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Status: 06/30/2021 6:00 p.m.
She is to become the US ambassador in Berlin: Amy Gutmann. The political scientist with German roots has known US President Biden for years. The story of her family made her a fighter.
From Arthur Landwehr,
ARD studio Washington
“My name is Amy Gutmann and I am the first.” The 71-year-old Gutmann told students in a welcome video that she was the first in her family to attend university. Should she become the American ambassador to Germany, there is one thing she will no longer manage: to become the longest-serving university professor in US history.
She has headed the University of Pennsylvania for 17 years, during which time she has raised billions in donations. A considerable part of the scholarships were paid for students who otherwise could not afford this elite university.
“It pays to aim high,” says Gutmann. “At Penn, one in eight students is the first generation at a university.”
Support from Biden
US President Joe Biden and Gutmann have known each other for many years. Two of his children and one granddaughter graduated from university. And it was Gutmann who awarded him the honorary doctorate. Universities should be the place for political discourse, that’s what Gutmann worked for and Biden’s support for.
“As nations look inward more and more, we believe it is extremely important to look outward,” Gutmann said in a promotional video for the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, an offshoot of the University of Washington.
Fighter for an open society
Gutmann’s history shaped her family and made her a fighter for justice and an open society: “My father fled Nazi Germany and saved his entire family from annihilation.”
Kurt Gutmann, an Orthodox Jew, came from Feuchtwangen and fled Germany in 1934. According to a biography, he was not granted asylum in the USA, so he brought the entire family to India, built up a company there and immigrated to the USA after the war.
Protest against racism: she was there
When the former US President Donald Trump banned people from certain countries from entering the country, Gutmann saw it as an occasion for public protest. With the megaphone in hand, she spoke to the assembled staff outside the university:
“We urge President Trump to undo the terrible damage his order has caused.”
Gutmann has researched and written about ethical social issues, among other things, while also asking about the practical consequences. When students lay down in front of the university to protest against racist police violence, she did not allow the premises to be cleared, but lay down by it. For this she gets a lot of criticism from the police.
At the graduation ceremony in May, she said to the students: “If we all come together to fight racism, we will make it as clear as possible: Each of us can only overcome this if it is overcome for everyone . ”
Gutmann has not yet been officially nominated as ambassador to Germany. And the Senate then has to approve it.
Who is Amy Gutmann, the possible US ambassador to Germany
Arthur Landwehr, ARD Washington, June 30th, 2021 5:10 p.m.