Thursday, February 24, 2011

Das ist schlecht!

A leading German politician has to give up his doctorate due to plagiarism. Doctorates carry a lot more social importance in Germany than in the US so this is a bigger deal than it might seem at first blush.

Key lesson: If you plan a career in politics you just have to accept nowadays that everything will be checked and that everything will be watched.

Bonus question (to which I do not know the answer): I understand the "von" in German names, e.g. Friedrich von Hayek, as meaning "from" but what does it mean to be "zu" Guttenberg? Did some illustrious ancestor of this not-so-illustrious politician move to Guttenberg and do something important there?
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1 comment:

  1. Jason KerwinFebruary 24, 2011 at 3:39 PM

    Wikipedia says that "von" and "zu" carry the same meaning in German and are occasionally used together as "von und zu":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobility_particle#Germany_and_Austria. zu Guttenberg's grandfather has an otherwise-identical name but with the "von und zu" formulation.

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