As the result of information passed anonymously to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the press became aware that questions had arisen concerning the dissertation with which Dickhuth had earned his habilitation (qualification) back in 1983. The allegation was that the dissertation employed text from the doctoral dissertation of one of Dickhuth's own students. The Badische Zeitung (newspaper) reported passages (repeated without attribution) identical to some that had appeared in another doctoral dissertation that same year. This time the dissertation identified was one successfully submitted by the student who had subsequently become Dickhuth's wife. The clinic management invited those involved to state their cases before 11 March 2011: Dickmuth took some time off work, starting on 4 March 2011, but returned to his desk on 16 April 2011. The university attempted to instigate a disciplinary process, but this was revoked by the Ministry for Science because of procedural errors. It was also far from clear whether the university management enjoyed the legal competence to revoke a habilitation that had been conferred by the habilitation committee of the university clinic. Reports appeared in the media indicating that the university rectorate had at this point already spent more than half a million Euros on consulting external lawyers. The former doctoral student Marzenna Orlowska, who subsequently took a job as a pathologist at the Freiburg University clinic, was questioned by reporters. She confirmed that Dickhuth had supervised her doctorate. He had repeatedly recommended changes to her dissertation. Meanwhile, his own habilitation dissertation had been submitted. She had indeed recognised certain passages at Dickhuth's inaugural lecture, but had attached no importance to this. Independently the Habilitation Committee of the Medical Faculty convened a meeting for 28 June 2012 to discuss the matter, but the meeting was adjourned. Hans-Hermann Dickhuth has lived in retirement since 1 October 2012. An application submitted by him in 2011 to extend his contract was rejected by the faculty because they were working on a reconfiguration of the entire sports medicine department. Dickhuth therefore withdrew the application and received, in return, the opportunity to continue with his academic work at the faculty for a further year on an "emeritus" basis. On 14 October 2013 the Habilitation Committee of the Medical Faculty decided, by a narrow majority, to withdraw recognition of Dickhuth's habilitation on the basis of the alleged plagiarism. It was the first decision of this nature in the history of Freiburg University.