[31][32] Guttenberg based his opposition to full Turkish membership in the EU on the country's insufficient fulfillment of relevant accession criteria,[33] for example with regard to the Cyprus dispute.

[34] At the same time, he stressed the necessity of maintaining good relations with Turkey and was therefore critical of a French initiative to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide.

[35] Guttenberg also repeatedly warned of the looming threat posed to German and European security by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

[36] However, he rejected taking rash military action against Iran and instead called for an international diplomatic effort to deal with Tehran's nuclear program.

[40] In September 2008, the CSU suffered heavy losses in the Bavaria state election and lost its absolute majority in the Bavarian Landtag - for the first time in 46 years.

[24][44] As secretary-general, Guttenberg called for tax cuts,[45][46] an increase in family benefits[46] and structural reforms within the CSU to foster more direct political participation of the party base.

[53] In this case, Guttenberg opposed an overly hasty nationalization of Hypo Real Estate,[54] which he considered only as "ultissima ratio, a measure of the very last resort".

[59][60] In the case of troubled German companies asking for state aid, including automaker Opel[61] and now-defunct mail-order service Arcandor/Quelle,[62] Guttenberg was reluctant to commit government resources.

[62] In November 2008, Opel had appealed for governmental assistance because of severe financial problems facing its American parent, General Motors (GM).

[70] Because of the resultant financial risks to the German state, Guttenberg opposed the sale of Opel to Magna International, favoured by Chancellor Merkel,[71] and—according to media coverage—even offered his resignation over the controversy.

[77] According to German press reports, Chancellor Merkel offered Guttenberg the choice between the interior and the defence ministries while negotiating the distribution of ministerial posts within the new coalition government.

[86] Jung, who in the meantime had assumed the position of labor minister in the second Merkel cabinet, took full political responsibility for the delay in sharing relevant Kunduz air strike information and resigned the following day.

[87] At the demand of the opposition parties, the Bundestag subsequently established a special investigative committee to shed light on the defense ministry's communications policy in connection with the Kunduz air strike.

[88][89] The final report of the Bundestag's special investigative committee cleared Guttenberg from the accusation that he had been responsible for the defence ministry's inadequate communications policy following the Kunduz strike.

[100] Guttenberg attempted to elevate public perception of Germany's Afghan mission by personally participating - sometimes along with the Chancellor - at funeral services held for fallen Bundeswehr soldiers.

[106][107] Furthermore, Guttenberg also demanded a stronger involvement of key neighboring states such as Russia, India, and China in the resolution of the Afghan conflict.

[111][112] To gain a first-hand understanding of the situation on the ground and the military risks of the Bundeswehr's mission, Guttenberg went several times to the frontlines of the Afghan conflict.

[122][123] In early 2010, Guttenberg decided to push for fundamental Bundeswehr reforms in an effort to address the structural deficits within the German armed forces[124][125] and to deal with declining defense budgets.

To accomplish these reforms, Guttenberg proposed to reduce the armed forces to 165,000 active duty soldiers and to suspend the draft,[128][129][130] resulting in the most comprehensive restructuring of the Bundeswehr since its founding in 1955.

[134] In the end, Guttenberg's view won out and on 29 October 2010, the CSU general party convention approved the minister's motion to suspend the draft by a large majority.

[137] In 2011, Guttenberg resigned amid controversy over the doctoral dissertation he submitted at the University of Bayreuth, after the first accusations of plagiarism became public in February 2011.

[145][146] In part due to the expressions of confidence by Angela Merkel, the scandal continued to evoke heavy criticism from prominent academics, legal scholars (who accused Guttenberg of intentional plagiarism), and politicians both in the opposition and in the governing coalition.

[155] The prosecutor found 23 prosecutable copyright violations in Guttenberg's dissertation, but estimated that the material damage suffered by the authors of those texts was marginal.

[166] During a plenary session on the Great Recession, he voiced pessimism about the current state of the EU[167] and decried a severe "crisis of political leadership".

The publication is based on a series of conversations with the editor-in-chief of Die Zeit, Giovanni di Lorenzo, in which Guttenberg talks extensively for the first time about his political career, the plagiarism scandal and his resignation, as well as his plans for the future.

In Spring 2014, he decried an "astonishing leadership vacuum in the world" and demanded that the West, and especially Europe, respond to Moscow's aggressions with strong political action.

Guttenberg appeared together with Henry Kissinger during a CNN interview about the Russo-Ukrainian war and explained the significant domestic political resistance that Merkel's Russia policy faced in Germany.

[197] His grandfather, Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (1921–1972), was a CSU politician and hard-line conservative during the Cold War, noted for his opposition to the Ostpolitik.

Karl Ludwig was a Catholic monarchist, who prior to the Second World War published the "Weiße Blätter" (White Papers), an important publication of the conservative opposition to the Nazi regime.

[213] In 2011, the Carneval Association of Aachen awarded him the "Order Against Dead Seriousness" (Orden wider den tierischen Ernst), although he did not attend the ceremony in person, sending instead his younger brother.