Joachim Sauer, the low-key husband of German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, has a tough duty at the Group of Eight summit.
While Merkel hosts the leaders of the world's eight most wealthy
nations, her husband, a professor of quantum chemistry, will be the only
male with the spouses of the other presidents and prime ministers.
Sauer, 58, is known as a rather timid partner of
the German chancellor. He did not even go to her inauguration
in late 2005.
So he may not savor the
prospect of showing Laura Bush and the other spouses
around the sights of Heiligendamm while the leaders debate climate change
and other crucial global topics.
The Humboldt University of Berlin professor has had to organize the
program. To practice, he volunteered to keep the wives and husbands at the
European Union 50th anniversary celebrations in March entertained.
On Thursday he will take the seven first ladies to the Schlitz castle
near the Baltic port of Rostock, for a conference on demographic
development.
After lunch there will be a walk in the grounds of the chateau to see
the Jugendstil nymph fountains, a work dating from 1903 by Walter Schott.
Later the group will go to Wismar, about 45 kilometers from
Heiligendamm, where 74 youths from the G8 countries are debating the main
problems facing the world, in parallel to the main summit.
The G8 brings together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States for an annual summit.
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(Reuters)
