Petra Hinz had been a Social Democratic member of the Bundestag since 2005. In July 2016 it became known that she had neither the Abitur nor a law degree, and so had passed no state law exams. She announced her resignation on 20 July 2016 and left the Bundestag at the end of August. The prosecutors in Essen found no initial suspicion of a crime and opened no investigation.
Prosecutors saw no crime in the false claims. They still ended her career in parliament within weeks.