The University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg has the former Interior Senator Michael Neumann (SPD) withdrawn the doctorate. This was confirmed by a spokesman for Helmut Schmidt University. Earlier, the "Bild" newspaper had reported on the case.
The decision to withdraw the title had already become final on 20 September, thus concluding the examination procedure. Regarding the reasons for the withdrawal, the university gave no information.
Research by the NDR magazine "Panorama 3" already showed in July 2018 that Neumann could have systematically plagiarized his doctoral thesis. For there are dozens of passages in the text in which the author either did not refer or did not correctly refer to sources used. According to the research, there were signs at the time that Neumann could have copied parts of his doctoral thesis and misquoted it.
Promotion only 2017
The SPD politician was from 2011 to 2016 Hamburg Senator for Home Affairs and Sports. After his surprising resignation in January 2016, he moved to the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. Neumann is a lieutenant colonel of the reserve, but he still lacked a doctorate.
He earned his doctorate for the pros and cons of merging the northern German states to a "northern state". The dissertation, titled "Country reorganization in German federalism using the example of the northern state," was published in June 2017 and Neumann received a doctorate in political science.
Neumann is now working at the Bundeswehr Command Academy in Blankenese, as a spokeswoman for the Academy confirmed. He was initially not reach for an opinion.