The U.S. may be close to trading its brash, confrontational former German ambassador of the Trump era for a political philosopher who has published numerous books on democracy — banking on an academic to help stabilize U.S.-German relations.
More than a year after the controversial U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell resigned his post, the German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported that U.S. President Joe Biden plans to nominate Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, for the role.
Gutmann, 71, would be the first woman to hold the job. An expert in political philosophy and bioethics who has led the Ivy League university in Philadelphia since 2004, Gutmann would bring a starkly different background and temperament to Berlin than her predecessor, a conservative political consultant prior to his tenure as an ambassador. The appointment would also come at a crucial time for the transatlantic relationship, which still faces lingering damage from Donald Trump’s presidency.