It's an unusual topic.
The last person in this category.....was the Berlin political figure....SPD Party member....Franziska Giffey. This was over plagiarism in her doctoral thesis. The university removed the degree status. Going back to 2009 (this occurred in 2021)? Yeah.
Others? Former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (his PhD was lost and he quit the gov't in 2011).
Then there was the former Education Minister Annette Schavan (another PhD lost....quit in 2013).
Former Vice President of the European Parliament Silvana Koch-Mehrin? Lost her PhD and resigned around 2011.
The cases with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Both had a review on the PhD thesis and the university system simply noted minor issues in noting information....not enough to revoke the degree.
This being a yearly thing now? I'd say about once or twice a year....a new political figure is identified in Germany with thesis issues, and there's a four to six month review. At the end, either a minor correction statement is issued, or they lose the degree.
Sloppy work on the thesis? I think a fair number of people (not just Germans) are just crappy at writing an extended report, and the PhD requirement comes with a huge burden to fulfill. I would also offer the idea that if you went around to 1,000 PhD thesis reports from the 1960s....more than half would probably fail because of plagiarism.
I had a conversation back twenty years ago with a Air Force officer who'd completed his thesis, and he admitted in the end....he hired a 'grammar-queen' to clean up his mess and make it presentable in the end. As much as the thesis business is supposed to show you are an 'expert'....it's more of a test of writing and documentation skills.
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