Facing Plagiarism Allegations, German Minister Will Stop Using ‘Doctor’ Title

Germany’s defense minister has bowed to increasing pressure over allegations that he plagiarized portions of his doctoral dissertation and announced this week that he would relinquish his Ph.D. and stop calling himself “Doctor,” although he has refused to step down from his government post, Deutsche Welle reports. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a popular conservative politician from an aristocratic family, acknowledged that he had “lost sight of the sources in one or two places,” according to The New York Times, which reported on Friday that he had told “a handpicked group of journalists that he would not use the title of doctor until the University of Bayreuth had carried out its own assessment of his law dissertation.”

The German Rectors’ Conference waded into the fray on Wednesday, issuing a statement from its president saying how seriously it takes the offense of academic misconduct, but emphasizing that its member universities have agreed on procedures for handling such allegations and that the University of Bayreuth has the organization’s full confidence as it works to clarify the facts and reach the appropriate conclusions. Germans take academic titles seriously, and alleged misuse of the honorific “Doctor” has landed at least one American scientist in legal trouble.