Plagiarism allegations against Mathias Döpfner – media

So now also Mathias Döpfner, the Springer boss. The Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main is investigating allegations of plagiarism against the Dr. phil., Döpfner had presented a work in 1990 entitled “Music criticism in Germany after 1945: Tendencies in content and form – a critical analysis”. Two well-known plagiarism hunters, Stefan Weber and Martin Heidingsfelder, accuse him of scientific misconduct. Heidingsfelder had asked the University of Frankfurt to investigate how the mirror first reported on Friday.

Döpfner, 59, studied musicology, German and theater studies in Frankfurt and Boston. He has been CEO of Axel Springer and publisher of since 2002 picture and World. “A commission has been set up to deal with scientific misconduct,” the university said when asked. The test is “absolutely confidential”. This also applies to the expected duration of the procedure.

In particular, the plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber has dealt with the work and provided documentation on the allegations. Weber is a lecturer at the University of Vienna, examines scientific work for money and has already ended the careers of several scientists and politicians. Last year he made plagiarism in Annalena Baerbock’s book “Now – How we renew our country” public, revealed errors in her official CV and harshly criticized the current foreign minister. In the plagiarism checker scene, he is known for applying strict standards.

He makes three accusations against Döpfner in particular: There are a number of textual correspondences between Döpfner’s work and a “Nazi Diss”, as Weber titles his blog entry. What is meant is the dissertation “Contributions to the History of Music Criticism” by Helmut Andres, which was accepted at the University of Heidelberg in 1938. Döpfner himself writes in his work that Andres makes himself the “mouthpiece of openly fascist cultural ideology” and thus distances himself from him – but, according to Weber’s reproach, he uses this very work. In addition, he apparently adopted a number of unchecked references from other sources for his doctoral thesis.

It is not certain that Döpfner will soon be without a doctorate

Third, Weber accuses him of so-called structural plagiarism. Today’s Springer boss chose music critics and artists for his work who almost completely match Andres’ selection – the order is also the same. However, that says nothing about how he examined and judged the people. According to Weber, his study provides “very strong evidence that Mathias Döpfner plagiarized Helmut Andres’ dissertation in at least 28 passages”.

Basically, Döpfner makes three accusations: the Austrian plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber.

(Photo: BERGAUER JOACHIM)

It is far from certain that Döpfner will soon be without a doctorate. A look at Weber’s documentation shows this. Weber has not found a single complete sentence that Döpfner is said to have taken over verbatim from Andres (or others). The “text matches” extend to individual parts of sentences and groups of words. Some are somewhat concise, such as the phrase “change in musical concepts of value”, others as banal as “the social situation of music”, without any scientific significance. There are also content-related assumptions without citing the source, which Döpfner put in different words than Andres. The parallels can be found on twelve of the 334 pages. In March, the finds were also the Süddeutsche Zeitung before, which, however, refrained from publication after further research and examination by scientists on this narrow basis.

“One should not have accepted Döpfner’s dissertation,” says one expert

The accusation that Döpfner took over a number of source references from other works without checking them could weigh more heavily. A strong indication of this is when the author also accepts errors. This is the case, according to Weber, who is known for a solid way of working. The plagiarism hunter has found further evidence of this since March. “Violations of the citation rules have now been proven,” said Gerhard Dannemann, plagiarism expert and professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin SZ with a view to Weber’s allegations. Dannemann is one of the protagonists of the plagiarism check platform “Vroniplag Wiki”, on which numerous dissertations have already been dismantled.

“Döpfner’s dissertation shouldn’t have been accepted like that,” said Dannemann. A withdrawal of the doctorate would be possible given the case law on plagiarism. However, this depends heavily on the individual universities and faculties. Dannemann would not have published the Döpfner case on Vroniplag Wiki. Such a public suspicion of plagiarism quickly brings the author into disrepute, even if he later turns out to be too light-weight. “You would have had to examine larger parts of the work for that,” said Dannemann, not just the twelve pages criticized by Weber. At Vroniplag Wiki, around 20 percent of the pages have to be affected before a test result goes online publicly.

Mathias Döpfner was taciturn on Friday. A company spokesman said he was “informed about the process” and had “full confidence in the work of the Commission at the University of Frankfurt”.

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