Guttenberg professor admits damage from plagiarism revelations

Feb 28, 2011, 21:11 GMT

Berlin - The professor who approved a degree dissertation six years ago by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, now German defence minister, admitted Monday that the degree award, now revoked, might damage his university's reputation.

The University of Bayreuth stripped Guttenberg of his doctorate last week after evidence of plagiarism. Peter Haeberle, 76, who supervised the degree studies, had been silent since then.

'The circumstances of the doctoral studies ... I supervised are capable of bringing the good standing of the university into discredit,' said the statement, which the university published on its website.

Haeberle said the copying in the thesis was 'incredible to me, very serious and not acceptable,' adding that he had not been able to believe the claims initially, because Guttenberg had been one of his best students.

'The revocation of the degree was the proper consequence,' he said in the published text.

The scandal over the copying broke 10 days earlier.

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