After allegations of plagiarism, Berlin Justice Senator Felor Badenberg has her doctoral thesis checked. What it's all about and why, above all, the timing is not entirely insensitive.
“The dissertation was prepared to the best of my knowledge and belief,” says Badenberg. (Archive image) Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa
Berlin. After allegations of plagiarism, Berlin's Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (CDU) has her doctoral thesis examined. The timing of the publication is quite sensitive, because the House of Representatives election is taking place in Berlin on September 20th. Badenberg is running as the top candidate on the district list in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.
What should the University of Cologne check?
According to his own statements, the Austrian communications scientist Stefan Weber found more than 80 plagiarisms in Badenberg's doctoral thesis at the law faculty at the University of Cologne and published a report on them. Specifically, Weber speaks of “83 plagiarism fragments” that are serious. These include individual sentences and entire paragraphs that are said to have been copied. He also criticizes the thank you at the beginning of the work.
What does Badenberg say about the allegations?
Badenberg has not yet commented on the content of the allegations. However, she said: “The dissertation was prepared to the best of my knowledge and belief.” She contacted the university where she did her doctorate. "I have asked the University of Cologne to examine my dissertation independently and comprehensively. The scientific evaluation of individual sites is the subject of this procedure."
How did Weber come to look at Badenberg's work?
He doesn't provide any information about this. “As a professional detective, I am subject to the Austrian trade regulations and these oblige me to maintain confidentiality regarding any client,” he replied to the German Press Agency when asked. Weber, known as the “plagiarism hunter,” repeatedly raises allegations of plagiarism and is commissioned to carry out such investigations.
In mid-May, Björn Höcke's AfD parliamentary group in Thuringia presented a report from Weber that they had paid for. It was intended to prove further plagiarism in CDU Prime Minister Mario Voigt's doctoral thesis. Chemnitz University of Technology revoked Voigt's doctorate in January.
Which other cases did Weber investigate?
According to his own statements, Weber has “checked hundreds of linguistic works for plagiarism” since 2007 - doctoral theses, but also book manuscripts, published books as well as court reports and patent applications. On his website, the private lecturer at the University of Vienna lists 16 cases in which academic degrees were legally revoked following plagiarism reports from his team.
In addition to Voigt, the celebrities who, according to his research, are said to have worked improperly in scientific papers or books include the former Green Party chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the CDU politicians Armin Laschet and Norbert Lammert and the constitutional lawyer Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf. These allegations have not been proven in court. Baerbock admitted errors in the sources of her book in 2021; it was not republished. In the end, the lawyer Brosius-Gersdorf withdrew her candidacy as a constitutional judge, complaining about what she saw as an overall unobjective and defamatory campaign against her.
What's next?
Berlin's Justice Senator Badenberg says she has commissioned the University of Cologne to carry out the review. How exactly this test will work and how long it might last is not yet known.
What career has Badenberg had so far?
Badenberg has been Senator for Justice and Consumer Protection in Berlin since 2023. At that time she was still independent, but a year later she joined the CDU. The 51-year-old has also been a member of the CDU federal executive board since February. Born in Iran, she went to school in Germany from 1987, studied law and received her doctorate. From 2006 she worked in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and, among other things, set up cyber defense.
At the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, she headed the right-wing extremism and counterterrorism department and was also responsible for monitoring the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. In 2022, she became vice president of the authority - the first woman to hold this position.
What does the case mean for the CDU shortly before the House of Representatives election?
That remains to be seen. The allegations became public a month before the election to the Berlin House of Representatives on September 20th. Badenberg is in first place on the CDU district list in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. In Berlin, the CDU currently governs with the SPD. Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) will no longer run after the affair surrounding his crisis management during the major power outage in January.
Badenberg was temporarily considered a possible successor, but then Finance Senator Stefan Evers became the CDU's new top candidate. He now praised Badenberg's work as a senator: "Anyone who knows her knows the integrity, seriousness and professionalism with which she carries out her office. In view of the allegations made, about the origin and motivation of which I do not want to speculate, she proactively asked the University of Cologne to review her doctoral thesis. I expressly support this approach."
What other cases of plagiarism have recently played a role in Berlin?
Most recently, allegations of plagiarism were made against, among others, the former Berlin Environment and Transport Senator Manja Schreiner (CDU). In 2024, the University of Rostock revoked her doctorate due to errors in her dissertation. She resigned “to prevent damage to the Berlin Senate.” Schreiner himself emphasized: “I did not intentionally deceive or cheat at any point in my dissertation work.”
The case of today's Berlin Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD) is also known nationwide. In 2021, the Free University of Berlin stripped her of her doctorate - due to deception when adopting third-party content. At that time, Giffey resigned from her position as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, but later became Berlin's governing mayor.
