Minister zu Guttenberg has denied the claims but announced he will temporarily relinquish his doctor title. In a press statement he said he would actively help his former university, the University of Bayreuth, to investigate the plagiarism accusations.
The Minister it seems won’t be the only one helping to investigate. Spiegel Online reports that a new Wiki has been set up to examine the document.
The Internet never sleeps. And neither, it would seem, does one of the web’s newest pages. Since it went online on Thursday, the site (German only), a Wiki devoted to examining the Ph.D. dissertation of Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg for yet more instances of extensive borrowing and inadequate citation, has been overrun with contributors. As of early Friday morning, fully 76 passages had been identified as revealing uncanny similarities with previously published works.
If you’re unfamiliar with zu Guttenberg, Newshour on the BBC World Service produced a good background segment about the man, the scandal and the implications for Germany’s Baron Minister. You can listen again by clicking on chapter 2 (16:03).
For a man often touted as a future Chancellor, this episode is likely to seriously tarnish Minister zu Guttenberg’s personal and political credibility. Not only because this is a country where having a doctorate is highly (even dare I say obsessively) valued, particularly to climb the ladder in any organisation, but the Minister and his talk show host wife are viewed as political royalty. And Germany, including its media, loves a little sparkle.
Even zu Guttenberg’s cabinet colleague, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, says the man has something that fascinates people.
Photo credits: Flickr, Bundeswehr-Fotos, CC (BY-ND)
]]>Three military episodes are dominating headlines following reports from the German parliamentary ombudsman to the military.
– The treatment of officer-cadets onboard the German Navy tall ship Gorch Fock, including events surrounding the death of a female midshipman after she fell from the ship’s rigging during a training exercise, and whether several fellow midshipmen behaved in a way that could be deemed mutinous. Currently the vessel is in Argentina. The captain has been relieved of his command. An investigation is underway and the vessel has been ordered to return to Germany. (DW-TV report in English)
– The investigation into the death of a soldier in December last year at the Pol-e-Chomri base in Afghanistan. It was first suggested an accident occurred while the soldier was cleaning his weapon. German media are now reporting up to 10 troops may have been fooling around and the soldier was killed by the weapon of a comrade.
– Feldpost: the unauthorized opening and tampering of letters posted by soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.
Minister zu Guttenberg obviously has a lot of explaining to do about what’s happening inside the German military and his own department. He is also under pressure from opposition parties over whether he’s adequately informed parliament about the Gorch Fock incidents.
All of this comes at a time when Germany’s troop commitment in Afghanistan (and the timing of a possible withdrawal) is under debate, as well as what is the future of a smaller, professional German armed forces following the ending of compulsory military service.
Thomas Wiegold of the excellent German defence blog augengeradeaus.net has produced a good Audioboo summary of the Gorch Fock reports in English.
And a Süddeutsche Zeitung interview with Minister zu Guttenberg also tries to zero-in on what the Minister did or did not know about these events and what action he is taking. A translation is below.
(Interview conducted by Peter Blechschmidt, published 21 January 2011.)
]]>SZ: Minister, is the Bundeswehr covering up unpleasant truths?
Guttenberg: That should never be the strategy of the Bundeswehr, and that is also not the case.
SZ: But in the case of the soldier killed in northern Afghanistan also with the situation onboard the Gorch Fock has your Ministry not told the whole truth?
Guttenberg: Nonsense. In the case of the soldier killed it was officially known on the day after the accident, that possibly a second person was involved. The public prosecutor’s office were immediately informed and is investigating. With the investigation underway to gain evidence of the actual events, we can not make comments out of respect to those involved.
SZ: And of the alleged mutiny onboard the Gorch Fock, you hadn’t heard anything up till now?
Guttenberg: I was informed about that accusation through the documents of the military ombudsman dated 17 January. I immediately directed the Inspector of Navy and the head of the legal department here in the Ministry to clarify the facts. You will not hear any pre-judgement from me. But if these accusations are true, then there will be clear consequences. Generally speaking: degrading drill can not be tolerated. And the accusation of mutiny is a very serious one, in light of what I know so far.
SZ: But aren’t the accusations relating to the Gorch Fock so grave that you as Minister should have been informed?
Guttenberg: Part of the investigation will be to determine if the lines of communication were respected. If there were failures there will be consequences. All of that must be clearly explained. On this matter I have little patience.
SZ: After the death of the female midshipman aboard the Gorsch Fock the training exercise was suspended. At that time the impression came about this appears to have been merely an act of compassion.
Guttenberg: The responsible Inspector of Navy had decided out of technical reasons to suspend the training and to send the training crew back to Germany. The Gorch Fock though should continue her journey.
SZ: And you hadn’t heard about the opening of letters posted from Afghanistan?
Guttenberg: The responsible military leadership in charge did not have any knowledge of this. My mind reading skills are therefore very limited. But here too the investigations are in full swing.
SZ: Are these emerging developments now not posing the question of whether the inner leadership of the Bundeswehr has failed?
Guttenberg: Should the allegations turn out to be true we will most likely be dealing with individual failings. The inner leadership is successful and widely accepted within the Bundeswehr. To draw conclusions about the majority of Bundeswehr from potential individual misconduct – after all it’s about 250,000 soldiers – would be totally unjustified.
Thick fog prevented Mr Westerwelle’s plane from landing in Islamabad, forcing Germany’s top diplomat and journalists in tow to land 400 km away in Lahore.
To keep to schedule, Plan B was to pile everyone into three hastily rented mini buses and drive to Islamabad. Germany’s public broadcaster ARD had a playful take on the beginning of the trip – you’ll get the picture.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung described the scene outside a roadside Kentucky Fried Chicken where Westerwelle spoke to journalists about the unscheduled road trip.
‘The journalists wanted to know, how he felt about a cross-country trip through Pakistan on a decrepit bus?
Mr Westerwelle briefly acknowledged the unexpected opportunity to "see something of the countryside".
Countryside indeed. Though the ad-hoc road trip probably didn’t make up for having to abandon inspecting projects in areas affected by last year’s floods. However, the main purpose of the Pakistan leg was to discuss security and fighting terrorism with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
The German foreign minister’s mantra is Pakistan is the key to helping Afghanistan. Though Mr Qureshi’s call for Germany to loosen its controls on exporting weapons to Pakistan might be pushing cooperation on security and fighting terrorism too far.
The next leg of the trip to Afghanistan included talks with President Hamid Karzai and an unannounced visit to German troops serving in Kunduz. For the media this also meant taking a close inspection of Westerwelle’s wardrobe. Germans are by now quite familiar with the image of Defence Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, visiting troops dressed in relaxed, yet ready for action quasi-military garb – usually khaki cargo trousers and a Bundeswehr t-shirt offset by black body armour.
Zu Guttenberg by the way also spent some time in the military and from appearances knows how to dress up or dress down in the field – for that matter so does Frau zu Guttenberg. So, how would Herr Westerwelle dress for a base visit?
Bild, always known for its close attention to fashion details (and unfortunate wardrobe malfunctions of female celebrities) sketched Westerwelle’s ‘Outdoor-Look’ for its readers as:
‘street shoes, a black suit, a white shirt and a purple tie and a bullet proof vest!’
Mr Westerwelle obviously brought a dress sense projecting statecraft to Kunduz, and it could be argued was more appropriately attired than Germany’s international development minister and FDP colleague, Dirk Niebel, who enjoys wearing his old army paratrooper hat when on tour.
Mr Westerwelle’s small talk rapport with troops and the semantics of the word war were also noted. He avoided referring to Afghanistan as a war, though conceded "that it’s understandable that soldiers feel it is a war."
Germany plans to start reducing the number of troops deployed in Afghanistan by the end of 2011 – and complete its withdrawal in 2014. At the moment there are about 5000 German troops in Afghanistan. Mr Westerwelle said Germany will continue to support and stand by Afghanistan but did not say exactly how.
The German parliament is due to debate the army’s mission in Afghanistan later this month. It has to both approve extending the mission and at the same time consider the Government’s plan for withdrawing and handing over responsibilities to Afghan forces.
That means we’re going to hear a lot more about the year 2014. The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) are tying their support of extending the mission to a 2014 pull out.
Politically, the Pakistan trip and Afghanistan troop visit offered Westerwelle a chance to step back into perhaps his now preferred shoes of an international statesman, as well as try to gain some much needed traction on the home front. It’s hardly been a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year for the FDP leader. Leading figures in the Free Democrats have openly questioned Westerwelle’s leadership. Polls show support for the FDP has slumped from a 2009 election high of around 15 % to just 5 %. Not exactly great numbers for the FDP nor for their senior governing CDU/CSU coalition parters, especially in a year full of state elections. If the less than enthusiastic media reaction to his most recent party speech is anything to go by, Mr Westerwelle might need more of that ‘Outdoor-Look’ during campaigns to win back support. ]]>
The surprise resignation of President Horst Köhler has both politicians and the media playing over and rewinding the tape of an interview he gave to Deutschlandfunk, the national radio broadcaster, on his way back from visiting German troops in Afghanistan.
Here are the specific remarks about sending German military forces on missions that imploded on Herr Köhler.
"A country of our size with its focus on exports and thus reliance on foreign trade, must be aware that military deployments are necessary in an emergency to protect our interests, for example, when it comes to trade routes, for example, when it comes to preventing regional instabilities that could negatively influence our trade, jobs and incomes."
Köhler is a long time member of Chancellor Merkell’s CDU party. Opposition politicians and some media commentators claimed his views could be interpreted as gunboat diplomacy and supporting military missions not covered by the constitution to protect Germany’s economic interests.
Germany has only just got to the point where (some) politicians have actually uttered that German troops are fighting a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
I wonder if the journalist who recorded the interview knew that he had a potential political IED on his hands? The piece ran under the headline: "They do great things under difficult conditions" – obviously referring to the head of state’s visit to meet and thank troops for their service.
In his short resignation speech, President Köhler fired back saying his comments were misunderstood.
The man has a good point there. He supports the United Nations and a multilateral approach to sorting out global problems. Something you’d expect from a European, a career civil servant (who should know his country’s constitution quite well), and a former head of the IMF.
It would appear this resignation is another twist to Germany struggling very publicly to define its modern role as a global citizen – both to Germans and to the rest of the world.
Being on the receiving end of flak from politicians about his views on German military deployments, Köhler also said his critics do not have respect for the office of the President.
This is a point which has left many political commentators wondering why a public figure such as the President has become so prickly over public criticism that he could have weathered, and what does it say about Germany when the President, and supposed moral voice of the country, decides to quit in a sort of a huff over an important, yet robust, public debate?
Winning hearts via Eurovision is obviously a lot easier. As Lena loves to say: "You’re crazy!"
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