Allegations of plagiarism: Diana Kinnert apologizes for errors in citation

Former CDU politician Diana Kinnert is said to have plagiarized her books. Now she admits she made mistakes. “I was careless,” says the publicist.

Allegations of plagiarism: “Whether it was a life crisis, a double burden or a structural problem – in the end it would have been my job not to let a book come into being when I was overwhelmed,” says Diana Kinnert.

“Whether it was a life crisis, a double burden or a structural problem – in the end it would have been my job not to let a book come into being when I was overwhelmed,” says Diana Kinnert. © Urban Zintel for DIE ZEIT
After allegations of plagiarism, the publicist and former CDU politician Diana Kinnert apologized for the lack of care in her two non-fiction books For the future I see black (2017) and The New Loneliness (2021). “I looked at the evidence for both books and I have to admit that I made mistakes in correctly citing and paraphrasing and the completeness of the sources,” said the 31-year-old ZEIT ONLINE. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I didn’t work carefully and was careless. I’m sorry.”
She immediately contacted both publishers and asked them to carefully examine them. Kinnert also apologized to the authors whose authorship had not received the credit it deserved. “I’m also sorry for these mistakes because they have an effect on general system trust.”
Kinnert has been a member of the CDU since 2009, where she has held various positions in the fields of technology, demography, anti-loneliness, urbanization and participation. However, she currently has no office in the party or one of its associations. Engagements in honorary commissions and other consultations in the CDU have been completed according to their own statements.
She did not want to comment further on the background to the error. “Whether it was a life crisis, a double burden or a structural problem – in the end it would have been my job not to let a book come into being when I was overwhelmed,” said Kinnert. She understood that too late.
The allegations first became public on Friday after the Austrian plagiarism checker Stefan Weber published them on his website. It states that she copied uncited from several authors, i.e. either did not provide a clean source on site or in the bibliography. Both books also contained passages from Wikipedia. In all, Weber listed 200 passages.

Note on transparency: Diana Kinnert was a guest in several ZEIT ONLINE formats, including the political podcast and the Z2X Festival of the New Visionaries 2017.
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