Niels Annen | |
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_by_Sandro_Halank%25E2%2580%25932.jpg) | |
| Minister of State at theFederal Foreign Office | |
| In office 2018–2021 | |
| Member of theBundestag forHamburg-Eimsbüttel | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1973-04-06)6 April 1973 (age 52) |
| Political party | SPD |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician, Member of the German Bundestag (MP) |
| Signature |  |
Niels Annen (born 6 April 1973) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD). Since May 2025, he has been serving as aState Secretary at theFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). From December 2021 until May 2025, he wasParliamentary State Secretary in the same ministry. Prior to that, from March 2018 to December 2021, he served asMinister of State at the Federal Foreign Office in thegovernment of ChancellorAngela Merkel.[1]
Niels Annen was elected to theGerman Bundestag four times, representing the constituency ofHamburg-Eimsbüttel from 2005 to 2009, and again from 2013 to 2025. After his first term in the Bundestag Annen was a Senior Transatlantic Resident at theGerman Marshall Fund in Washington between 2010 and 2011. From 2011 until 2013 he worked for the department for International Policy Analysis of theFriedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin. Annen has served on the executive board of the SPD since 2003 after being chairman of the Young Socialists, the youth organization of the SPD, from 2001 to 2004.
Born to a works council member ofLufthansa,[2] Annen graduated from high school in 1992.
In 2009, Annen obtained a bachelor's degree in history from the Humboldt University of Berlin, with a thesis on the resettlement of Baltic Germans during World War 2.[3] Subsequently, he obtained a master's degree in International Public Policy from thePaul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. in 2011.[4]
During his first term in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009, Annen had been criticised as "an eternal student in the Bundestag", after quitting a history degree in which he had been enrolled for 14 years.[4]
Besides his native language German, Annen speaks English and Spanish fluently.[5] Moreover, he has basic knowledge of French and Portuguese.
Annen served as national chairman of the SPD's youth organization[6] from 2001 to 2004.[7]
Annen was elected to theBundestag, the German federal parliament, at the2005 election, representing theHamburg-Eimsbüttel district.[7] In parliament, he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[7]
As a member of Committee on Foreign Affairs, Annen established himself as a left-wing SPD foreign policy expert,[8] focusing largely on the German engagement in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Within the committee he has served on the Subcommittee for Arms Control and Non Proliferation as well as the Subcommittee for the United Nations.[5]
Within the SPD parliamentary group, he was co-chairman of the Parliamentary Left, the largest political coalition within the SPD.[9] Between 2005 and 2009, he also served as Deputy Chairman of the German-Spanish Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Under controversial circumstances[10] Annen was deselected for the2009 election, losing a primary election toDanial Ilkhanipour by 45 votes to 44.[7] Ilkhanipour lost the seat at the 2009 election to theCDU candidateRüdiger Kruse. In March 2010, Annen joined theGerman Marshall Fund as a Senior Fellow in Washington, D.C., for a six-month term.[5] Between 2011 and 2013, he served as director of European policy analysis at the Berlin headquarters of theFriedrich Ebert Foundation, whose aim is to promote democracy, political education, and promote students of outstanding intellectual abilities and personality[11][12]
Annen returned to the Bundestag at the2013 election, regaining the Hamburg-Eimsbüttel district from the CDU. He soon re-entered the leadership of the Parliamentary Left in 2014.[13] He also serves as chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South Asia, includingAfghanistan,Bangladesh,Bhutan,Maldives,Nepal,Pakistan, andSri Lanka.[14] Between 2014 and 2015, he represented his parliamentary group in a crossparty committee headed by former defense ministerVolker Rühe to review the country's parliamentary rules on military deployments.[15]
Within the SPD, Annen serves as chairman of the SPD's Commission for International Politics, alongsideMartin Schulz.[16] In the negotiations to form acoalition government under the leadership ofChancellorAngela Merkel following the2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on foreign policy, led byUrsula von der Leyen,Gerd Müller andSigmar Gabriel.
Annen co-chaired the SPD's national conventions inDortmund (2017)[17]Wiesbaden (2018)[18] and Berlin (2019).[19]
In March 2018, Annen was appointed Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office in thefourth Merkel Cabinet, alongsideMichael Roth andMichelle Müntefering.[20]
In December 2021, Annen was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.[21]
In June 2024, Annen announced that he would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[22]
Since May 2025, Annen is theState Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.[21] In this function, he is top administrative official and responsible for the ministry's administration and continuity, working closely with the minister to implement policies and manage the ministry's daily affairs.[23]
In September 2024, the German government nominated Niels Annen as a candidate for the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This role, among the most critical within the United Nations due to the escalating global refugee crisis, was held by Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi since January 2016.[24]
Annen is an advocate of continued German commitment in Afghanistan and has visited the country on multiple occasions during both of his terms in the Bundestag.[5] Amid discussions in the Social Democratic Party on whether to terminate Germany's mandate for German elite commando troops within the US-runOperation Enduring Freedom (OEF) againstTaliban fighters, Annen in 2007 said many SPD members were questioning Germany's continued role in the anti-terror battle in Afghanistan. He stated that "[m]any say [the SPD] is losing its way as a party oriented to finding peaceful solutions to international problems".[8] Along with Green MPJürgen Trittin, Annen claimed that the American counterinsurgency mission was hindering civilian reconstruction under the umbrella of the second mission, theInternational Security Assistance Force, because of what they called a heavy-handed approach by the U.S. military on the ground that was alienating the local population.[32] In 2014, he voted in favor of continuing German participation in ISAF.
In April 2014, Annen accompaniedNorbert Lammert as well as fellow members of the German ParliamentMarieluise Beck andHans-Peter Uhl on a visit to Pakistan, where they met with PresidentMamnoon Hussain, Chairman of the SenateNayyar Hussain Bukhari and Interior MinisterNisar Ali Khan.[33]
In April 2015, Annen went on another trip to the region with the German-South-Asian Parliamentary Group.[34] In Afghanistan, the group met with delegates of both the upper and lower houses of parliament[34] and it met with President Mamnoon Hussain during its trip to Pakistan.[35] A central point of discussion in both countries was the security in the region.[34] In a speech on 23 April 2015, after his return from the visit, Annen said that, amidst some negative developments, there were clear positive trends visible in Afghanistan especially regarding rising rates of school enrolment and the state of democratic elections.[36]
Annen has frequently expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided byNATO headquarters. Following statements by theSupreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), GeneralPhilip M. Breedlove, on troop advances on the border between Russia and Ukraine in early 2015, Annen publicly complained that "NATO in the past has always announced a new Russian offensive just as, from our point of view, the time had come for cautious optimism." He added that "we parliamentarians were often confused by information regarding alleged troop movements that were inconsistent with the information we had."[37]
In 2008, Annen called on the United States to remove allnuclear weapons stored in military bases in Germany after aU.S. Air Force report found that safety standards at most sites for nuclear weapons in Europe fall well short ofPentagon requirements.[38]
In July 2015, Annen joined Germany'sForeign MinisterFrank-Walter Steinmeier on a trip to Cuba; it was the first time a German foreign minister had visited the country since German reunification in 1990.[39][40]
Annen has in the past voted in favor of German participation inUnited Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as inSomalia –Operation Atalanta (2014) andEUTM Somalia (2015 and 2016) –,Darfur/Sudan (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018),South Sudan (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018), theCentral African Republic (2014) andMali – bothMINUSMA (2014, 2017 and 2018) andEUTM Mali (2015 and 2018).
Regarding theRusso-Ukrainian war since 2014, Annen has advocated for continued dialogue with theRussian Federation in order to facilitate "good neighbourly relations."[41] However, he supportedeconomic sanctions against Russia as well as its exclusion from theG7 saying that "Russia un-invited itself" with the internationally wrongful annexation of Crimea.[42] Moreover, he supported the absence ofChancellorAngela Merkel from the festivities for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Russia on 9 May 2015 stating that "the political conditions for a German participation in the festivities are currently not fulfilled."[43]
Annen also responded angrily to statements by U.S. SenatorJohn McCain, who said that Germany was pursuingappeasement policies akin to those of the 1930s.[44] Furthermore, he stated that "nobody in Europe did as much to support peace in Europe asSteinmeier and Merkel" (the German Foreign Minister and Chancellor) and demanded a public apology from the Senator.[44] Annen rejected American plans to supply arms to Ukrainian forces stating that it "would be a dangerous step towards the escalation of the Ukraine conflict."[45]
Annen has made public statements about the transnational conflict againstIslamic State in Syria and Iraq. In an interview withDas Parlament on 15 September 2014, he underlined the relevance of the conflict for Germany, stating that the risk of terrorist attacks had risen as the result of German IS-fighters returning from the battlefield.[46] Moreover, he supported the supply of German arms to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces claiming that he was well aware of the danger of future misuse of the weapons but saw no other way to help defend the city of Erbil from IS forces.[46] Annen also considered the Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad partially responsible for the formation and strength of Islamic State, and warned of legitimizing Assad as the lesser evil in the conflict.[47]
In April 2014, Annen visited theZaatari refugee camp in Jordan to learn more about theplight of Syrians fleeing the violence in the ongoingSyrian civil war that erupted in 2011.[48]
In 2014, news media revealed that Annen had not paid taxes for his second home in Berlin during his first term as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009.[49]
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