After a long vacancy, the politics professor Amy Gutmann moves into the ambassador’s office at the Brandenburg Gate. She is the first woman to represent the interests of the USA in the Federal Republic.
With the politics professor Amy Gutmann, for the first time a woman represents the interests of the USA as ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The 72-year-old with German roots presented her credentials to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The top position in the US representation had been vacant for more than 20 months due to a blockade by opposition Republicans in the US Senate.
“The wait was worth it,” Steinmeier said in his conversation with Gutmann, according to the Office of the President. He acknowledged that a new phase in relations with the United States had begun with President Joe Biden.
Steinmeier offered Gutmann close cooperation, especially in defending democratic values. «Liberal democracies are under attack – also from within. Let’s work closely together, especially in this field. Polarization is a threat to all of us,” he said.
The Federal President also emphasized the close coordination between Germany and the USA in the Ukraine crisis. “The German stance is very clear and also closely coordinated with Washington. We hope that this will help avoid the extreme escalation and pave the way for serious talks.”
Multiple awards
Gutmann, who was nominated by US President Joe Biden, became President of the renowned Pennsylvania University in 2004. She has received many awards for her scientific work. She has not yet had any experience as a diplomat. A woman has never headed the US embassy in the Federal Republic, but there was a US ambassador in the GDR.
Gutmann’s father comes from Feuchtwangen in Bavaria. After the Nazis took power in Germany, he fled to India with his family in 1934. He later moved to New York, where Amy Gutmann was born in 1949 in the borough of Brooklyn. She later studied political science at the elite university Harvard and taught at another top university, Princeton in New Jersey, for almost three decades before moving to Pennsylvania.
In 2011, Newsweek magazine named her one of the “150 Women Making the World a Difference”. In 2018, Fortune magazine ranked her as one of the 50 most important leaders in the world.
Gutmann has a good connection to the White House. As Vice President, Biden visited the university and appeared on a panel discussion with Gutmann. His granddaughter Naomi studied there.
The post of ambassador was vacant for almost 16 months after Donald Trump was elected US President. Richard Grenell then took over in May 2018. In political Berlin, he hardly made any friends with his rabid manner. There were even occasional demands from the opposition to declare him an “undesirable person”. The post has been vacant since his resignation in early June 2020.
Source: Stern
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