1. Annette Schavan was the Federal Minister of Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2013, when she resigned following the revocation of her doctorate due to plagiarism.
12 Facts About Annette Schavan
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From 1995 until 2005, Annette Schavan served as State Minister of Cultural Affairs, Youth, and Sports for the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg in the governments of successive minister-president Erwin Teufel and Gunther Oettinger.
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Annette Schavan was regarded as a possible Christian Democratic candidate for Germany's presidency in 2004, but Horst Kohler was nominated and elected instead.
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Under the leadership of party chairwoman Angela Merkel, Annette Schavan was re-elected vice-chairwoman of the CDU in November 2006, this time alongside minister-presidents Roland Koch, Jurgen Ruttgers and Christian Wulff.
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Annette Schavan served as Federal Minister of Education and Research from 2005 to February 2013.
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Annette Schavan led her party's delegation in the working group on education and research policy; her co-chair of the FDP was Andreas Pinkwart.
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In 2010, Annette Schavan led efforts to enlist imams educated at German universities to improve the integration of young Muslims.
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In 2012, Annette Schavan chaired the Joint Science Conference, 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.
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In 2017, Annette Schavan was one of the candidates considered to succeed Hans-Gert Pottering as chair of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation until she withdrew herself from consideration; instead, the role went to Norbert Lammert.
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Amid the plagiarism scandal that led to the resignation of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg as Minister of Defence of Germany on 1 March 2011, Annette Schavan was quoted in Der Spiegel as saying that "intellectual theft is not a small thing".
11.
Annette Schavan continued to deny any wrongdoing and pursued a court appeal against the process by which the university had revoked her doctorate.
12.
Ahead of the Christian Democrats' leadership election in 2018, Annette Schavan publicly endorsed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.