Political advisor loses doctorate after a web plagiarism probe

Another prominent political figure in Germany has been accused of plagiarism after a probe by web-based investigators. Margarita Mathiopolous (pictured), recently a policy consultant for Foreign Secretary Guido Westerwelle, a Free Democrat, now has to resign her doctoral title.

Mathiopolous, who studied contemporary history, political science and law at the University of Bonn, the Sorbonne and Harvard, completed her doctoral studies in Bonn in 1986.

She wrote her thesis on Europe-America: The Experiment of Progress: A comparison of political thinking in the United States of America and Europe. While leading broadsheets praised her dissertation, closer scrutiny indicated that parts may have been lifted without being marked as quotes.

In 1989, an examination of the thesis revealed evidence of plagiarism in 13% of the dissertation, but no wilful deceit on the part of Mathiopolous was detected.

Already vice-director of the Berlin Aspen Institute, a renowned institution that fosters leadership and provides a venue for discussions on political issues, Mathiopolous was appointed to several honorary chairs. She started advising the Free Democratic Party on foreign and security issues in 2001. She chairs the party’s Transatlantic Forum.

Last year the website VroniPlag – which like Wikipaedia enables users to edit the content – claimed that 46% of Mathiopolous’ thesis had been lifted. In July 2011, the University of Bonn decided to conduct a further review of her work.

Its 40-page final report lists 320 occurrences of plagiarism in the thesis. According to Paul Geyer, dean of the philosophy faculty, these are not coincidental but are the result of “wilful deceit”.

The university has now stripped Mathiopolous of her doctoral title. The universities of Brunswick and Potsdam have announced that she also has to resign her honorary professorships at these institutions.

Internet platforms like VroniPlag or, in the case of former defence minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, GuttenPlag, have checked the doctoral theses of several high-ranking politicians.

Mathiopolous is the third senior Free Democrat who has had to resign her doctoral title. She follows Silvana Koch-Mehrin, who had to step down as vice-president of the European parliament in 2011 and, in the same year, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis. Koch-Mehrin studied at Heidelberg and Chatzimarkakis at the University of Bonn.

Mathiopolous previously hit the headlines in the 1980s when one of Germany’s leading post-war politicians, Willy Brandt, then chairman of the Social Democratic Party, urged that she become party press officer in a bid to modernise the party.

Brandt was heavily criticised for this at the time. Besides not conforming to the expected qualifications for the job, Mathiopolous was not a party member and older members saw no need to modernise the party.

What made Brandt’s endeavour even more outrageous in the eyes of his party comrades was that his protégée was then engaged to Christian Democrat Friedbert Pflüger, who in turn was press spokesperson for the then federal president Richard von Weizsäcker, also a Christian Democrat.

Mathiopolous eventually resigned as a nominee for the post, allegedly to spare Brandt further embarrassment. In 1987, embittered by the whole affair, Brandt announced his withdrawal from politics.