Doctoral thesis
Plagiarism allegations against AfD leader Weidel – University investigates
The University of Bayreuth is investigating suspicions of plagiarism against AfD leader Alice Weidel. photo
© Melissa Erichsen/dpa
Did Alice Weidel quote improperly or even copy in her doctoral thesis? There are anonymous allegations. She denies this – and blames someone from whom she is said to have stolen.
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (“SZ”/online) had previously reported that two plagiarism detectors had contacted the University of Bayreuth. They therefore accuse Weidel of not or not sufficiently identifying the sources of individual passages, connected sentences or even sentence fragments in her doctoral thesis from 2011, which was awarded “Summa cum laude”. The newspaper has the submitted text.
The University of Bayreuth announced: “The suspected plagiarism report has now been submitted to the Commission for Scientific Integrity of the University of Bayreuth. It will decide whether there will be a formal investigation.” This decision is not expected before the end of January.
“See lots of little fragments of plagiarism”
The “SZ” quoted the lead author of the text submitted to the university: “We do not see any large-scale plagiarism in Ms. Weidel’s dissertation, but many small fragments of plagiarism. There is a suspicion of plagiarism here.” According to the newspaper, both authors want to remain anonymous – for fear of possible dangers to themselves and their relatives. But they are known to the newspaper.
Weidel explained in her video: “My doctoral thesis has probably already been checked by dozens of plagiarism examiners with as much detail and attentiveness as it did without results. But now unknown people have sent the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” an anonymous report in which there is no classic plagiarism, but there is Citation errors are said to have been discovered, which were inflated into plagiarism.” The “political motivation” is obvious. “Meanwhile, I have requested an independent statement from an academic who concludes, and I quote, “that the allegations are rejected as absurd and the plagiarism allegations are considered unfounded.” She looks forward to further developments calmly.
The scientist she brought into the field is the economist Stefan Homburg from the University of Hanover, whom she is said to have used, among other things, in her doctoral thesis. In his letter to Weidel, which was available to the German Press Agency, he writes that he “couldn’t find any intellectual theft anywhere.” In economics, general textbook knowledge does not have to be proven sentence by sentence. He specifically addresses two of the allegations and explains one of them: “It is also irrelevant that your formulation is similar to mine, because all definitions of the capital funding process are similar.”
Weidel is also the leader of the AfD in the Bundestag. In nationwide surveys, the party is currently at 20 to 23 percent, second only to the Union and ahead of the SPD and the Greens.
The financial scientist Homburg appeared at a Corona event organized by the AfD parliamentary group in November. He was previously, among other things, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ministry of Finance under Theo Waigel (CSU) and a member of the Federalism Commission I of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
In previous plagiarism scandals, some politicians had lost their doctorates and resigned from their positions: in 2011, for example, the then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), in 2013, the Education Minister Annette Schavan (CDU) and in 2021, the then Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD).