Tuesday, 8 February 2022, Washington D.C., U.S.A.: The US Senate approved the presidential nomination of the eighth University of Pennsylvania’s president, Amy Gutmann to serve in the capacity as US Ambassador to Germany. She received 54 votes in her favor during the senatorial ballot.
Ambassador-designate Gutmann (born 19 November 1949 in Brooklyn, New York) holds the distinction to be the first ever woman to be appointed ambassador to Germany, and for being the hitherto longest serving president of the University of Pennsylvania, a position she has held since 2004. Previously she served as Provost for Princeton University.
Ms Gutmann is known in the world of academia for being a rather influential political scientist. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University.
Gutmann’s German father Kurt fled Nazi Germany in 1934, and later emigrated to the USA from India. She has spoken repeatedly in the past about how the story of her father, who came from the Franconian town of Feuchtwangen, shaped her. Kurt Gutmann had successfully persuaded his four siblings, and parents to flee Germany in the face of the increasing persecution of Jews.
Until her arrival, and formal accreditation in Germany, Chargé d’affaires a.i. Clark Price remains at the helm of the US mission in Germany as he has been since June 2021.
For further information
The White House’s nomination for Senate approval: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/04/nominations-sent-to-the-senate-54/
Biography of Ambassador-designate Amy Gutmann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Gutmann
US Embassy in Germany (Chargé d’affaires a.i. Clark Price): https://de.usembassy.gov/appointment-of-clark-price-as-charge-daffaires/?fbclid=IwAR3zg-8TQ8LQmiL28T81xxp81TqUznsCpwlnlQ1JtYtarr0HBQXeeIJ050g
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For image licence see: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amy_Gutmann_University_of_Pennsylvania_Commencement_2009_01_(cropped).jpg
