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zu Guttenberg resigns
Teflon no more
Mar 1st 2011, 15:31 by B.U. | BERLIN
"I'VE reached the limits of my strength." With these words Germany’s most promising politician, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned as defence minister this morning. He fell less than two weeks after revelations that large chunks of his 2006 doctoral dissertation had been plagiarised. At first, it looked as if his charisma and popularity would save him. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, backed him. So did voters, according to opinion polls.
But he could not survive the tsunami of outrage from Germany’s academic community and the internal contradictions of his position. Mr zu Guttenberg and his party—the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is the Bavarian branch of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU)—stand for nothing if not for conservative values like personal responsibility. His downfall is a heavy blow for the chancellor, for both parties and for the health of politics in Germany generally.
Mr zu Guttenberg’s rise, from precocious backbencher to prospective future chancellor in little more than two years, has been called the fastest ascent in post-war German politics. His aristocratic background, good looks and glamorous wife gave him a head start. But he capitalised on it. His favourite trick was to flout orthodoxy in ways that unsettled his political allies but found favour with voters.
As economy minister in Mrs Merkel’s last government he threatened to resign over a proposed bail-out of Opel, a car-maker, winning fame as a defender of liberal economic principles. At the defence ministry he prevailed over his fellow conservatives in ending conscription, the first step in an ambitious proposal for modernisation of the armed forces.
This vaulted Mr zu Guttenberg into a position occupied by no other politician. Germans in general are disillusioned with conventional politics. Voter participation is dropping and support for the big-tent political parties, including the Social Democratic Party on the left, is in long-term decline. Angry citizens are resorting to protests and referendums to countermand the decisions of a political class for which they have little respect. Mr zu Guttenberg was the great exception, the one politician who stirred something like enthusiasm among ordinary voters.
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.
Mrs Merkel said she had hired a minister, not a “research assistant.” But in the face of indignation from would-be, serving and former research assistants, his political allies began feeling squeamish. How could Mr zu Guttenberg credibly remain in charge of the two armed-forces universities, they wondered. How could the CDU and CSU continue to pose as defenders of intellectual property rights? How, as the authors of the open letter asked, could Mrs Merkel continue to proclaim Germany an “education republic”? Treating plagiarism as a side issue was an uncharacteristic blunder on her part.
With Mr zu Guttenberg gone the chancellor faces two immediate problems. The first is to find a credible new defence minister who does not upset the balance among the CDU, the CSU and the third coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party. The CSU transport minister, Peter Ramsauer, was an obvious choice, but he has already rejected the job.
The second problem is that there are six state elections to come this year, three in March alone. The most important is in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, on March 27th. At stake is the CDU’s unbroken 57-year record in charge of government. The party had seemed to be heading for a narrow victory, but the zu Guttenberg affair throws a new element into the mix. Losing Baden-Württemberg would be even more painful for Mrs Merkel than losing her defence minister.
As for Mr zu Guttenberg himself, it would be unwise to write him off. By stepping down now, he hopes to preserve much of the goodwill he has accumulated over the past few years. His resignation may be a prelude to resurrection rather than the end of a brilliant career.
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Unfortunately this is more frequent than it may seem. Many doctoral thesis have very little investigation and a lot of putting together in the same place information from elsewhere.
Obviously this is a shame, but from my point of view does not make a person not valid for his current job position. The academic community should focus on other much bigger problems they currently have.
The dignified thing to do under the circumstances.
Gutt Bye!
"But he could not survive the tsunami of outrage from Germany’s academic community and the internal contradictions of his position."
So the academic community is not happy because even at this level of plagiarism, Mr gu Guttenberg could do his job well, which goes on to prove that academic prowess does not carry that much value addition as we all (mis)belived? A slap in the face?
I understand that cheating is never right but then how right would it be for the academic community, clearly with a conflict of interest in the matter, to have any say on the matter?
And oh, that it took FIVE YEARS to catch Mr gu Guttenberg says a lot about the effectiveness of the academic community itself.
Bring back gu Guttenberg! Bring him back and let he do his job so we can all go to bed without having to worry about the exorbitant PhD financing scheme anymore!
He did the right thing by resigning, as his credibility is on the line.
How many PhD theses and other academic papers done before the internet were plagiarized?
Universities are awarding PhDs and other qualifications without properly checking the work in the internet age. How could they have checked the work before the internet age?
that is a stupid reason to lose a job.
The question is why is the university which was so incompetent it didn't notice the obvious case of plagarism not paying a price as well?
How many other students have done the same and got away with it due to the university's incompetence.
Most universities now have plagarism kits and tests that would never have allowed such an obvious case of plagarism (a fifth of the test plagarised).
The Causa Guttenberg is an alarming case of an imposter fooling the masses with the help of a dubious mass tabloid.
In his CV he already massively overstated his past accomplishments. Week long internships were cited as proper work experience and working with his brother and father on the administration of the family wealth, became a three year long experience in "managing the family business". Headed by a dubious mass tabloid, the "family business" was then identified in the media as Munich "Guttenberg GmbH" a proper midsized company - which however has no relation to Mr. Guttenberg at all (and repeatedly stated this to the media - to no avail!)
His threat to resign over financial aid to Opel was merely cheap talk. (He graciously "offered" the chancellor his resignation.) The bail out for Opel was accepted in Mai 2009 (this one at least) ...but Guttenberg did not resign.
Reform of the armed forces: Guttenberg made bold statements and announcements. He would end conscription and reform the army, and all this whilst staying in the budget. A few months later he demanded an enormous extension of his budget from the finance minister. Well, he didn't demand it, he "ordered" the allocation. Today it is still unclear how his suggested reform of the army is supposed to work out.
In the dealing with the scandal about the plagiarism, he repeatedly lied to the public and he had the chutzpa to claim he didn't cite properly (so far 50% of the text is plagiarized ..still counting) by mistake and due to being overworked. He and his party friends, including Dr.(!) Merkel, made it clear that they do not see massive plagiarism and the theft of copyrighted material as the serious offence it is. They downplayed it to a minor misdeed resembling cheating in an exam in school.
It is quite disconcerting to see how the CDU and CSU as well as the general public stuck to an imposter, thief and cheater in what can only be described as "Niebelungentreue". And all this thanks to an eloquent and nobel appearance as well as a nobel heritage. More than 90 years after the abolishment of nobility this sheds a rather bad light on the German public. The damage done by Guttenberg, not only to academia, is enormous.
Looks like the wave of twitter and facebook revolutions has finally reached Germany;-).
What sealed Guttenberg's fate were first an in-depth online examination organized by a bunch of doctoral candidates of Guttenberg's doctoral thesis which revealed the extent of his plagiarism and led the university little choice but to divest the PhD a week ago.
And this weekend, an online petition by as many as 50,000 German academics (all professors, doctors or doctoral candidates) calling for his removal from office was probably the last nail in the coffin of Guttenberg's political career.
Now back to Libya;-).
@Josh_01
I don't think facebook and twitter are the relevant contributing factors here. It is rather the "Wiki" and here more specifically "Wikia" - a website developed in the footsteps of wikipedia. Wikis still have a lot of potential: in the general public as well as in academia.
He would never have been hired without that dissertation. He deserved to be sacked, instead of resigning.
I wonder if someone will go thru the PhD theses of all those signing the petition for Mr. zu Guttenberg's dismissal. It would be interesting to see how much unattributed work might turn up there.
Lucky Germans. Their politicians can not get away even with plagiarism. Even funnier, they actually listen what academics say. How many other countries can claim that.
His last name is "Freiherr von und zu Gutenberg" so he is a true "blue-blooded" German. It seems that aristocratic credentials still play a big role in the Federal REPUBLIC of Germany (Germany never had a French Revolution!)
Ironically, his dissertation was on "Constitutional developments in the USA and EU" and he actually got a "summa cum laude" for it. Perhaps his professors (the examination committee) from the University of Bayreuth in "Freistaat Bayern" should also resign for not reading his dissertation carefully.
Oh well, I don't think it's such a big deal. He just got caught while he was serving as the defence minister! The average dissertation (not just in Germany) contains perhaps 40% original material. The rest has to be "padded up" anyway.
A professor at Harvard University, Alan Dershowitz, was exposed by another professor for plagiarizing an entire book. Nothing happened to him. He has never even apologized. Plagiarism is rife at American Universities.
The fact that Mr. Guttenberg had to go is the only reason why there is a difference in prosperity between Germany and any 3. world country. It is really that simple.
@ Porhtnasim:
"I don't think facebook and twitter are the relevant contributing factors here. It is rather the "Wiki" and here more specifically "Wikia" - a website developed in the footsteps of wikipedia. Wikis still have a lot of potential: in the general public as well as in academia."
---
I admittably took the comparison to the events in the Arab world and in Germany a little too far;-)... . But you'd probably agree with me that the bottom line is: the INTERNET and the new means of communication it offers has made it easier for the governed anywhere in the world to organize their protest against those who govern.
Gosh. If we start laying off all those who ever cheated on an exam, we won't be left with many people...
That the academic community stepped up to strip him off his PhD makes sense, but what makes that same "academic community" claim expertise to decide whether the man should remain minister or not? It smells like politics here.
Contrast that with neighbor's French Foreign Affairs Minister scandal, where the minister actually committed a fault in the exercise of his function, I believe that was much more a case for resignation.
Don't count this very clever fellow out quite so fast. He'll be back with a very big BANG
@Adam Onge
you may have forgotten about the revolution of 1848/49 and the November revolution of 1918 ;-) So, in fact we had 2 revolutions, yet none of them was french.
Btw. his doctor thesis may have been perfect, and rightfully deserved a summa cum laude, if he copied from very good writers, but it was not his work.