German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned Tuesday after admitting to copying part of a doctoral dissertation, stunning Angela Merkel and depriving her conservatives of their brightest star.    

    GERMAN Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s resignation Tuesday was a dramatic fall from grace for one of the rising stars of the nation’s political stage.

    Regularly voted the country’s most popular politician, the 39-year-old baron was forced to quit Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet amid a deepening political row triggered by allegations that he had plagiarized part of his doctorate thesis.

    As Guttenberg and Merkel tried to tough it out, the University of Bayreuth last week revoked the doctorate. Media nicknamed the minister “Dr. Googleberg” and “Dr. Cut and Paste.”

    “It’s the most painful step of my life,” Guttenberg said announcing he was standing down.

    Internet activists brought Guttenberg down over the past two weeks by exposing his 2006 Ph.D. dissertation (a comparison of U.S. and European constitutions that got him a Doctor of Law degree) as blatantly faked.

    After a Feb. 17 article in a Munich newspaper alleged that much of the paper’s introduction was identical to another publication, Netizens set up a wiki site on which some 1,100 people collaborated anonymously to sift through every word of the dissertation, using Google and various plagiarism-detection tools.

    The newspaper report turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. By Tuesday, the wiki had documented not just a few paragraphs, but an astonishing 891 plagiarized segments from 120 sources on 324 of the dissertation’s 393 pages, or 50 percent of the document’s line count.

    The cheating baron used every trick in the plagiarism textbook. Some 72 pages were direct cut-and-pastes from other sources, including an entire eight-page stretch, sections from several undergrads’ papers, plus parts taken from the U.S. Embassy Web site.

    “We were duped by a fraudster,” says Bayreuth law professor Oliver Lepsius.

    A member of the arch-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and with an aristocratic family background, Guttenberg had been mentioned as a possible future leader of Europe’s biggest economy. The CSU is the Bavarian associate party of Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union.

    With his smart suits, fashionable slicked-hair and self-proclaimed interest in rock music, Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg was once dubbed the “rocking baron.”

    A law graduate, former journalist and chief executive of his family’s business interests, Gutterberg even popped up at a rock concert with hard-rock AC/DC cover band complete with AC/DC T-shirt.

    For a politician he also managed to sound quite convincing on the death of Michael Jackson, recalling a concert by the King of Pop he had attended during his younger days.

    Along with his 34-year-old wife Stephanie, a countess and the great-great granddaughter of Germany’s legendary Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Guttenberg cut a glamorous figure in the otherwise staid and predictable world of German politics.

    The Guttenbergs’ trip to Afghanistan last Christmas to visit German troops stationed in the war-torn country caused a media sensation back home. The Guttenbergs have two daughters.

    The glamorous couple won’t be without things to keep them busy. The Guttenbergs have a family castle in Bavaria to retreat to, along with private forests, hunting grounds, and other real estate that has been in the bloodline since the 14th century. There’s also an estimated US$800 million family fortune to manage.

    Stephanie has launched a high-profile campaign against pornography, publishing a bestselling book on child abuse last year in which she bashed Lady Gaga and the German model Heidi Klum for their “porno chic” and “excessive sexualization” that should be kept away from young girls.

    Plucked from relatively political obscurity two years ago to take over the economics portfolio just as Germany tumbled into its biggest downturn in more than six decades, Guttenberg quickly took command of events delivering his message with crisp sound bites.

    Readers of one women’s magazine at one point voted him the nation’s “sexiest politician.”

    The Munich-born Guttenberg became defense minister in October 2009 following the last federal election. He quickly set about reforming the nation’s armed forces and put on ice the nation’s system of national conscription.

    Guttenberg’s time at the defense ministry was not free of controversy.

    He was criticized over his handling of a German-led bombing in Afghanistan that cost dozens of lives and a scandal surrounding a German navy training ship.

    His high approval ratings and his rapid ascent in German politics also meant that Guttenberg somehow managed to escape facing any close questioning by the media on details of his political views.

    It is a measure of his success as a minister that opinion polls showed the majority of voters were against him stepping down despite the stream of allegations and attacks on him from academic circles.

    But it was the evaporation of crucial political support in the ranks of Merkel’s government as the scandal rolled on that finally appears to have forced Guttenberg’s hand.

    “I was always ready to fight but I have reached the limit of my strength,” said Guttenberg, announcing his resignation. (SD-Agencies)

    GERMAN Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s resignation Tuesday was a dramatic fall from grace for one of the rising stars of the nation’s political stage.

    Regularly voted the country’s most popular politician, the 39-year-old baron was forced to quit Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet amid a deepening political row triggered by allegations that he had plagiarized part of his doctorate thesis.

    As Guttenberg and Merkel tried to tough it out, the University of Bayreuth last week revoked the doctorate. Media nicknamed the minister “Dr. Googleberg” and “Dr. Cut and Paste.”

    “It’s the most painful step of my life,” Guttenberg said announcing he was standing down.

    Internet activists brought Guttenberg down over the past two weeks by exposing his 2006 Ph.D. dissertation (a comparison of U.S. and European constitutions that got him a Doctor of Law degree) as blatantly faked.

    After a Feb. 17 article in a Munich newspaper alleged that much of the paper’s introduction was identical to another publication, Netizens set up a wiki site on which some 1,100 people collaborated anonymously to sift through every word of the dissertation, using Google and various plagiarism-detection tools.

    The newspaper report turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. By Tuesday, the wiki had documented not just a few paragraphs, but an astonishing 891 plagiarized segments from 120 sources on 324 of the dissertation’s 393 pages, or 50 percent of the document’s line count.

    The cheating baron used every trick in the plagiarism textbook. Some 72 pages were direct cut-and-pastes from other sources, including an entire eight-page stretch, sections from several undergrads’ papers, plus parts taken from the U.S. Embassy Web site.

    “We were duped by a fraudster,” says Bayreuth law professor Oliver Lepsius.

    A member of the arch-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and with an aristocratic family background, Guttenberg had been mentioned as a possible future leader of Europe’s biggest economy. The CSU is the Bavarian associate party of Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union.

    With his smart suits, fashionable slicked-hair and self-proclaimed interest in rock music, Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg was once dubbed the “rocking baron.”

    A law graduate, former journalist and chief executive of his family’s business interests, Gutterberg even popped up at a rock concert with hard-rock AC/DC cover band complete with AC/DC T-shirt.

    For a politician he also managed to sound quite convincing on the death of Michael Jackson, recalling a concert by the King of Pop he had attended during his younger days.

    Along with his 34-year-old wife Stephanie, a countess and the great-great granddaughter of Germany’s legendary Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Guttenberg cut a glamorous figure in the otherwise staid and predictable world of German politics.

    The Guttenbergs’ trip to Afghanistan last Christmas to visit German troops stationed in the war-torn country caused a media sensation back home. The Guttenbergs have two daughters.

    The glamorous couple won’t be without things to keep them busy. The Guttenbergs have a family castle in Bavaria to retreat to, along with private forests, hunting grounds, and other real estate that has been in the bloodline since the 14th century. There’s also an estimated US$800 million family fortune to manage.

    Stephanie has launched a high-profile campaign against pornography, publishing a bestselling book on child abuse last year in which she bashed Lady Gaga and the German model Heidi Klum for their “porno chic” and “excessive sexualization” that should be kept away from young girls.

    Plucked from relatively political obscurity two years ago to take over the economics portfolio just as Germany tumbled into its biggest downturn in more than six decades, Guttenberg quickly took command of events delivering his message with crisp sound bites.

    Readers of one women’s magazine at one point voted him the nation’s “sexiest politician.”

    The Munich-born Guttenberg became defense minister in October 2009 following the last federal election. He quickly set about reforming the nation’s armed forces and put on ice the nation’s system of national conscription.

    Guttenberg’s time at the defense ministry was not free of controversy.

    He was criticized over his handling of a German-led bombing in Afghanistan that cost dozens of lives and a scandal surrounding a German navy training ship.

    His high approval ratings and his rapid ascent in German politics also meant that Guttenberg somehow managed to escape facing any close questioning by the media on details of his political views.

    It is a measure of his success as a minister that opinion polls showed the majority of voters were against him stepping down despite the stream of allegations and attacks on him from academic circles.

    But it was the evaporation of crucial political support in the ranks of Merkel’s government as the scandal rolled on that finally appears to have forced Guttenberg’s hand.

    “I was always ready to fight but I have reached the limit of my strength,” said Guttenberg, announcing his resignation. (SD-Agencies)

    Merkel quickly replaces fallen minister

    GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference Wednesday that Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere would take over the defense portfolio and Hans-Peter Friedrich, the parliamentary leader for the Christian Social Union, would succeed de Maiziere as interior minister.

    “It’s important to quickly show clarity and our ability to act,” Merkel said of the changes that were announced faster than expected. “It’s right, it’s good and helpful that this quickly answers the questions that you would otherwise be asking us.”

    Merkel, who had ardently defended Guttenberg against the plagiarism charges, admitted she was surprised by his resignation. Her Christian Democrats (CDU) were routed in an election in Hamburg last month and face more defeats this month.

    Merkel had been eager to avoid any turbulence ahead of the state elections and two summit meetings in Brussels, where European Union leaders are expected to agree to raise the size and scope of a euro zone bailout fund. (SD-Agencies)