Annette Schavan (; born 10 June 1955) is a German politician of the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She was the
Federal Minister of Education and Research in the government of
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
from 2005 to 2013, when she resigned following the revocation of her doctorate due to plagiarism. From 2014 until 2018 she served as the German Ambassador to the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
. From April 2018, she also briefly served as first German Ambassador to the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
.
Throughout her political career, Schavan was widely known to be a friend and a confidante of Merkel’s.
Early life
Schavan was born in
Jüchen
Jüchen is a municipality in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km southwest of Neuss and 10 km southeast of Mönchengladbach.
Mayor
Harald Zillikens (* 1959) (CDU) was elected may ...
on 10 June 1955.
Political career
From 1995 until 2005, Schavan served as State Minister of Cultural Affairs, Youth, and Sports for the German state of
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
in the governments of successive minister-president
Erwin Teufel
Erwin Teufel (born 4 September 1939, in Zimmern ob Rottweil) is a German politician of the CDU.
Political career
Teufel was the leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg from 1978 to 1991.
Teufel was Minister ...
and
Günther Oettinger
Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digit ...
. During this time, she oversaw school education in Baden-Württemberg. One controversy that erupted during this time was when a Muslim teacher was banned from wearing a
head scarf
A headscarf is a scarf covering most or all of the top of a person's, usually women's, hair and head, leaving the face uncovered. A headscarf is formed of a triangular cloth or a square cloth folded into a triangle, with which the head is cov ...
in school, as that was interpreted as a religious symbol, while at the same time allowing Catholic nuns to wear their traditional habits. The argument was that the habits of nuns and monks have an official function, while a Muslim headscarf is optional.
Schavan was regarded as a possible Christian Democratic candidate for
Germany's presidency in 2004, but
Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU (of which he is ...
was nominated and elected instead. In 2005, she attempted to succeed Erwin Teufel as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, but she was defeated by her rival Günther Oettinger in the internal elections of the CDU. Oettinger's referendum win – with 60.6 percent of the vote versus 39.4 percent for Schavan – was widely seen at the time as a defeat for Teufel, who had promoted Schavan as his preferred successor.
Under the leadership of party chairwoman
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
, Schavan was re-elected vice-chairwoman of the
CDU in November 2006, this time alongside minister-presidents
Roland Koch
Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), CDU. He was the 7th Minister-President, Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 5 ...
,
Jürgen Rüttgers
Jürgen Rüttgers (born 26 June 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the 9th Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010.
Education
Rüttgers was born in Cologne. He holds degree ...
and
Christian Wulff
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the ...
.
Schavan served as Federal Minister of Education from 2005 to February 2013. Following the
2009 federal elections, she was part of the
CDU/CSU
CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...
team in the negotiations with the
FDP on a coalition agreement. She led her party's delegation in the working group on education and research policy; her co-chair of the FDP was
Andreas Pinkwart
Andreas Pinkwart (born 1960) is a German politician and academic who served as State Minister for Economic Affairs, Digitization, Innovation and Energy in the governments of Ministers-President Armin Laschet and Hendrik Wüst of North Rhine-West ...
.
In an effort to increase the share of female university lecturers and tenured professors, Schavan introduced a €150 million equal-opportunities program under which the federal government paid the salary of between one and three additional posts for highly qualified female academics that proved a commitment to redressing the gender imbalance.
In 2010, Schavan led efforts to enlist
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
s educated at German universities to improve the integration of young Muslims. Under a plan devised by the
German Council of Science and Humanities
The ''Wissenschaftsrat'' (''WR''; German Science and Humanities Council) is an advisory body to the German Federal Government and the state (''Länder'') governments. It makes recommendations on the development of science, research, and the univers ...
, imams were to be trained at two or three German universities, in accordance with the German
curriculum
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
. In addition to theology, the new preachers would also study education and
community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.
Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...
. In a competition, the universities of
Tübingen
Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...
,
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
and
Osnabrück
Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...
were selected for the program.
On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the
diplomatic relations
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
between German and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, Schavan participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the two countries' governments in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
in May 2011.
In 2012, Schavan chaired the Joint Science Conference (GWK), a body which deals with all questions of research funding, science and research policy strategies and the science system that jointly affect the federal government and the 16 federal states.
Following her resignation, Schavan was succeeded by
Johanna Wanka
Johanna Wanka (''née'' Müller; born 1 April 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister for Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. ...
.
Ahead of the Christian Democrats'
leadership election
A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party.
Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
in 2018, Schavan publicly endorsed
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from ...
to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair.
Plagiarism
Amid the
plagiarism scandal that led to the resignation of
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (born 5 December 1971), known professionally as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is a German businessman and politician of the Christian Soc ...
as
Minister of Defence of Germany on 1 March 2011, Schavan was quoted in ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' as saying that "intellectual theft is not a small thing". In 2012, a
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
ger with the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Robert Schmidt who is a member of the research-network
VroniPlag Wiki
VroniPlag Wiki is a wiki started 28 March 2011 at Wikia that examines and documents the extent of plagiarism in German doctoral theses.
History
Following the Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg#Doctorate plagiarism, revocation of Karl-Theodor zu Gutte ...
alleged he had found plagiarism in Schavan's PhD thesis, entitled "Character and conscience – Studies on the conditions, necessities, and demands on the development of conscience in the present day." The
University of Düsseldorf
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
conducted an investigation into the plagiarism charge. Investigators found paraphrasing of secondary literature without naming the source in over 60 cases in the dissertation and thereby on 5 February 2013 revoked her doctorate degree because of "systematic and premeditated" deception.
On 9 February 2013, it was reported that chancellor
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
had accepted Annette Schavan's resignation. Schavan continued to deny any wrongdoing and pursued a court appeal against the process by which
the university had revoked her doctorate. On 20 March 2014 rejected her appeal, however.
Other activities (selection)
*
Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees (since 2019)
*
European Foundation for the Aachen Cathedral, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees (since 2018)
* Hertie Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees
*
German Cancer Research Center
The German Cancer Research Center (known as the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum or simply DKFZ in German) is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, ...
(DKFZ), Member of the Advisory Council
*
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are annual scientific conferences held in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany, since 1951. Their aim is to bring together Nobel laureates and young scientists to foster scientific exchange between different generations, ...
, Member of the Honorary Senate
*
Academy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Member of the Board of Trustees
*
German Coordinating-Council for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Organizations, Member of the Board of Trustees
* Hermann Kunst Foundation for the Promotion of New Testament Textual Research, Member of the Board of Trustees
*
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
, Member of the Television Board (2010-2011)
*
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
(MPG), Member of the Senate (2005-2013)
*
Volkswagen Foundation
The Volkswagen Foundation (German: ''VolkswagenStiftung'') is the largest German private nonprofit organization involved in the promotion and support of academic research. It is not affiliated to the present company, the Volkswagen Group.
It wa ...
, Member of the Board of Trustees (2005-2013)
*
Central Committee of German Catholics, Member (1991-2005)
Political positions
Following the death of
Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
, Schavan – then serving as deputy chairperson of the
Central Committee of German Catholics, the church's lay organisation – demanded that the "we need more lively local churches, and therefore also more autonomy
rom Romefor local parishes".
For the
2021 national elections, Schaven endorsed
Armin Laschet
Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 3 ...
as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
.
Recognition
* 2006 –
Else Mayer Award
* 2009 –
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
* 2010 –
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of
Tongji University
Tongji University () is a comprehensive public research university located in Shanghai. Established in 1907 by the German government together with German physicians in Shanghai, Tongji is one of the longest-standing, most selective, and most pr ...
* 2011 –
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of
Meiji University
, abbreviated as Meiji (明治) or Meidai (明大'')'', is a private research university located in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1881 as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, ''Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō'') by three Meiji-er ...
* 2014 –
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of the
University of Lübeck
The University of Lübeck is a research university in Lübeck, Northern Germany which focuses almost entirely on medicine and sciences with applications in medicine. In 2006, 2009 and 2016, the University of Lübeck was ranked No. 1 in medicine am ...
Ehrendoktorwürde für Annette Schavan
University of Lübeck
The University of Lübeck is a research university in Lübeck, Northern Germany which focuses almost entirely on medicine and sciences with applications in medicine. In 2006, 2009 and 2016, the University of Lübeck was ranked No. 1 in medicine am ...
, press release of 11 April 2014
References
External links
Analysis of Plagiarized Passages in PhD Thesis
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schavan, Annette
1955 births
Living people
German Roman Catholics
Education ministers of Germany
Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg
Female members of the Bundestag
People from Rhein-Kreis Neuss
People involved in plagiarism controversies
Ambassadors of Germany to the Holy See
Members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
21st-century German women politicians
Women federal government ministers of Germany
21st-century German diplomats
Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017
Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013
Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009
Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany
German women ambassadors