German Minister Quits Over Scandal; Fallout From Thesis Plagiarism Prompts Popular Defense Chief's Departure, in a Blow to Chancellor Wall Street Journal (Online). New York, N.Y.:Mar 1, 2011. ***[insert pages]*** ***** Abstract (Summary) ***** The University of Bayreuth, which awarded the dissertation a grade of highest honors in 2007, revoked Mr. zu Guttenberg's doctorate last Wednesday, and this week a group of professors and doctoral students called for his resignation in an open letter, which has now been signed online by more than 50,000 people. ***** Full Text ***** (752 words) (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Author: Marcus Walker; Patrick McGroarty BERLIN--Germany's most-popular politician resigned from government over a plagiarism scandal that has exposed German class divisions and severely embarrassed Chancellor Angela Merkel. Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a charismatic Bavarian aristocrat who charmed the electorate and was widely seen as a future chancellor, announced his withdrawal from politics on Tuesday amid a mounting controversy over his doctoral thesis, which has been exposed as heavily plagiarized. He said a two-week media frenzy had made it impossible for him to continue. He apologized for his "flawed" thesis but admonished the media for focusing "almost exclusively on Guttenberg and his dissertation" while German soldiers were dying in Afghanistan. Until Tuesday, Mr. zu Guttenberg fought to keep his job, counting on his popularity to survive an inquisition by media and Internet activists. In an opinion poll published last week, 70% of Germans said they hadn't lost faith in him and 73% said he should remain in office. Ms. Merkel backed him as well, determined to retain her conservative camp's rising star ahead of regional elections next month. But the baron's brazen defense--he claimed he had written his thesis in good faith, lifting hundreds of prose passages from other authors only by "mistake"- -outraged middle-class university graduates, who dominate Germany's establishment and widely believe that less-privileged citizens wouldn't get away with such sins against scholarship. "The literate bourgeoisie, who have worked hard to pass exams, were not amused," said Gerd Langguth, a politics professor and member of Ms. Merkel's right-leaning Christian Democratic Union. In contrast, mass-circulation tabloid Bild-Zeitung said "to hell with the doctorate," and its readers overwhelmingly backed him in a phone-in poll. The 39-year-old Mr. zu Guttenberg has captivated Germany in a brief but stellar career since joining the cabinet two years ago. His slicked-back hair, family castle and glamorous wife--a duchess related to Germany's founding chancellor, Otto von Bismarck--became staples of Germany's tabloids and glossy magazines. He cultivated the image of a people's baron who spoke only the truth and disdained political opportunism. His "panache and class" contrasted with "the gray mice who normally populate German politics," said Josef Joffe, a Stanford University fellow and publisher of German newspaper Die Zeit. But the Baron von und zu Guttenberg stumbled in seeking one title he lacked: a doctorate, which is a badge of honor in postwar Germany, where education has replaced noble birth as a sign of elite status. Mr. zu Guttenberg's doctoral dissertation on the development of constitutional law in the U.S. and European Union, awarded a top grade of summa cum laude by Bayreuth University in 2007, was found last month to contain unattributed passages from newspaper and scholarly articles. By this week, Internet activists had demonstrated plagiarism on 300 of the thesis's roughly 400 pages of text. The chancellor and most of the public stood by their man, even after the university stripped Mr. zu Guttenberg of his doctorate. But after Ms. Merkel quipped last week that she had hired a defense minister, "not a research assistant," tens of thousands of academics and students signed an online letter accusing the chancellor of making a mockery of scholarly values. Germany's leading conservative newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, thundered against Mr. zu Guttenberg and Ms. Merkel, and proclaimed "a revolution of the respectable." Demonstrators waved their shoes in the air outside the defense ministry in Berlin, copying a gesture of contempt used by protesters against Arab dictators. The minister's doctoral supervisor, law professor emeritus Peter Häberle, at first denied the thesis was plagiarized. But on Monday he turned on his former student, saying: "The shortcomings--unimaginable to me--that have been discovered in Mr. zu Guttenberg's dissertation are grave and unacceptable." The pressure became too much this week when conservative politicians started to break ranks, with Norbert Lammert, president of Germany's lower house of parliament, calling the affair "a nail in the coffin of trust in our democracy." "The resignation is a nasty blow to Chancellor Merkel, who held on to Guttenberg way beyond what her normally acute power instincts would have told her," said Mr. Joffe. Having eliminated all other rivals in her party, the chancellor has run out of colleagues who can appeal to conservative voters, he said. The still-popular Mr. zu Guttenberg must now suffer "a period of penance" outside politics, said Prof. Langguth. "But after a time out, he will one day occupy high office again"--including perhaps as chancellor, he said. Write to Marcus Walker at marcus.walker@wsj.com and Patrick McGroarty at patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com Credit: By Marcus Walker And Patrick McGroarty