Wow – now the president of the Bundestag is accused of plagiarism. UD‘s German friend Chris explains to her that in Germany (in Europe in general I guess) having a PhD is considered very important, very much the done thing, for politicians. (I explain back to Chris that here in the States it’s the opposite. We tend to like our leaders unlettered. Neither Barack Obama nor Elizabeth Warren has been able to escape the professor slam. Sarah Palin put the word professor in front of Obama’s name damn near every time she used it. In his debates with Warren, Scott Brown compulsively called Warren professor.) So perhaps in your haste to get the thing, you copy some or all of it, as Norbert Lammert seems to have done at the University of Bochum.
August 5th, 2013 at 11:33AM
In France, I don’t think having a doctorate counts for much – for most of the population a “doctor” is a physician. Perhaps being an alumni of a grande école counts, but, hey, there’s tremendous backlash against these, in particular those of ENA.
But, yes, in Germany, you’re Frau|Herr Doktor if you hold a doctorate (a friend of mine, director of a company, is described by that company’s website as “Dr. Rer. Nat.”).