Germany’s ambassadors to Canada, Tjorven Bellmann and Matthias Lüttenberg, on Oct. 25, in Ottawa.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Tjorven Bellmann is Germany’s ambassador to Canada, but she is well acquainted with her successor in the key diplomatic post. She is married to him.
In a move Global Affairs Canada describes as a first among embassies in Canada, Germany has sent a married couple to Ottawa to share the job of being ambassador. It’s part of a family-friendly approach to the workplace adopted by the Foreign Office in Berlin.
Ms. Bellmann and Matthias Lüttenberg, who arrived in Canada with their three children in July, are each serving as ambassador in eight-month stints. The back and forth is to continue for the four years that the assignment in Canada is expected to last. Only the spouse on duty earns a salary.
Ms. Bellmann is going first and will finish her first run at the end of March. “It’s encouraging to see the fact that the Foreign Service has tried to modernize and adapt to changing family models and values and a changing labour market; quite frankly, that triggers interest,” she said in an interview.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lüttenberg is tackling domestic matters, spending time with the couple’s children, aged 10, 12 and 15.
“That’s quite rewarding,” he said. ”I think the children also appreciate the fact that there’s always someone around to drive them around, to pick them up, to answer their questions.
“And this all happens without looking at the watch like we had to do in the mornings in Berlin when both of us were getting ready for jobs or to travel,” he said. “We had a wonderful nanny, but it’s not the same as if you’re doing this yourself.”
Ms. Bellmann said the couple have been working at Germany’s Foreign Office headquarters in Berlin for 11 years as “behind the scenes” diplomats, but have now shifted into a more public role.
The German Foreign Service, which has been exploring job-sharing since 2017, has had couples sharing ambassadorial jobs in Slovenia and Sweden. Ms. Bellmann and Mr. Lüttenberg are the third couple to undertake the arrangement.
Mr. Lüttenberg said staff in the Foreign Service, seeking a work-life balance, first proposed the model and Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister, is supportive of the approach to make the Foreign Service more attractive as an employer.
Other diplomats in Ottawa have been intrigued by the arrangement. “Very often, colleagues from other international missions would say, `We would like to have that, too,’” Mr. Lüttenberg said.
That includes Canadian colleagues, although there is no similar program at Global Affairs Canada. A statement issued by department spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said Global Affairs recognizes the importance of supporting families posted abroad but has not posted joint accredited ambassadors.
Of the German status quo, Ms. MacLeod called it an “innovative approach,” and noted it is the first time a foreign embassy in Canada is being led by members of the same couple.
Ms. Bellmann said the approach only works if the couple are at the same professional level. “You can’t do it if one is a very seasoned diplomat and the other one is a junior officer,” she said.
But the couple’s careers have brought them to a place where they can trade off the job of representing Germany in Canada.
The couple say they saw Canada as a perfect place for the possibility of spending more time together as a family.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Bellmann, a scholar of the Middle East, was previously assistant deputy minister at the federal Foreign Office in Berlin, a job that included bilateral relations with countries including Canada, the United States, Britain and Russia. She was also a director for security policy, and worked in various areas of this file, including the German embassies in Tel Aviv and Tehran.
As a law student, Mr. Lüttenberg took an interest in the Foreign Service. Once he finished his law studies, he applied to become a trainee in the German diplomat academy. In 2003 – the year he met Ms. Bellmann – he began his diplomatic career as an attaché, based in Bonn, for the federal Foreign Service. Since then, his assignments have included serving as a desk officer for Russia, based in Berlin, and serving as a political officer at Germany’s embassy in Tel Aviv. Since 2021, he was director-general for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, also working out of Berlin.
The couple say they saw Canada as a perfect place for the possibility of spending more time together as a family: an exciting country, with a lot to do, and, on the job, deep bilateral relations to work on.
“I had never been to Canada before, but it was always one of the things on my bucket list,” Mr. Lüttenberg said.
Ms. Bellman began working in mid-August and the couple jointly presented their credentials to the Governor-General in September.
“When we arrived, we just literally dropped our bags and went off to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland with the family, until our furniture arrived, to show the children a bit of the country,” Ms. Bellmann said. “It was a really wonderful trip.”
“The children saw their first humpback whale and a moose along the road,” Mr. Lüttenberg said.
Ms. Bellmann said she is enjoying her new work and is keeping Mr. Lüttenberg informed on relevant embassy files. “When we hand over, we will have to sit down more deeply, ensuring that, handing over the files, nothing gets lost,” she said.
Mr. Lüttenberg said he is picking up relevant things in conversations held at embassy events and is also following his work e-mail so he knows what is going on in Berlin.
“You are looking at what’s going on so you are not starting from scratch once you take over,” he said.