German Chancellor1 Angela Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer (2ndR) talks with then French president Jacques Chirac's wife Bernadette (2ndL), British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie (L) and Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos' wife Fotini 25 March in Berlin.

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 spouses² 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 inauguration³ in late 2005.

So he may not savor⁴ the prospect⁵ 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 chateau⁶ 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.