Enlarge image
Criticized for allegations of plagiarism: the new CSU General Secretary Martin Huber
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
The new CSU General Secretary Martin Huber is under pressure because of allegations of plagiarism.
According to a report in "Bild am Sonntag", the plagiarism expert and author Jochen Zenthöfer came across numerous plagiarisms in Huber's doctoral thesis.
According to Zenthöfer, the first 26 pages of Huber's dissertation (»The influence of the CSU on West German policy from 1954 to 1969 with regard to relations with France and the USA«) from 2008 already contain a total of 25 quotations without or with incorrect source.
»With this work, Mr. Huber should not have received his doctorate.
There are blatant violations of good scientific practice here, which the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich now has to deal with," said Zenthöfer of the "BamS".
FDP faction leader Hagen calls on Huber to let the doctorate rest for the time being
In addition to text passages whose origin is not specified at all, Huber repeatedly uses the method of only marking individual sentences as quotations after long passages that have been copied.
The FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bavarian state parliament, Martin Hagen, asked Huber in BILD am SONNTAG not to use his doctorate for the time being: "The suspicion of cheating is the next negative headline for the CSU after the mask, toll and Mayer scandal.
The university must now thoroughly review Huber's work.
Until the conclusion of this process, he should voluntarily put his doctorate on hold.”
Huber himself explained to "BamS": "My doctoral thesis was written by me to the best of my knowledge and belief.
More than 20 pages of bibliography and more than 600 footnotes document the source work, which was completed in 2007.
Nevertheless, for reasons of transparency, I ask the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich to check the work again.«
Huber was only announced on Friday as the future CSU general secretary;
the 44-year-old was previously a member of the Bavarian state parliament.
He comes as a replacement for Stephan Mayer, who announced his resignation on Tuesday evening after just over two months in office.
Because of health reasons, it is officially said.
At the same time, however, the member of the Bundestag had admitted to a journalist that, in retrospect, the choice of words was "possibly" inappropriate - he did not give any details.
A "Bunte" journalist had previously accused the CSU politician of threatening him by telephone.
Mayer is said to have literally said to the journalist on the phone: »I will destroy you.
I will track you down, I will follow you to the end of your life."
CSU boss Söder said about the conversations between Mayer and the reporter: "The words that have been said are in no way to be accepted".
That is an "indisputable style".