KShortly after his dismissal, former State Secretary Graichen had to face new allegations: According to media reports, he should not have quoted correctly in his doctoral thesis. Graichen rejects the criticism – and has the work checked.
According to a media report, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Patrick Graichen, who was dismissed after the “best man affair”, wants to have his doctoral thesis reviewed. Reason are investigations of his dissertation by the plagiarism expert Jochen Zenthöfer. This is reported by the “Bild am Sonntag”.
Apparently around 30 references are missing
Accordingly, Zenthöfer scrutinized Graichen’s dissertation on “Municipal energy policy and the environmental movement” for the newspaper and found several suspicious spots. “It’s about 30 fragments of plagiarism, some of which consist of several sentences,” said Zenthöfer of “Bild am Sonntag”.
They would come from two essays by the environmental sociologist Karl-Werner Brand. It is generally quoted, but only in very few places. “At least 30 references are missing.” Violations of good scientific practice are evident, and “the intention to deceive is obvious,” Zenthöfer is quoted as saying.
Graichen has work checked
According to the newspaper, Graichen himself rejects this accusation. The offending passages would all come from the “first part of the work, which represents a historical introduction to the actual scientific core topic of the work”. “In my opinion, the scientific core of the work is not affected by the criticism expressed,” said Graichen of the “BamS”. However, he asked the University of Heidelberg to review the doctoral thesis.
Dismissal after “best man affair”
Graichen had to vacate his post as Secretary of State for Energy in the Federal Ministry of Economics in the middle of the week. He was placed on temporary retirement due to allegations of nepotism.
Graichen was involved in filling the top post at the federal German Energy Agency (Dena). The former Greens politician Michael Schäfer got the job – Graichen’s best man, which the then State Secretary had not initially announced. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) initially backed Graichen, but then parted ways with his close associate.