Joe Biden had his retirement, and with it his fame, in mind when he lent his name to the President of the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Amy Gutmann wanted to leave a lasting footprint for her institution in the US capital and found a willing namesake for the “Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement” in the Vice President who had just left office.
The relationship between Biden and Gutmann was far from over. Contrary to his expectations at the time, Biden ended up becoming President of the USA – and Gutmann his long-term candidate for important positions in the new government, including the Ministry of Education. The two reached an agreement as early as June 2021. And now that the Senate has voted 52 to 42 in favor of the presidential candidate, one thing is certain: Gutmann will be the next ambassador to Germany. Your swearing-in is just a formality.
Even before the vote, little had spoken against Gutmann getting a majority in the Senate. Gutmann is one of the most respected scientists and, above all, science managers in the country, across all party lines. The 71-year-old can look back on an impeccable career as a professor and university president. For 17 years she served Penn (or UPenn), as the private university is called in contrast to the state Penn State.
Amy Gutmann revolutionized the University of Pennsylvania during this time. The number of research initiatives she initiated is unmanageable, her scientific, organizational and people-catching talent draws from a great source of energy. The university is the largest employer in Philadelphia, ranks among the top universities in the USA and is characterized above all by a generous scholarship program for less well-off students. Biographical accounts show up to nine billion dollars that she is said to have raised for her university.
Her father fled from Middle Franconia
As is usual in her profession, Gutmann is woven into a dense network of foundations, associations, competitions and commissions. One of her most important commitments was bioethics, where for seven years she chaired the Presidential Commission to Investigate Bioethics Issues set up by Barack Obama. Academically, Gutmann stands on two feet: First, she is a political scientist with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a doctorate from Harvard. Over the years, however, her field of research has expanded deeply into areas of philosophy and communication science.
Gutmann’s most important books became required reading in Washington during the Trump years. Your theoretical standard work on education and democracy shows how inextricably linked the state and education are – and why a democracy needs the same and fair education for everyone. Works on democracy and dissent, racial consciousness and most recently on bioethics (“Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”) followed later.
Gutmann associates nothing less with Germany than her life story. Her Jewish father fled with the family in 1934 from the National Socialists in Feuchtwangen. Kurt Gutmann, who died in 1966 and is deeply admired by his daughter, worked in metallurgy in India for ten years before emigrating to the USA and meeting his future wife there. The daughter will now return to the roots of the family.