Accusation against Baerbock: What is behind the plagiarism allegations

Did the Green Chancellor candidate write off Baerbock? A plagiarism hunter from Austria accuses her of plagiarism in her new book. The five most important questions and answers.

What is Baerbock accused of?

An Austrian media scientist accuses Annalena Baerbock of having copied “Now. How we renew our country” in five places. For example, it is about Baerbock listing the countries of the EU eastward expansion in the same order as the Federal Agency for Political Education does in an essay. Or: Baerbock copied from a magazine when she listed the three tallest wooden skyscrapers in the world.

Their demand for a prosperity indicator to be distinguished from the gross domestic product can be found in similar words on Wikipedia. There are also great similarities to a blog entry when Baerbock describes the consequences of climate change.

At one point on climate change, Baerbock also refers to an assessment by the Pentagon in her book. An American political scientist has written about this assessment. Since the passages are similar. However, both refer to the same output information. And: Baerbock makes it clear that these are not her own thoughts.

How serious are the allegations?

Plagiarism within the meaning of copyright law presupposes that intellectual property has been stolen. In the case of the criticized passages, it seems that Baerbock has adopted factual information.

Another accusation: Numerous paragraphs in Baerbock’s book were taken almost verbatim from the Greens’ party program. That should hardly come as a surprise. When a candidate for chancellor publishes a book about her political ideas during an election campaign, an overlap with the party’s election manifesto is obvious. Incidentally, parts of the book also resemble Baerbock’s speech at the Green Party conference two and a half weeks ago.

The book, published on June 21, is also a political non-fiction book and not a scientific dissertation with corresponding citation rules. This is also pointed out by the blogger who makes the allegations.

Who is behind the allegations?

The Austrian media scientist Stefan Weber raised the allegations in his “Blog for Scientific Righteousness”. Weber brought down Austrian Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher (ÖVP) with his plagiarism allegations in January 2021. But she denied any wrongdoing.

In his posts Weber recently dealt with Baerbock, including the inaccuracies in her résumé. He has already put his current allegations into perspective in interviews. He tells the “Spiegel” that the passages in question are “nothing earth-shattering”. Baerbock should have marked them as quotations. Weber said of “Focus”: “I don’t think it is necessary that the book has to be taken off the market.” He had checked Baerbock’s book on his own initiative, there was no client.

What does Annalena Baerbock say?

The Greens respond to the allegations with sharp words. This shows how seriously they take such attacks in the election campaign. A spokesman for Baerbock says, “This is character assassination attempt.” The blogger has already made false claims about Baerbock’s graduation. Now he’s trying again to viciously damage her reputation. He calls the allegations “absurd”.

Baerbock also brought in the media attorney Christian Schertz. He explains: “I cannot begin to see any copyright infringement.” Ullstein-Verlag, in which Baerbock’s book appeared, also explains: “The listing of generally accessible facts is just as little protected by copyright as the simple formulations with which such facts are conveyed.”

What do Baerbock’s competitors say?

The parties react differently to the allegations. CSU General Secretary Markus Blume sees Baerbock’s credibility “once again” shaken. As he writes on Twitter, Baerbock apparently has a system to deceive, to work sloppily and to pile up one’s own achievements.

FDP parliamentary director Marco Buschmann, on the other hand, advises on Twitter: “Cool off! There are really more important things.” In his opinion, books by top candidates before the election have the quality of an advertising brochure anyway. CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet and SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz have not yet commented.