Plagiarism hunter Weber

A black feeling aimed at elimination

The self-appointed plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber(Bild: Heinz Tesarek / picturedesk.com)

"Being and nothingness": the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre addresses the phenomenon of hatred in his magnum opus. It is like a black feeling that aims to eliminate another. Who is this inglorious plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber?

"My doctoral supervisor once said: you arouse hatred as soon as you walk in the door." In an interview, a certain Stefan Weber described his serious problems with academic teaching institutions in this way.

 "I hate the universities" was the title chosen by "Die Presse" for the article. "I would love to be inside, one of them, but they just won't let me in," Weber complained, because professors would accuse him of "lacking social skills". He accused university lecturers of hindering his career.

Weber and his lucrative business model
Who is this man about whom the "Salzburger Nachrichten" reported this week under the headline "Stefan Weber hates me"?

In 1996, the then 26-year-old from Salzburg graduated from Paris Lodron University with a doctorate. The dissertation, supervised by Professor Peter Aurelius Bruck, was entitled "The Dualization of Cognition".

Weber later worked as a senior researcher at the subsidized company "Research Studios Austria", which Peter Aurelius Bruck founded and headed until 2021. Bruck is the editor of a booklet entitled "The Mozart Crown", in which he attempts to dissect the reporting on the conflict surrounding the Mozart statue scaffolded with shopping carts.

In 2005, Stefan Weber began to publish suspected cases of plagiarism under the title "Wissenschaftliche Redlichkeit" (Scientific honesty). This developed into a lucrative business model. "CV screenings" and "plagiarism checks" as well as the "associated press and public relations work" for anonymous clients. Some call it "bounty hunting".

Accusations mostly unfounded
They were all targeted: several ministers, an EU commissioner, a Bundestag president, an opera director, coronavirus researchers and directors-general. In most cases, the accusations turned out to be unfounded and the accused were allowed to keep their titles. But their reputations were tarnished for a while. Weber also published a colorful "white list" of accused politicians whose work had not been found to be plagiarized after a thorough examination.

Most recently, a right-wing populist portal paid Stefan Weber a fee to obtain an expert opinion on alleged "plagiarism fragments" in the dissertation of SZ deputy editor-in-chief Alexandra Föderl-Schmid. She had learned how to "plagiarize" (copy) at university, Weber accuses the journalist in his current Internet blog.

"Inconceivable Miracles" - a book about conversations with Holocaust survivors. The author Alexandra Föderl-Schmid also received the Ari Rath Prize for critical journalism. Ari Rath, legendary head of the "Jerusalem Post", escaped the Nazi henchmen by fleeing Vienna at the age of 13.

Alexandra Föderl-Schmid despaired of the hunt for her person.