'Baron Cut-and-Paste'

[Supafly]

18 February 2011

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: Baron without a title

By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin

Names and titles matter in Germany. For the moment, Defence Minister Dr zu Guttenberg will be plain Mr or Minister - or maybe Baron - and that will be painful.

He told a swarm of reporters enquiring about the plagiarism allegations swirling around him: "I will temporarily - I repeat temporarily - give up my doctoral title."

He will do so, he said, while the university that gave him the doctorate completes its investigation into whether it really was all his own work.

It follows the publication of pages from his thesis alongside pages from other articles by other authors. His writings mirror word for word the writings of the earlier articles.

The allegations have great force because Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is a dream of a politician: rich, good-looking with a beautiful wife, the very model of a German aristocrat.

His full name reveals his aristocratic background: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jakob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. The "von und zu" reveals his lineage, while Freiherr means "baron".

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12504356

He is something like the 'Golden Boy' of the conservative parties (He is a member of the CSU, the bavarian leg of the CDU). Both he and his wife get pushed massively by the Bertelsmann Media Group and the Springer publishing house, who print the infamous 'BILD' daily press.

Had a number of little fuck-ups, but always had a general, a captain or someone else to get the blame, get the boot and Guttenberg kept looking good.

So, what will he do now?

It is pretty obvious he was being built up as our new chancellor (Or would he try for Kaiser? His wife is a von Bismarck, mark my word).

Or is he too big to fail?

And all of this in the year of 2011, where 9 regular federal state votes plus two irregular are about to bring some massive earthquakes to Germany, if all goes well (or bad, regarding your personal stance)

 

[Supafly]

Update: Guttenberg faces more fire.

Plagiarism Accusations Widen

Guttenberg Copied Work of German Parliament's Research Department

...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,746573,00.html

 

[GodsEmbryo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12504356
(...) Had a number of little fuck-ups, but always had a general, a captain or someone else to get the blame, get the boot and Guttenberg kept looking good.
(...)

What are these fuck-ups you are talking about? Got any link or could you name 'em?

Let's see how this turns out.
But I don't like the idea that someone just copied/steals the work of someone else and gets the credits for it, politician or not (In Belgium we had a minister too who had her thesis done by someone else). It's an insult to people who actually do work hard to reach a goal and whome deserve the title of 'doctor'.

 

[Supafly]

Here you are!

He comes from a pretty superrich family. And one of their great tax escapes is: The von Guttenbergs donated their Castle to a foundation which prevents them having to pay taxes on that piece. Nice job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg

 

[Rey C.]

Is there any relationship between that family and the Guttenberg (sic?) Bible? Did they make their money in printing?

Also, isn't it interesting that overprivileged types often feel the need to cheat to get even more? I guess they figure that they can get away with it (or the punishment will be rather mild), so the risk isn't so great. :dunno:

 

[Supafly]

Is there any relationship between that family and the Guttenberg (sic?) Bible? Did they make their money in printing?

Also, isn't it interesting that overprivileged types often feel the need to cheat to get even more? I guess they figure that they can get away with it (or the punishment will be rather mild), so the risk isn't so great. :dunno:

I had thought that, too No they are going back to supporting a 'Raubritter' (Robber Knight) and have gathered some serious riches since then. They rank among the 500 richest germans.

Sadly, this wiki page about them is in german

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guttenberg_(Adelsgeschlecht)