Hubertus Heil | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Heil in 2021 | |
| Minister of Labour and Social Affairs | |
| In office 14 March 2018 – 6 May 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel Olaf Scholz |
| Preceded by | Katarina Barley(acting) |
| Succeeded by | Bärbel Bas |
| Deputy Leader of theSocial Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office 6 December 2019 | |
| Leader | Saskia Esken Norbert Walter-Borjans |
| Preceded by | Manuela Schwesig |
| General Secretary of theSocial Democratic Party | |
| In office 2 June 2017 – 8 December 2017 Acting | |
| Leader | Martin Schulz |
| Preceded by | Katarina Barley |
| Succeeded by | Lars Klingbeil |
| In office 15 November 2005 – 13 November 2009 | |
| Leader | Franz Müntefering Matthias Platzeck Kurt Beck Frank-Walter Steinmeier(Acting) |
| Preceded by | Klaus Uwe Benneter |
| Succeeded by | Andrea Nahles |
| Member of theBundestag forGifhorn – Peine | |
| Assumed office 27 September 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Engelbert Nelle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wolfgang-Hubertus Ernst Ulrich Heil (1972-11-03)3 November 1972 (age 53) |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Potsdam University of Hagen |
| Signature |  |
Wolfgang-Hubertus Ernst Ulrich Heil (born 3 November 1972) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who served asFederal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in thefourth cabinet ofAngela Merkel and thecabinet of Olaf Scholz from 2018 to 2025.[1]
In 2005, Heil became general secretary of the SPD. In September 2009, after immense losses for the SPD during the German federal election, Heil announced his resignation from this position for November.[2]Andrea Nahles succeeded him as general secretary in November 2009. AfterKatarina Barley's appointment asFederal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, he briefly returned to the office from 2 June to 8 December 2017.
Heil was born inHildesheim in 1972 as son of a teacher. After graduation in 1992 at theGymnasium am Silberkamp inPeine, Heil worked for theAlternative civilian service (in German:Zivildienst) and in 1995 he started with his studies inpolitical science and sociology at theUniversity of Potsdam, which he graduated in 2006 at theUniversity of Hagen.[3]
From 1995 to 1997, Heil was the assistant of Heidrun Förster, a member of theBrandenburg State Parliament and in 1998 assistant of Eva Folta, a member of theBundestag.
Heil joined the SPD in 1988. At first, he was active at theJusos and he was their chairman in the district ofBraunschweig from 1991 to 1995. From 1995 to 1997 Heil was executive director of theArbeitsgemeinschaft für Arbeitnehmerfragen, aleftistcaucus in the SPD, representing the workers' wing of the party, although he was reputed to belong to the undogmatical reform socialist wing during hisJuso time.
Today Heil serves as chairman of the SPD in Braunschweig.
Heil has been a member of theBundestag since the1998 German elections, representing the electoral district ofGifhorn-Peine. Between 1998 and 2005, when his party was leading the federal government withGerhard Schröder, he was a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson for telecommunications and postal services from 2003. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the executive board of the SPD parliamentary group under the leadership of chairmanFranz Müntefering from 2002 to 2004.
In November 2005 the then designated party leaderMatthias Platzeck proposed the relatively unknown Heil as the candidate for the post of secretary general, afterFranz Müntefering had resigned as SPD chairman and the initially nominated candidateAndrea Nahles, who had beaten Müntefering's candidate for that position in a vote of the party executive, had withdrawn from her candidacy. At the same time the party was forming agrand coalition government withAngela Merkel'sCDU. Heil was elected new secretary general of the SPD, but he received only 61.2 percent of the votes, about 20 percent less than his predecessorKlaus Uwe Benneter. He later served under Platzeck (2005–2006) as well as under his successorsKurt Beck (2006–2008) and Müntefering (2008–2009). During that time, he oversaw the drafting process of the party's Hamburg Program, which has been theparty platform since 2007. Following heavy losses in the 2009 federal election and CDU andFDP winning a majority, Heil did not run for the position again.
Between 2009 and 2017, Heil served as deputy chairman of the SPD's parliamentary group, under the leadership of successive chairmenFrank-Walter Steinmeier (2009–2013) andThomas Oppermann (2013–2017), the first four years in the opposition and the other four as a government party. In this capacity, he was a member of the working groups on energy policy and municipal policy from 2009 until 2013. He was also an advisory member of the Commission for Fundamental Values of the executive committee of the SPD, a body led byGesine Schwan.[4]
In the negotiations to form a secondgrand coalition underChancellorAngela Merkel and return to the government following the2013 federal elections, Heil led the SPD delegation in the working group on economic affairs; his co-chair from the CDU/CSU wasIlse Aigner.[5] Shortly ahead of the2017 elections, he was again appointed general secretary on acting basis byMartin Schulz becauseKatarina Barley left the office to be appointed a federal minister. In that capacity Heil organised the campaign and contributed to themanifesto of Schulz.[6] In the negotiations to form the third grand coalition under Merkel, he led the working group on education policy, alongsideAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer,Stefan Müller andManuela Schwesig.[7]
Since becoming Minister of Labour and Social Affairs when the SPD joined thefourth Merkel cabinet in agrand coalition following the2017 German federal election, Heil has overseen a number of legal measures to strengthen workers' rights, including a law forcing logistics and eCommerce companies to ensure that their subcontractors pay proper social security contributions for their drivers,[8] and the introduction of a higher basic pension for low-income workers.[9] Amid theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, he worked on legislation to give employees the right to work from home even when the coronavirus crisis is over.[10]
At a SPD national convention in 2019, Heil was elected as one of the five deputies of the party's co-chairsSaskia Esken andNorbert Walter-Borjans, alongsideKlara Geywitz,Kevin Kühnert,Serpil Midyatli andAnke Rehlinger.[11]
Ahead of the2021 elections, Heil was elected to lead the SPD campaign inLower Saxony.[12] Following the elections, the SPD took over leadership of the government and new ChancellorOlaf Scholz announced that Heil would stay on as Labour Minister inthe new cabinet.[13] Shortly after, he implemented the new government's decision to increase the minimum wage to 12 euros ($13.61) per hour from October 2022 on.[14][15] He also led efforts to fast-track work permits and visas for several thousand foreign airport workers, mainly from Turkey, to help to ease staffing shortages in the tourism sector after a series ofCOVID-19 lockdowns.[16]
In October 2023, Heil participated in the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz andPresidentEmmanuel Macron.[17][18]
Along withSvenja Schulze, Heil is currently the longest-serving cabinet member.[19]
In 2012, Heil proposed a special panel in theFederal Chancellery to help overcome professional skill shortages, comprising representatives of industry, unions as well as the federal labor agency and regional and community associations.[20]
Heil is Protestant. Heil is married to lawyer Solveig Orlowski, who has managed the Berlin office of the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM) since 2005. The couple has two children, a son (* 2012) and a daughter (* 2014).[21] His brother Georg Heil is a journalist withpublic broadcasterWestdeutscher Rundfunk.[22]Georg Heil wird Redaktionsleiter ARD Politikmagazin Kontraste
Media related toHubertus Heil at Wikimedia Commons| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 2005–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 2017 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Labour and Social Affairs 2018–present | Incumbent |
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