“Doctor” Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

As one who labored for several years to complete a doctoral dissertation, I was very impressed that Germany's rising political star and defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was able to complete his thesis while working full time as an ambitious politician in the Bundestag.  Now I understand how he was able to do it: 

Germany's popular defense minister faced accusations Wednesday that he plagiarized part of his doctoral thesis — a claim he strongly rejected.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Wednesday dismissed as "absurd" the allegations reported by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, insisting that none of his employees helped him draft the thesis. The minister said, however, he is willing to check whether there were any omissions or errors among the 1,200 footnotes in the 475-page thesis.

It will be difficult to reject the accusations since clearly enitre passages were lifted from Switzerland's Neue Zuercher Zeitung.  

Apparently Baron zu Guttenberg also lifted key passages of his dissertation without attribution from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . Here's a tip to doctoral students who would like to take shortcuts:  don't plagiarize the introduction to your thesis from Germany's leading newspaper: 

Der einleitende Absatz der Arbeit deckt sich demnach fast wortwörtlich mit einem am 27. November 1997 erschienenen Text der Politikwissenschaftlerin Barbara Zehnpfennig. Darin geht es um das Vorbild Amerikas für Europa. Das Zitat ist bei zu Guttenberg weder im Text als solches kenntlich gemacht noch wurde Zehnpfennig als Quelle angegeben.

(The introductory paragraph of the dissertation is a verbatim copy of a text from Novermber 27, 1997 by the political scientist Barbara Zehnpfennig.  The piece deals with America as a model for Europe.  The quotatation was not indicated as such by Guttenberg nor was any attribution given to Zehnpfennig as the source.)

But zu Guttenberg could have saved himself much grief by following the example of his colleague in Angela Merkel's cabinet – family minister "Doctor" Kristina Schröder  = and simply have other people write the disseratation for him. 

On the other hand, zu Guttenberg may want to consider publishing his plagiarized work.  It is sure to be a best seller, just like Helene Hegemann's Axoloti Roadkill, long passages of which were lifted from another book.