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THE AMBASSADORS

The Ambassadors: ‘Half the population of Stockholm was German in medieval times’

In the latest article of our Ambassadors series, The Local speaks to German ambassador Joachim Bertele, who says relations between the two countries are “very tight”, today ranging from collaborating on electric cars to Sweden’s Nato bid.

Published: 21 February 2023 15:08 CET
Germany's husband-and-wife ambassador, Dr. Joachim Bertele and Christina Beinhoff
Dr. Joachim Bertele and Christina Beinhoff, who are married, share the ambassador role on a rotating basis. Photo: German Embassy, Stockholm

Since August 2021 the post of Germany’s ambassador to Sweden has been held jointly by married couple Dr. Joachim Bertele and Christina Beinhoff.

The Local spoke to Bertele as part of our regular series of interviews with ambassadors in Sweden. You can listen to his interview in the February 18th episode of our Sweden in Focus podcast here.

The embassy helps the tens of thousands of Germans in Sweden with issues like passports, registering children born in Sweden or helping out with emergencies like losing documents or illness.

Germans don’t need to apply for visas or permits to visit or work in Sweden, but the embassy knows there are at least 30,000 Germans living here, as well as “thousands” of German students and tourists.

Bertele expects there are far more Swedes with German roots, because the links go back so far. In 1522, ten ships from Germany were key to winning independence for Sweden, and there were many Germans living in the country at that time.

“In medieval times, half of the Stockholm population was German,” Bertele said.

Back then, the German community in Sweden was above all else a community of rich merchants and skilled artisans.

In 1571 this community, the oldest congregation outside Germany, founded a German church in Stockholm with a spire that still rises high above Gamla stan, with a German school opening in 1612.

Nowadays, Bertele said, German citizens moving to Sweden are more likely to be doctors than merchants or stone masons.

“We have about a thousand people coming to Sweden in 2021 alone,” he said. “So you have a mixture, but I would say that lately medical doctors, people from academia and business are the predominant professional groups that are coming.”

‘Stockholm is one of the nicest cities in the world’

Germans like Sweden for its beauty, and also its equality, Bertele explained.

“A city like Stockholm is one of the nicest cities in the world, between Mälaren and the Baltic Sea,” he said, adding that the Swedish capital is a “very good mixture between very good to live in and a kind of society that is attractive.”

“It’s an interesting society between modernity, rationality, and traditions.”

Bertele described Swedes as being “open” and “respectful”, adding that this openness makes German-Swedish relations run smoothly.

“If we talk to our colleagues on the Swedish side, whether it’s business or diplomacy, then we’ll always find open doors and people who want to help us and that makes our professional life very, very easy.”

Sweden’s largest trading partner

Germany is Sweden’s biggest trading partner with an exchange estimated by the ambassador at 40 billion euros.

Germany is the destination of around ten percent of Sweden’s exports, and the origin of around 17 percent of Sweden’s imports.

Bertele explained that the economic links are broad, ranging from the automobile and chemical industry to medical products and furniture, with cooperation on green projects a particularly clear aspect of the economic relationship.

“If you look at enterprises like [car battery maker] Northvolt, or H2 Green Steel or even [German-owned] Cementa, in all those issues where we are trying to get green, there is a very close Swedish-German cooperation,” he said.

Regarding Sweden’s newly-discovered reserves of rare metals, the ambassador foresees collaboration between the countries but also says patience will be needed to address environmental concerns and the needs of people who live in the local area.

Cross-border cooperation

Bertele tells The Local that he did have some surprises when he came to Sweden.

One was that Stockholm’s rocky terrain has so many hidden mountains – and another was learning about Sweden’s issues with gang criminality.

Sweden and Germany’s cross-border cooperation is also part of tacking that issue, he explained.

“Parts of criminality are national, but the international police have to work together to exchange data and to fight this criminality,” he said.

Another aspect of security cooperation hinges on the military alliance Nato.

“For us now, one of the major issues is Sweden becoming a member of Nato”, Bertele said. “We think that our security is best served with Finland and Sweden coming to the fore.”

“We are also a contact point embassy of Nato here in Sweden, so we try to help as far as we can. We think that Sweden has done lots of steps to implement the memorandum with Turkey and Finland, and we hope that we find a positive solution to that issue very soon.”

Last week German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock travelled to Sweden and Finland for talks to help move along the Nato membership process for the two countries.

And those German ships which fought for Sweden in 1522?

They are now regarded as the genesis of the Swedish navy. In 2022 the head of the Swedish navy, Rear Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, returned to Lübeck to make sure Sweden had fully paid for the ships and dispel any rumours that Swedish King Gustav Vasa had stolen them.

As a joke – but also as a sign of the warm ties between Germany and Sweden.

Interview by Paul O’Mahony, article by Loukas Christodoulou

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THE AMBASSADORS

US Ambassador: ‘I’m always impressed by just how engaged and candid Swedes are’

In the last of our current series, we sat down with United States Ambassador Erik Ramanathan to talk about everything from trade ties, military support and taxation to how much he has come to appreciate Swedes’ candour.

Published: 28 March 2023 06:33 CEST
US Ambassador: 'I'm always impressed by just how engaged and candid Swedes are'

When US President Joe Biden appointed a new ambassador to Sweden he chose a man who’d already been visiting the country on and off for more than three decades. As a young backpacker, Erik Ramanathan stayed at af Chapman, Stockholm’s floating hostel; now, he’s happily ensconced in Villa Åkerlund, the US Ambassador’s residence, with his husband of 32 years and their teenage daughter.

Unlike many of his counterparts in Stockholm’s diplomatic quarter, Erik Ramanathan is not a career diplomat. Before becoming ambassador in January 2022, he was chairman of the board of a national public health organisation, Heluna Health, while his other previous roles include board chair at Immigration Equality, a legal services group for LGBTQ and HIV positive immigrants.

‘A whirlwind year’

At the height of the Covid pandemic, the health organisation he chaired was busy on multiple fronts including running vaccine clinics, distributing protective equipment, and supporting clinical trial work. Given that he arrived in Stockholm after the worst days of the pandemic were over, the new ambassador might have been forgiven for expecting a quieter life. But then Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Sweden’s long-standing opposition to Nato membership evaporated almost overnight.

“It’s been quite a whirlwind year, but it’s really an exciting time to be here, and there’s really a lot of important work to be done,” Ramanathan tells The Local.

With a Nato application in the works and worried about how Russia might respond, Sweden required security guarantees, and countries including the UK, Germany and, crucially, the United States were quick to step up.

“All the time we’re doing military exercises together in the region. We have interoperable militaries. Sweden’s already an invitee to Nato. So we’re working together in many contexts already within the Nato framework,” says Ramanthan.

He adds that Sweden’s “moral authority” already sees the two countries working frequently together on multinational issues, and when it comes to trade too Sweden punches above its weight in the US.

“There’s over 1,200 American companies here in Sweden and there’s over 1,100 Swedish companies in the US. So there’s a lot of people with different business connections and business interests trying to figure out how to take our relationship to the next level,” says Ramanthan.

“Altogether, the foreign direct investment between Sweden and the US is higher than it’s ever been, over $30 billion, and Sweden is the 13th largest foreign direct investor in the US.”

Listen to more from US ambassador Erik Ramanathan in the Sweden in Focus podcast

The depth of the countries’ relationship is rooted in nearly 400 years of friendship, says Ramanathan, also pointing out that almost four million Americans trace their lineage to Sweden.

‘I have heard concerns expressed about taxation’

As for Americans in Sweden, nearly 25,000 people born in the US called Sweden home in 2022, according to official statistics. And when US citizens get in touch with the embassy it’s generally for things like renewing a passport or registering a childbirth. But when asked about FATCA (​​Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), Ramanathan says that the embassy does also get asked about these kinds of taxation issues too.

FATCA is a law that was intended to target tax evaders, but many Americans see it as an unnecessarily high burden.

“This is not really something that I was familiar with before I took up my post, but I have heard concerns expressed about taxation, generally, and on FATCA in particular,” says Ramanathan, noting that embassies around the world report back these concerns.

But, he adds: “Tax policy ultimately comes from Congress. So our recommendation to folks who are experiencing challenges in this area is to engage with their senators and representatives in Congress to seek changes that would make that an easier system to navigate.”

‘It’s really nice to be able to have honest discussions’

Now well into his second year in Sweden, Erik Ramanathan says he is “enjoying every second of it” and is finding his hosts refreshingly well-informed and straightforward.

“I’m always impressed by just how engaged and candid people are. That’s from the woman on the street to ministers and parliamentarians and others. People are very, very engaged,” he says.

“It’s really nice to be able to have these honest discussions and talk about what people are hearing. I learn so much by doing that, and can really, of course, share about US policy as well.”

As for what the future holds, Sweden might well remain home for many years to come. 

“I serve at the pleasure of the President. So I expect I’ll almost certainly be here as long as his first term in office and there’s a very decent chance I’ll be here beyond that.”

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