German minister quits amid thesis plagiarism allegations

A prominent German government minister has announced her resignation as a long-running controversy over allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis nears its conclusion

BERLIN -- A prominent German government minister announced her resignation Wednesday as a long-running controversy over allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis nears its conclusion. But Franziska Giffey, a center-left Social Democrat who had been Germany's minister for women and families since 2018, made clear that she will stick to her bid to become Berlin's mayor in a state election on Sept. 26. Giffey had already said in November that she would stop using the academic title “doctor” after Berlin's Free University decided to revisit the issue of her thesis. Allegations of plagiarism prompted the university to review Giffey’s 2010 dissertation on the policy of the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission. Giffey said in 2019 that she would resign from the government if her Ph.D. was revoked. The university initially decided to issue a reprimand, but not to revoke her title.