Sigmar GABRIEL

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Germany

Sigmar Gabriel has been politically active since 1976. Born in Goslar, he began his political career in a socialist youth organization and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1977. Two years later, Gabriel became a member of the Trade Union for Public Services, Transport and Haulage (ÖTV), German Metalworkers’ Union IG Metall and the Workers’ Welfare Federal Association (AWO). Trained as a high school educator, he assumed various responsibilities in adult education and became a member of Lower Saxony’s parliament over the course of the 1980s.

During the subsequent decade, he became a member of the Executive Committee of the Social democrats and held, among other positions, the Chair of the Environmental Committee of Lower Saxony’s parliament. From 1999 to 2003, Gabriel served as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony. In 2005, he was chosen as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety until 2009.

Additional ministerial posts followed: Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 until 2017 and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018. From 2013 until 2018, he served as Vice- Chancellor of Germany. Beyond that, Gabriel was chosen four times as the chairperson of the SPD from 2009 until 2017. Sigmar Gabriel has been elected directly as a member of the German Federal Parliament in 2005, 2009, 2013 and again in 2017 for the district Salzgitter- Wolfenbüttel-Vorharz.

Gabriel is married and has three daughters.