

On March 1, two weeks after the news broke, Guttenberg suddenly resigns from all political offices. A few hours later, Guttenplag Wiki publishes their second update. They have identified plagiarized passages on more than 80% of all pages, amounting to about half of the complete thesis.

The debates originating from this affair are still ongoing. The conservatives and thereby the government have lost both their shooting-star (at least for now) and a lot of trust. After all, Guttenberg has betrayed some of their core conservative values, and too many party members seemed willing to sacrifice them, too, in order to hold on to him. Overall, the academic community has stood up for themselves and defended scientific values, but it took them a while to get their act together. Also, it became clear that there is a rift going through the public, with academics who condemn Guttenberg’s conduct on one side, and non-academics on the other side, who simply don’t see what the fuzz is about.

Meanwhile, the fun goes on. In Guttenberg’s case, GuttenPlag Wiki is preparing their final report, the university is, after all, continuing their investigation, and the persecution is formally investigating Guttenberg for copyright violations that will likely lead to charges. And finally, another website has sprung into existence - PlagiPedi Wiki wants to check whether Guttenberg was just a bad apple, or if there are more academic frauds amongst Germany’s political and industrial elite. Their list of proposed targets for investigation is already more than 100 entries long. This is going to be an interesting year.

This is a slightly edited transcript of a contribution I made to Pod Delusion 76. News from Germany! Our Defense Minister has lost his job, because he plagiarized his PhD thesis. This affair has dominated the German news for the past few weeks. It is a remarkable story of arrogance, ignorance, the value of academia, and - once again - the power of the internet. So, who is this guy, and why did anyone in Germany care? Karl-Theodor Baron of Guttenberg is (or rather was) the 39 year old shooting star of Germany’s conservative party. His family is a noble lineage from Franconia in Southern Germany, going back to the 12th century. Their estate is estimated to be worth 400 million Euros. Karl-Theodor has never held any ‘proper’ job that is worth mentioning, but he eventually got into politics. After all, this is what his family is known for. Guttenberg’s great-uncle was part of the conservative opposition against Hitler and was murdered by the Gestapo for being associated with an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler in ‘44. Karl-Theodor’s grandfather, after whom he is christened, was a respected Secretary in the German Government in the ‘70s. Karl-Theodor is also married to Stephanie von Bismarck-Schönhausen, a great-great-granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck, the famous Chancellor of the German Empire. So, the man has quite some legacy to live up to, and for some time he seemed to do rather well. Guttenberg, like his late grandfather, is member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. In 2002, at the age of 30, he became a Member of Parliament for his local council of Kulmbach. He kept the seat in the general election three years later and then got first prominent party posts in Berlin, mainly concerned with Foreign Affairs and Defense. When the Minister for Economic Affairs unexpectedly stepped down in early 2009 in the midst of the economic crisis, Angela Merkel asked Guttenberg to take over. So, at the age of 37, he became the then youngest ever minister in German history. As Economy Minister, Guttenberg got public credit for opposing government bail-outs of several companies that struggled during the crisis, including Opel, the German sister brand of Vauxhall. However, he was never able to convince the rest of the cabinet, and the bail-outs went ahead anyway. Nevertheless, as of Summer 2009, he was the third-most-trusted politician in Germany, and the most-trusted Minister for Economy in German history. Unsurprisingly, in the general election of autumn 2009, Guttenberg was re-elected as MP for Kulmbach again, then with a remarkable 68% majority, the best result of any personally elected MP in Germany. Following this election, he became Defense Minister. In this role, he managed to keep the balance between starting a much-needed reform of the armed forces with the aim to downsize them, and still providing enough credit and support to their missions abroad, especially in Afghanistan. As of Summer 2010, Guttenberg was one of the very few conservative hopefuls and seen as serious contender for succeeding Angela Merkel as German Chancellor. But then came February 2011. Guttenberg had studied law at the University of Bayreuth (the city of Wagner fame), finishing in ‘99 with the First State Examination. He never continued with the practical placements that are required to do the Second and final State Examination. This means he has a degree in law, but is not allowed to practice as a solicitor, barrister, persecutor or judge in Germany. He still went on to do a doctorate in law which he finally got in 2007. His thesis is entitled “Constitution and constitutional treaty. Stages of constitutional development in the US and the European Union”. For this thesis he got the best possible mark, a “summa cum laude”. In early 2011, while preparing a review of Guttenberg’s thesis, a law professor from Bremen University stumbles across some paragraphs he recognizes from a different publication, but that are not marked as quotes in Guttenberg’s thesis. The discovery goes public on Wednesday, 16 February, with an article by Süddeutsche Zeitung. The issue, like everything surrounding Guttenberg, receives widespread interest. Some journalists immediately dig deeper, and they quickly find more dubious passages, including the very first paragraphs of the thesis introduction, that were clearly lifted from a newspaper article, again without giving due credit to the source. The university announces that they will start a formal investigation. I still think Guttenberg had the opportunity to bury the whole affair that very day, if he had quickly admitted mistakes and abandoned his academic title. But he does the opposite: He says the allegations of plagiarism are “simply absurd”, and that he is willing to check again whether he had accidentally missed to highlight some references amongst the over 400 pages of text and twelve-hundred footnotes, in order to correct them in a new edition. He belittles what has been found so far, and the seriousness of the allegations. That pisses off some academics. A bad idea in times of social networks. Positively put, the internet was willing to lend Guttenberg a hand. On Tuesday, the very next day, “Guttenplag Wiki.org” goes online, as a central hub for coordinating and documenting the results of a crowd-sourced analysis of the whole thesis. Its contributors find more and more plagiarized passages by the hour. Guttenberg panics. Every Friday the Government’s regular press conference takes place. But instead of appearing here, Guttenberg meets a few selected journalists and TV crews at the ministry at the very same time, unannounced and not coordinated with the Government’s press office. He makes a statement in which he admits that during the 7 years of doing his doctorate in parallel to his political career, he may have partly lost oversight over his sources, but again denies any intentional plagiarism. He volunteers not to use his academic title for the time being, while the University is investigating the matter. This very unusual behavior pisses off the journalists at the regular press conference, and they leave in protest. This again pisses off the press office. Over the weekend, more and more commentators speculate if this affair could cost Guttenberg his job. Also, amongst both quoted and unquoted sources for the thesis, journalists find publications of the parliament’s research service. MPs are only allowed to use this service for parliamentary matters. This fact pisses off parliament officials, and they launch an investigation. On Monday, 21 February, Angela Merkel, herself a PhD in Physics, makes a statement of support, highlighting that she hired Guttenberg not as a scientific advisor but as Minister of Defense, and not for his PhD, but for his competence in leading the ministry. So, she basically says, this is not a big deal, and there are more important things. Quite some people disagree. A few hours later Guttenplag Wiki publishes a first update. In less than a week the internet crowd has identified and documented plagiarized sections on 270 pages of the thesis, accounting for at least 20% of the text. That evening Guttenberg speaks at a party event in attendance of several conservative politicians who themselves have persisted through affairs and plunders by sheer stubbornness. In a very feisty speech, he again admits mistakes, and since those mistakes are “not in line with the scientific codex” he announces to drop his PhD altogether. In fact, he formally asks the university to renounce the title, even before they have concluded their investigation. Still, he again denies any intentional plagiarism, and accuses press and political opponents of a witch hunt. As if his PhD thesis were more important than, for example, the three recent German casualties in Afghanistan that almost got unnoticed by the press due to the coverage of his affair. And, without question, he is adamant to remain in office. The following days Guttenberg has to endure questioning in several parliamentary sessions, but without any immediate effect. His supporters hope that by waiving his right to the academic title the whole issue is to end soon. In fact, the university very quickly follows Guttenberg’s request, and renounces his PhD, without further investigation, by using a questionable shortcut in the regulations. They do not give any verdict whether they think Guttenberg’s scientific misconduct was intentional or not. It appears as if they want to get out of this as quickly as possible, too, as more details have surfaced that puts their handling of Guttenberg in a different light as well. For example, Guttenberg’s first degree had only received a “satisfactory” grade, which usually is not enough to be accepted for PhD studies. Guttenberg could only pursue his PhD with a special exemption by the faculty dean. Furthermore, the university received about 750,000 Euros funding from Guttenberg’s family estate during the time of his doctorate. Obviously, there is no connection. Now, all this pisses off more academics including fellow legal experts. One of the most outspoken critics is law professor Oliver Lepsius, incidentally the thesis supervisor’s successor at the University of Bayreuth. He publicly and repeatedly calls Guttenberg “a fraud”. More and more academics reprimand Guttenberg, the chancellor, the conservative party and the parliament for not taking the matter serious enough. Representatives of almost all academic associations demand consequences. They even point out that in 2010 in a very similar case, a lower-level conservative party official who had plagiarized his PhD thesis was immediately relieved of his office. An open letter to Angela Merkel is signed by more than 60,000 PhD students and researchers, in which they call her behavior and comments on the affair “a ridicule of all scientific personnel and PhD students”. Eventually even conservative Science Minister Annette Schavan speaks out against Guttenberg. She feels deeply embarrassed by her fellow minister’s behavior, and fully agrees with the scientists’ anger. On March 1, two weeks after the news broke, Guttenberg suddenly resigns from all political offices. A few hours later, Guttenplag Wiki publishes their second update. They have identified plagiarized passages on more than 80% of all pages, amounting to about half of the complete thesis. The debates originating from this affair are still ongoing. The conservatives and thereby the government have lost both their shooting-star (at least for now) and a lot of trust. After all, Guttenberg has betrayed some of their core conservative values, and too many party members seemed willing to sacrifice them, too, in order to hold on to him. Overall, the academic community has stood up for themselves and defended scientific values, but it took them a while to get their act together. Also, it became clear that there is a rift going through the public, with academics who condemn Guttenberg’s conduct on one side, and non-academics on the other side, who simply don’t see what the fuzz is about. Meanwhile, the fun goes on. In Guttenberg’s case, GuttenPlag Wiki is preparing their final report, the university is, after all, continuing their investigation, and the persecution is formally investigating Guttenberg for copyright violations that will likely lead to charges. And finally, another website has sprung into existence - PlagiPedi Wiki wants to check whether Guttenberg was just a bad apple, or if there are more academic frauds amongst Germany’s political and industrial elite. Their list of proposed targets for investigation is already more than 100 entries long. This is going to be an interesting year.