"Die doppelte Pippilotta" banned

The Hamburg State Court ruled Az.: 308 O 200/09 on June 24, 2009, that the book "Die doppelte Pippielotta", published by the "Märchenbuchverlag Manfred Hueber", (the title is a combination of two popular children's books, Das doppelte Lottchen and Pippi) may not be sold on the grounds of it being a plagiarism of the works of Astrid Lindgren, the Swedish author of the Pippi stories. The heirs of Astrid Lindgren took the author to court.

In particular, the following similarities (among others) were noted, according to the "Titelschutz Anzeiger":

Das dopplete Pippielotta	Pippi Langstrumpf
Pippielotta	Pippilotta
a red-headed girl from Sweden	a red-headed girl from Sweden
with wild braids and Herkulean strength	with wild braids and Herkulean strength
Krumunkulus pills to keep from becoming an adult	Krummeluß pills to keep from becoming an adult
lives in the Villa „Kunterbund“	lives in the Villa „Kunterbunt“
has an ape called „Frau Karla vom Dach“ and a horse called "Pferd" (horse)	has an ape alled "Herr Nielsson" and a horse called "Kleiner Onkel" (little uncle)

The author insisted that this was a legal use of the book, because this Pippielotta has a twin sister (as in the book Das doppelte Lottchen) and combines the two stories with a critical reflection upon growing up.

The court begged to differ. Despite the occasional reflection, they deemed the book a plagiarism that needed the permission of the author resp. heirs in order to be published. They did not and will not give permission.

Update: Nadja aus Lübeck writes: Pippi's horse was really called "Pferd" (horse) in Astrid Lindgren's books. It was only for the film that Inger Nilsson came up with the name "Kleiner Onkel" so that the horse would have a proper name.

Another German Politician with Fake Doctorate

Germans (and Austrians even more so) love academic titles. They are part of your official name, get engraved on your doorbell and mailbox, and everyone calls you "Herr Dr. X" or "Frau Dr. X". Outfits selling fake doctorates seem to flourish in our part of the world.

The by no means complete list of German politicians who have recently been caught using false titles:

• Kai Schürholt, CDU, Rheinland-Pfalz, supposedly Doctor of Divinity, was running for Lord Mayor of Landau when in August 2007 he pulled out of the running, supposedly because he had cancer. That, it turned out, was a lie, with which he hoped to withdraw from the race before the false doctorate came to light.
• The head of the organization "Kinder brauchen uns" (Children need us), Markus Dewender, denounced himself in December 2007. Spiegel had discovered that the "university" awarding him the doctorate in 2005 (Yorkshire University, located in the Virgin Islands) was actually a diploma mill. He then offered a doctorate in business from the University of Warsaw in Juni 2006. This was discovered to be a fake. He then complained that his "advisors" were bad, he really needed one in order to scare up donations for his charity.
• The most recent addition to the list is Niels Neu, CDU, Nordhausen in Thuringia. He is a businessman and local politician. He, too, was using a doctorate from Warsaw that was discovered to be fake. The city requested that he hand in his identity card, which had the title on it. He refused and took the city to court. The court found that he did not have a proper doctorate and ordered him to hand his ID card over to the authorities on July 13, 2009.
  

The list will most certainly be continued.