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Franziska Giffey: Master's thesis »made to the best of our knowledge and belief«
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
It has been three months since the SPD politician Franziska Giffey resigned from her position as family minister because of the affair surrounding her doctoral thesis. Now, five weeks before the election to the Berlin House of Representatives, new plagiarism allegations against the SPD top candidate have become known. It is about her master's thesis, which the former Federal Minister for Family Affairs wrote in 2005 at the end of her studies at the University of Applied Sciences for Administration and Justice in Berlin.
Anatol Stefanowitsch, professor of linguistics at the Free University of Berlin (FU), has been studying these for some time.
Giffey had incorrectly quoted 62 times on 26 pages and thus violated scientific standards, he writes in an interim report that the German Press Agency has received since Friday.
First the portal »t-online« reported about it.
The review has not yet been completed, said Stefanowitsch.
So far, plagiarism has been discovered on around a third of the pages.
Among other things, Giffey regularly did not use quotation marks when reproducing quotations.
In 15 places, the source was also incorrect.
The law firm Unverzagt, which represents Giffey, referred to a statement published by "t-online" when asked by the dpa. According to the law firm, her client wrote her master's thesis "to the best of her knowledge and belief." "Insofar as it did not adequately identify verbatim adoptions as such on the basis of scientific standards, this was done without intent and in particular not for the purpose of presenting the scientific findings of the cited in each case as its own."
Giffey's former college is not going to review the plagiarism allegations. In the case of a master's thesis, a period of five years applies, which has now expired, said a spokeswoman for the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR). Giffey completed her master's degree in 2005 at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences for Administration and Justice, a predecessor of the HWR Berlin.
After a review of Giffey's dissertation, the Free University revoked the politician's doctorate in June.
The university announced at the time that the doctoral degree was acquired through "deception about the independence of its academic performance".
In May Giffey resigned as Federal Family Minister in anticipation of this decision, but made it clear that she did not want to give up her ambitions in state politics.
ptz / dpa