Annalena Baerbock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Baerbock in 2024 | |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| Assumed office 8 December 2021 | |
| Chancellor | Olaf Scholz |
| Preceded by | Heiko Maas |
| Leader ofAlliance 90/The Greens | |
| In office 27 January 2018 – 29 January 2022 Serving with Robert Habeck | |
| Deputy |
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| Preceded by | Simone Peter |
| Succeeded by | Ricarda Lang |
| Leader ofAlliance 90/The Greens inBrandenburg | |
| In office 14 November 2009 – 16 November 2013 Serving with Benjamin Raschke | |
| Preceded by | Ska Keller |
| Succeeded by | Petra Budke |
| Member of theBundestag forBrandenburg | |
| Assumed office 22 October 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Cornelia Behm |
| Constituency | Alliance 90/The Greens List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (1980-12-15)15 December 1980 (age 44) Hanover,West Germany |
| Political party | The Greens (since 2005) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation |
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| Signature |  |
| Website | annalena-baerbock |
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (German:[anaˈleːnaˈbɛːɐ̯bɔk]ⓘ; born 15 December 1980) is a German politician of theAlliance 90/The Greens party serving asGermany's minister for foreign affairs since 2021.
From 2018 to January 2022, Baerbock served as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, alongsideRobert Habeck. She was the party's candidate forchancellor in the2021 federal election. Olaf Scholz from SPD secured the chancellery instead of Baerbock.[1][2] After the election, the Greens formed atraffic light coalition led byOlaf Scholz, and Baerbock was sworn in as Germany's first female foreign minister on 8 December 2021.
Born inHanover,West Germany, in 1980, Baerbock attended theUniversity of Hamburg and theLondon School of Economics and Political Science. She was first elected to theBundestag in 2013. From 2012 to 2015, she was a member of the party council of Alliance 90/The Greens and from 2009 to 2013, the leader of her party's group in the state ofBrandenburg.
Baerbock is the daughter of a social worker and a mechanical engineer[3] who worked forWABCO Vehicle Control Systems.[4] Her family lived inNuremberg for several years during her early childhood years,[4] then moved to Schulenburg, which is part ofPattensen, nearHanover in Lower Saxony.[5][6] There she grew up in an old reconstructedfarmhouse[7] with her two sisters and two cousins. As a child, she joined her parents at anti-war and anti-nuclear power protests organized or supported by the Green Party.[8][9] She attended the Humboldt School in Hanover[10] and at the age of 16 spent an exchange year in the United States atLake Highland Preparatory School inOrlando, Florida.[11]
As a teenager, Baerbock was a competitivetrampoline gymnast, taking part in German championships and winning bronze three times.[12][13][14]
From 2000 to 2004, Baerbock studiedpolitical science at theUniversity of Hamburg, where she qualified for a pre-diploma. She also worked as a journalist for theHannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from 2000 to 2003.[15] She completed internships atNorddeutscher Rundfunk,Deutsche Presseagentur and theCouncil of Europe.[16]
In 2005, Baerbock completed a one-year master's course in public international law at theLondon School of Economics (LSE).[9] During her time at LSE, she stayed at Carr-Saunders Hall inFitzrovia.[7] In 2005, she was a trainee at theBritish Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL).[17] She also started a dissertation on natural disasters and humanitarian aid at theFree University of Berlin, but did not finish it.[17]
After her studies, Baerbock worked from 2005 to 2008 in the office ofMEPElisabeth Schroedter. In 2008 and 2009, she worked as an adviser on foreign and security policies for the parliamentary group of theAlliance 90/The Greens in theBundestag.[citation needed]
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Baerbock became a member ofAlliance 90/The Greens in 2005.[9] In October 2008, she was elected to the executive board of her party's state group inBrandenburg. The next year she succeededSka Keller as co-chair of the board (withBenjamin Raschke), an office she held until 2013.[18]
Baerbock served as the national spokesperson for the Green Party's working group on European affairs from 2008 to 2013. From 2009 to 2012, she was a member of the executive board of theEuropean Green Party, under the leadership of co-chairsPhilippe Lamberts andMonica Frassoni.[19]
In 2009, Baerbock unsuccessfully ran for a place on her party's electoral list for the federal elections. In 2013, she was the Green Party candidate in the constituency ofPotsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II and also secured the leading spot on theparty's electoral list for the State of Brandenburg.[20] Through the electoral list, she became a member of the Bundestag.[19]
During her first term, Baerbock was a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy and the Committee on European Affairs. In her parliamentary group, she served as speaker for climate policy.[6] In the latter capacity, she participated in theUnited Nations Climate Change Conferences inWarsaw (2013),Lima (2014),Paris (2015) andMarrakesh (2016).[citation needed]
Baerbock served as deputy chair of the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Circle of Friends and a member of the German-Polish Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2014 until 2017.[citation needed]
In the2017 election, Baerbock was again the leading candidate in the state of Brandenburg, retaining her seat in Parliament. After the election, she was a member of the Green Party's negotiating team in the (unsuccessful) coalition talks with theCDU/CSU andFDP.[21][22] She has since been a member of the Committee on Families, Seniors, Women and Youth.[citation needed]
On 27 January 2018, at the Green Party's national convention in her hometown ofHanover, Baerbock was elected as one of two equal chairpersons of her party at the federal level, withRobert Habeck.[18][23] She won 64% of the vote, more than her challenger, Anja Piel.[6] At a 2019 party convention, she was re-elected with 97.1% of the votes, the highest-ever result for a party chair.[24]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government under the leadership ofMinister-President of BrandenburgDietmar Woidke after the2019 state elections, Baerbock was a member of her party's delegation.[25][26]
On 19 April 2021, the federal board of the Greens officially nominated Baerbock ascandidate forchancellor for the2021 federal election – the first time the party had nominated a single candidate instead of co-leaders.[15] This was formally confirmed at the party congress from 11 to 13 June. Baerbock is the second woman afterAngela Merkel to seek the highest government office, and the first woman nominated by her party. On election day, she was only 12 days older thanGuido Westerwelle in 2002, the youngest chancellor candidate ever.[27][28]On 12 June 2021, Baerbock was confirmed as candidate for chancellor after receiving 98.5% of the confirmation votes.[29] In the2021 German federal election, she again ran in theconstituency ofPotsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II, this time against fellow chancellor candidateOlaf Scholz. She lost the constituency to Scholz by over 15,000 votes, but was nonetheless elected to the Bundestag through the Green list in Brandenburg.[30]
During this time,plagiarism by Baerbock in her 2021-bookNow. How we renew our country [de] (Jetzt. Wie wir unser Land erneuern)[31] came to light,[32] with Baerbock becoming the latest in a series of German politicians found to have plagiarised since the2011-Guttenberg scandal.[33][34][35] In the book, Baerbock included work of other authors without attributing that work to them thereby falsely presenting it as her own,[36][37] with one researcher,Stefan Weber, detailing 100 instances of plagiarism before ceasing to look further.[32][38]
Around the same time, scrutiny of Baerbock's publishedcurriculum vitae (CV) revealed falsehoods. For example, Baerbock claimed membership of theGerman Marshall Fund andUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees when she, in fact, was not a member.[39] While she did have associations with these and other minor institutions, the claims in her CV were exaggerated.[40][39] Similarly, statements about her education were misleading and her professional career incorrect.[39][41] These revelations triggered widespread condemnation in the German public.[42][43]
According to studies conducted by the German Marshall Fund and theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue, both German and Russian state-backed sources have targeted Baerbock, spreading a large amount of disinformation, from false assumptions about the Greens to explicit sexism, such as the circulated online image featuring Baerbock's face photoshopped onto a naked female body with the caption "I was young and I needed the money".[44][45][46]
Under Baerbock's leadership, the Greens won 14.8% of the national vote in 2021 and 118 seats in the Bundestag, the best result in the party's history. However, the performance was considered somewhat disappointing as the party finished third after having led in some polls earlier in the year.[47]
Before the2021 election,Wolfgang Streeck wrote that Baerbock harboured strongAtlanticist and pro-NATO views and would follow a foreign policy aligned with that of U.S. PresidentJoe Biden.[48]
Following the 2021 German federal election, the Greens agreed to enter government with theFDP and theSocial Democrats, as part of atraffic light coalition led byOlaf Scholz. Baerbock was namedForeign Minister and took office on 8 December 2021, the first woman ever to hold the role.[49]
Baerbock visited Warsaw in December 2021 to meet with the Polish Foreign MinisterZbigniew Rau. They discussed Poland'sdispute with the EU over the rule of law and the superiority ofEuropean Union law. Baerbock backedPoland's efforts to stop the flow ofmigrants seeking entry in EU territories from Belarus.[50] She rejected the notion of Germany paying furtherWorld War II reparations to Poland. Germany asserts that Poland renounced all reparation rights under a 1953 agreement and that the dispute is settled. Poland rejects this view, stating thatthe Polish government was then under the sway of the Soviet Union and that its 1953 agreement is non-binding,[51][52] somewhat similar to the manner in whichGerman reunification was predicated upon Germany's renouncing explicitly any possible claims to theformer eastern territories of Germany includingEast Prussia, most ofSilesia, as well as the eastern parts ofBrandenburg andPomerania in theTwo Plus Four Agreement.
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On 23 December 2021, Baerbock warned thatAfghanistan is "heading into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our time", with majoreconomic sectors collapsing and more than 24 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.[53] She said, "We cannot allow hundreds of thousands of children to die because we don't want to take action."[54][full citation needed] She also promised to speed up theevacuation of more than 15,000 vulnerable Afghans, including staff who worked for Germany and their family members.[55]
When Germany held the rotating presidency of theGroup of Seven (G7) in 2022, Baerbock chaired the meetings of G7 Ministers of Foreign Affairs.[56][57]
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In January 2022, Baerbock refused tosupply German weapons to Ukraine amid rising tensions on the Ukraine-Russia border, while theNATO allies including the United States opted to send arms in support of Ukraine.[58][59] In the aftermath of theRussian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she argued againstblocking Russian access to SWIFT.[60] Following theBucha massacre in April 2022, she expelled 40 Russian diplomats and embassy staff from Berlin, joining other European Union countries in their response towar crimes perpetrated by Russian troops in Ukraine.[61] Also in April 2022, she hosted a donor conference during which European and international governments agreed to extend€659.5 million (US$718.6 million) in aid toMoldova, which hosted more than 100,000 refugees from Ukraine at the time.[62]
In July 2022, she rejectedTurkey'sterritorial claims toGreek islands in theAegean Sea, stating that "Lesbos,Chios,Rhodes and many others areGreek territories and nobody has the right to question them."[63] She warned that Turkey's threat to launch a newoffensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria will only help theIslamic Statejihadists.[63]
In January 2023, Baerbock and French Foreign MinisterCatherine Colonna arrived inEthiopia and met Ethiopian Prime MinisterAbiy Ahmed on a mission to support theEthiopia–Tigray peace agreement ending theTigray War.[64]
In January 2023, Baerbock made her third visit to Ukraine by touringKharkiv, following her travels toBucha in May andKyiv in September of the previous year.[65]In a keynote speech to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 January, she said in English "We are fighting a war against Russia, not against each other", which was critically portrayed in the popular tabloid newspaperBild with the headline "We are at war with Russia".[66] Her phrasing received criticism from conservative and right-wing politicians in Germany as demonstrating un-professionalism, and criticism from Russia. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Germany was not a party to the conflict and the speech was in a context of establishing a unified stance in opposition to a war of aggression.[67][68]
In March 2023, on a visit toBaghdad, Baerbock called on Iran to ceaseits missile attacks on Iraqi territory.[69]
In May 2023, she urged China to take a clear stance on theRusso-Ukrainian War, saying "neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor.",[70] after the Chinese PresidentXi Jinping first visitedVladimir Putin in Russia, and later on the next day visited Ukraine, with offendingRussian dissidents and opponents of Vladimir Putin while being in Ukraine.[71]
In September 2023, she named the Chinese President Xi Jinping "a dictator" next to Vladimir Putin, but that also followed the U.S. President referring to the Chinese President a dictator in June.[72][73]
In May 2023, she visitedSaudi Arabia and praised Saudi efforts to find a solution to thewars in Yemen andSudan.[74]
On 6 July 2023, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden authorized the provision ofcluster munitions to Ukraine in support of aUkrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces inRussian-occupied regions in Southeastern Ukraine.[75] Baerbock opposed the decision of the Biden administration to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine.[76]
In September 2023, Baerbock accusedAzerbaijan of breaking its promise not to resort to military action inArmenian-heldNagorno-Karabakh and called on it to halt theoffensive and return to negotiations.[77] In February 2024, she played host to the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia for two days of peace talks in Berlin.[78]
Baerbock expressed support forIsrael and its right to self-defense during the2023 Israel–Hamas war. On 23 October 2023, she blocked a declaration by EU ministers calling for "an immediate humanitarian cease-fire" to help civilians in theGaza Strip.[79] On 11 November 2023, she visited Israel to express solidarity with the country.[80] Baerbock rejected calls for a ceasefire but supported "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.[81] She stated that "For Germany, Israel's security is non-negotiable."[82] She pointed toGermany's "historic and moral responsibility to the Jewish people and the Israeli state" because ofthe Holocaust.[83] She and UK Foreign SecretaryDavid Cameron wrote a joint article published inThe Sunday Times on 17 December 2023 calling for actions which would "pav[e] the way to a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza".[84]
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Francesca Albanese, incumbentUN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, criticised Baerbock[85] following a speech by the Foreign Minister in the German Bundestag on 7 October 2024, in which Baerbock alluded toIsraeli attacks on Palestinian civilian sites as "self-defense" and said that "that's what Germany stands for" to much applause.[86] Though civilian sites can lose protected status if used for military purposes, underinternational law they still cannot be attacked if the harm to civilians will be disproportionate. What's more, Article 52 of the Protocol Additional to theGeneva Conventions states that “In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used”.[87]
In January 2025, Baerbock and her French counterpartJean-Noël Barrot visited Damascus to meetAhmed al-Sharaa, thede factoleader of Syria since December 2024,[88] on behalf of the European Union, thereby becoming the first ministers from the EU to visit the country since thefall of the Assad regime.[89] Despite shaking hands with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, al-Sharaa did not shake hands with Annalena Baerbock.[90]
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Baerbock is regarded as taking acentrist line on defense and pushing for a strongercommon EU foreign policy,[17][91] especially against Russia and China.[92][93] She has proposed a post-pacifist foreign policy,[94] calling for a European army under the supervision of theEuropean Parliament and outlining steps toward thedenuclearization of Germany in consultation with allies.[92] She supportsNATO'seastward expansion and cooperation with the United States.[92][95] In November 2020, she said: "Europe has been revolving around itself for years, the Trump administration turned its back on the world. Authoritarian states fill the gap that emerged. That leads to Russia or Turkey becoming active in our neighborhood – and the EU, as in the case ofNagorno-Karabakh, is left out."[96] In December 2021, Baerbock proposed a "values-driven" foreign policy in conjunction with other European democracies and NATO partners,[97] and called on the EU to implement sanctions againstBosnian Serb leaderMilorad Dodik.[98]
Baerbock appears to have taken a pro-Israel stance in response to the2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.[99] She called the number ofUN resolutions criticizing Israel "absurd compared to resolutions against other states."[100] Baerbock expressed "concern" over the legal and constitutional implications of the proposed2023 Israeli judicial reform.[101]On 2025, following themeeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, Baerbock said Trump's conduct represented a "new era of ruthlessness" and called on European countries to "defend the rules-based international order and the strength of law more than ever against the power of the strongest".[102]
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Baerbock has argued in favor of aEuropean and trans-AtlanticGreen Deal.[103] She has cited a need fortechnology transfer so that countries worldwide can limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 °C, as outlined in theParis Agreement.[97] Baerbock opposes theNord Stream 2 gas pipeline project betweenRussia andEurope.[95]
Baerbock has called for phasing out ofcoal use in Germany by 2030, implementation of a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (81 mph), and restriction of registration to emission-free cars "by 2030 at the latest". She has said that "agricultural subsidies should be oriented towards the common good" and thatanimal populations and meat production should be "reduced very significantly".[104] Baerbock has also said that "climate policy is not in contradiction to the economy" and that she wishes to preserve Germany's status as an industrial location "into the 21st century – in light of the Paris climate agreement". She supports the production ofclimate-neutralsteel and has expressed support forclimate tariffs – international taxes oncarbon-intensive goods. Under her policies, domestic German flights would be made "superfluous" by 2035 by strengthening the rail network.[105]
When theFederal Constitutional Court ruled that the greenhouse gas reductions set out in the Climate Protection Act were insufficient on 29 April 2021, Baerbock held out the prospect of setting concrete greenhouse gas savings targets in the event that her party would participate in the federal government. She also called for the quota for the annual expansion of renewable energy sources to be doubled by the mid-2020s. Baerbock has said that environmental destruction caused by climate change is becoming increasingly expensive.[106] Baerbock is anopponent of nuclear power. In 2021, she opposed an EU proposal to label nuclear power as agreen energy source.[107]
Amid theEuropean migrant crisis in 2015, Baerbock joined fellow Green parliamentariansLuise Amtsberg,Franziska Brantner,Manuel Sarrazin, andWolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn in calling for more responsibilities for theEuropean Commission in managing the EU's intake of refugees, a clear mandate forFrontex, and EU-managed facilities for asylum seekers in their countries of origin.[108]
In September 2023, Baerbock criticized the European Union's migration deal withTunisia.[109] She advocated the German government's financial support forNGOs, such asSOS Humanity [de], that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.[110][111]
Since 2020, Baerbock has participated in theWorld Economic Forum'sYoung Global Leaders program, a group that has coachedpolitical representatives such asEmmanuel Macron,Sanna Marin andJacinda Ardern.[117]
Since 2007,[118] Baerbock has been married to Daniel Holefleisch, a political consultant andPR manager who has been Senior Expert Corporate Affairs forDeutsche Post DHL Group since 2017, alobbyist position.[119] They have two daughters, born in 2011 and 2015.[120][121] In 2013, they moved from Berlin to the Nauener Vorstadt district[18][122] ofPotsdam, Brandenburg.[17] The couple, however, announced their separation in November 2024.
Baerbock declares beingLutheran-Protestant.[19] She does not consider herself a believer, but remains a member of the Protestant church because "the idea of togetherness is extremely important" to her.[123]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Poland officially renounced the reparations in 1953.
Die frühere kommunistische Regierung in Warschau hatte sich auf Druck der Sowjetunion bereit erklärt, keine Forderungen an Deutschland zu stellen. Das sei aber die Entscheidung eines „sowjetischen Marionettenstaates" gewesen, die heute keine Gültigkeit mehr habe, sagte Verteidigungsminister Antoni Macierewicz. [...] Polen hatte im August 1953 in einer Erklärung auf weitere Zahlungen verzichtet [...].
Was nun, Frau Baerbock? Fragen an die Kanzlerkandidatin der Grünen onYouTube, interview in German, ZDF, 10 May 2021
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