Doctoral thesis
University of Bayreuth is investigating suspicions of plagiarism against AfD leader Alice Weidel
Alice Weidel comments on the plagiarism allegations against her on her X account
© Screenshot/X.com / star
“We don’t see large-scale plagiarism in Ms. Weidel’s dissertation, but we do see fragments of plagiarism,” says an expert about the AfD leader’s doctoral thesis. The University of Bayreuth therefore wants to examine the work. Weidel calls the allegations a “campaign.”
According to a media report, the University of Bayreuth is examining whether the AfD leader’s doctoral thesis Alice Weidel could be partly plagiarized. As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) reports, a preliminary examination by the university has shown that the doctoral thesis should be examined more closely. The work will occupy the university’s “Commission for Scientific Integrity”. Weidel spoke of a “campaign” that had been “launched” against her and focused on her dissertation.
“No large-scale plagiarism, but plagiarism fragments”
According to the report, two plagiarism detectors had previously contacted the university. They therefore accuse Weidel of having taken over external sources in her doctoral thesis from 2011 and of not labeling them or not labeling them adequately. According to the newspaper, both of them prepared a report on Weidel’s work and submitted it to the University of Bayreuth.
“We don’t see any large-scale plagiarism in Ms. Weidel’s dissertation, but we do see many small fragments of plagiarism,” said the lead author of the “SZ” report. “There is suspicion of plagiarism here.” According to the report, both authors wanted to remain anonymous for fear of possible dangers. According to the newspaper, the University of Bayreuth did not comment on the case “for personal and data protection reasons.”
According to the “SZ”, which has the report from the two plagiarism experts, the allegations are presented on 36 pages. Accordingly, 32 plagiarism fragments and 18 mislabeled quotes are listed. It is all about individual passages of text, a few connected sentences or sentence fragments, which Weidel is said to have taken over literally or in spirit without making this sufficiently clear.
Weidel wrote in Online service X (formerly Twitter) of “absurd allegations”. “My doctoral thesis has probably already been checked by dozens of plagiarism checkers with as much detail and attention as it did without results,” she said in a video published at the same time.
Alice Weidel: “Political motivation is obvious”
Unknown people had sent the “SZ” an anonymous report, “in which no classic plagiarism was discovered, but citation errors were discovered that were blown up into plagiarism,” Weidel continued. “The political motivation is obvious.”
Weidel continued that she had now “asked for an independent statement from a scientist,” without providing any further information about the scientist. He came to the conclusion “that the allegations are rejected as absurd and the plagiarism allegations are considered unfounded.”
Weidel’s doctoral thesis deals with the pension system in China. She received the top grade summa cum laude for the work.