Annette Schavan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Education and Research | |
| In office 22 November 2005 – 14 February 2013 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Edelgard Bulmahn |
| Succeeded by | Johanna Wanka |
| Minister of Education, Youth and Sports ofBaden-Württemberg | |
| In office 19 July 1995 – 5 October 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Marianne Schultz-Hector [de] |
| Succeeded by | Helmut Rau [de] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-06-10)10 June 1955 (age 70) |
| Party | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn University of Düsseldorf |
| Profession | Theologian |
| Website | annette-schavan.de |
Annette Schavan (pronounced[aˈnɛtəʃaˈvaːn]ⓘ; born 10 June 1955) is a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU). She was theFederal Minister of Education and Research in the government ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2005 to 2013, when she resigned following the revocation of her doctorate due to plagiarism. From 2014 until 2018 she served as the German Ambassador to theHoly See. From April 2018, she also briefly served as first German Ambassador to theSovereign Military Order of Malta.[1]
Throughout her political career, Schavan was widely known to be a friend and a confidante of Merkel's.[2][3]
Schavan was born inJüchen on 10 June 1955.[4]
From 1995 until 2005, Schavan served as State Minister of Cultural Affairs, Youth, and Sports for the German state ofBaden-Württemberg in the governments of successive minister-presidentErwin Teufel andGünther Oettinger. During this time, she oversaw school education in Baden-Württemberg. One controversy that erupted during this time was when a Muslim teacher was banned from wearing ahead scarf in school, as that was interpreted as a religious symbol, while at the same time allowing Catholic nuns to wear their traditional habits. The argument was that the habits of nuns and monks have an official function, while a Muslim headscarf is optional.
Schavan was regarded as a possible Christian Democratic candidate forGermany's presidency in 2004, butHorst Köhler was nominated and elected instead. In 2005, she attempted to succeed Erwin Teufel as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, but she was defeated by her rival Günther Oettinger in the internal elections of the CDU. Oettinger's referendum win – with 60.6 percent of the vote versus 39.4 percent for Schavan – was widely seen at the time as a defeat for Teufel, who had promoted Schavan as his preferred successor.
Under the leadership of party chairwomanAngela Merkel, Schavan was re-elected vice-chairwoman of theCDU in November 2006, this time alongside minister-presidentsRoland Koch,Jürgen Rüttgers andChristian Wulff.[5]
Schavan served as Federal Minister of Education and Research from 2005 to February 2013. Following the2009 federal elections, she was part of theCDU/CSU team in the negotiations with theFDP on a coalition agreement. She led her party's delegation in the working group on education and research policy; her co-chair of the FDP wasAndreas Pinkwart.
In an effort to increase the share of female university lecturers and tenured professors, Schavan introduced a €150 million equal-opportunities program under which the federal government paid the salary of between one and three additional posts for highly qualified female academics that proved a commitment to redressing the gender imbalance.[6]
In 2010, Schavan led efforts to enlistimams educated at German universities to improve the integration of young Muslims. Under a plan devised by theGerman Council of Science and Humanities, imams were to be trained at two or three German universities, in accordance with the Germancurriculum. In addition to theology, the new preachers would also study education andcommunity organizing. In a competition, the universities ofTübingen,Münster andOsnabrück were selected for the program.[7]
On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of thediplomatic relations between Germany andIndia, Schavan participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the two countries' governments inDelhi in May 2011.[8]
In 2012, Schavan chaired the Joint Science Conference (GWK), a body which deals with all questions of research funding, science and research policy strategies and the science system that jointly affect the federal government and the 16 federal states.
Following her resignation, Schavan was succeeded byJohanna Wanka.[9]
In 2017, Schavan was one of the candidates considered to succeedHans-Gert Pöttering as chair of theKonrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) until she withdrew herself from consideration; instead, the role went toNorbert Lammert.[10][11]
In April 2023, Schavan was one of the 22 personal guests at the ceremony in which Angela Merkel was decorated with theGrand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement byPresidentFrank-Walter Steinmeier atSchloss Bellevue in Berlin.[12]
Amid theplagiarism scandal that led to the resignation ofKarl-Theodor zu Guttenberg asMinister of Defence of Germany on 1 March 2011, Schavan was quoted inDer Spiegel as saying that "intellectual theft is not a small thing".[13] In 2012, ablogger with thepseudonym Robert Schmidt who is a member of the research-networkVroniPlag Wiki alleged he had found plagiarism in Schavan's PhD thesis,[14] entitled "Character and conscience – Studies on the conditions, necessities, and demands on the development of conscience in the present day."[15][16] TheUniversity of Düsseldorf conducted an investigation into the plagiarism charge. Investigators found paraphrasing of secondary literature without naming the source in over 60 cases in the dissertation and thereby on 5 February 2013 revoked her doctorate degree because of "systematic and premeditated" deception.[17][18]
On 9 February 2013, it was reported that chancellorAngela Merkel had accepted Annette Schavan's resignation. Schavan continued to deny any wrongdoing and pursued a court appeal against the process by whichthe university had revoked her doctorate.[19][20] On 20 March 2014a Düsseldorf court [de] rejected her appeal, however.[21]
Following the death ofPopeJohn Paul II, Schavan – then serving as deputy chairperson of theCentral Committee of German Catholics, the church's lay organisation – demanded that the "we need more lively local churches, and therefore also more autonomy [from Rome] for local parishes".[32]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats'leadership election in 2018, Schavan publicly endorsedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.[33][34][35]
For the2021 national elections, Schaven endorsedArmin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeedChancellorAngela Merkel.[36]
