Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf: New allegations of plagiarism-lawyer is defending herself

The lawyer Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, nominated as constitutional judge, defends herself against new allegations by the Austrian plagiarism searcher Stefan Weber. Legal steps against the communication scientist are already in preparation, wrote the lawyer Gernot Lehr, commissioned by Brosius-Gersdorf, to a request from the news agency dpa.

Weber had in an 86-page paper, which first reported the “Bild” newspaper, the allegation of “Ghostwriting”: Brosius-Gersdorf’s husband Hubertus Gersdorf is said to have worked as a secret author for the dissertation of the 1997 professor. There is no “factual basis” for that, her lawyer counters.

Weber had already accused of allegations in July with a view of Brosius-Gersdorf’s dissertation. To this end, Brosius-Gersdorf had commissioned a short report from a Stuttgart law firm and published: “The exam showed that the allegations are unfounded and have no substance,” explained the lawyers Michael Quaas and Peter Sieben at the time. Now the argument goes into the next round.

Brosius-Gersdorf is nominated by the SPD for the Federal Constitutional Court. However, parts of the Union have reservations, among other things because of earlier statements by the lawyer on the right to abortion and corona vaccinations. Your choice – together with two other nominees for the highest court – was canceled in the Bundestag in July.

In his new paper, the “Plagiats hunter” Weber refers to “Text Agreement”, which in his view “greatly plausibility” the thesis of ghostwriting. Among other things, “indications” are listed “common citation errors and common distinct formulations”. In addition, texts that Hubertus Gersdorf had published before 1997 would be among the sources of text agreements.

Lawyer Lehr rejects this in a six -sided letter and speaks of an “inaccurate, baseless and honorable accusation”. Brosius-Gersdorf “wrote her dissertation alone,” it says. “The dissertation was not written in parts of Prof. Gersdorf (…)”. For the ghostwriting allegation raised by Weber, there is “no factual basis”.

The listed citation errors wrote: “The fact that both Brosius-Gersdorf in their dissertation and Gersdorf should have committed citation in his habilitation mistake and that the same citation error Gersdorf should have already happened in previous publications does not allow the allegation of ghostwriting. repeated the citation error in Gersdorf in an earlier publication. ” The consultation of previous publications – including the husband – corresponds to scientific work.

Union politicians had suggested a withdrawal from the nomination-not because of possible reservations against their scientific work, but because of the political resistance in the Union faction. The SPD, on the other hand, adheres to the name of the constitutional lawyer. It is still open how CDU, CSU and SPD want to dissolve the dilemma.

The University of Hamburg, which Brosius-Gersdorf received his doctorate on the basis of its dissertation, confirmed on DPA request: “The University of Hamburg (UHH) can confirm that the ombudsman has received new notes in connection with the current media reporting on the persons mentioned. According to the applicable” “, all available information is currently being carefully checked.”

On the DPA request, Weber emphasized his team and he worked “according to the professionally recognized methods of so-called styleometry”. When asked about his clients, he said that both the first examination of the doctoral thesis by Brosius-Gersdorf and the renewed examination “took place from freedom”. He added: “However, we have now received donations that can cover the costs of around 50 percent.”