Plagiarism accusation against CDU politician: University of Potsdam hires the Commission!

Plagiarism accusation against CDU politician: University of Potsdam hires the Commission!

Potsdam, Deutschland - The University of Potsdam, on July 21, 2025, initiated a procedure for the preliminary examination of the doctoral thesis by Saskia Ludwig. The CDU member of the Bundestag is faced with allegations of plagiarism and there is already a suspected notice. University spokeswoman Silke Engel confirmed the beginning of the review process, but without giving details about the course or the resulting measures. If further clarification is required, the "Commission for the Investigation of Scientific Malance" will be activated, such as "https://www.rbbb24.de/politik/biebtrag/2025/07/brandenburg-uni-potsdam-doklbeits-saskia-ludpruefung-plagiat.html" Class = "Source_1"> RBB24 reported.

The plagiarism expert Jochen Zenthöfer found during an exam that Ludwig took over numerous text passages in her dissertation without correctly marking them. In the first 113 out of a total of 368 pages, 86 were taken over. These results are not only the result of Zenthöfer, but are also supported by other plagiarism seekers and the "Vroniplag Wiki" platform, which have documented similar violations, according to the Tagesspiegel .

controversy and public reactions

Saskia Ludwig, whose dissertation was submitted under her former name Saskia Funck and has the title "The task exposure to state companies in the state of Brandenburg and other selected federal states" has responded to the allegations. She posted a link to her dissertation on the platform X and also demanded that the lawyer Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf should leave her office until the allegations against her have been clarified. It is noteworthy that Ludwig previously acted against Brosius-Gersdorf due to alleged allegations of plagiarism, which also makes the situation complicated.

The debate about Ludwig is accompanied by various political actors. Christian Görke von der Left has commented on the situation and pointed out the allegations of plagiarism, while Ludwig describes himself as a "bourgeois" and supported coalitions between the CDU and AfD. The review at the University of Potsdam follows a two -stage process that usually takes about three weeks, but could be delayed due to the lecture -free time.

The development around Saskia Ludwig is reminiscent of other plagiarism cases in German politics, such as that against Alice Weidel, the AfD leader, whose allegations have been rejected by her university. In Weidel's dissertation from 2011, citation errors were only found that were not sufficient to prove a culpable scientific misconduct, as ZDF