SPD Cabinet Members | The SPD Ministers: All new except Pistorius
Lars Klingbeil : The SPD leader has quickly elevated himself to a position of absolute power within his party. As general secretary, he helped Olaf Scholz to the chancellorship in 2021, after which the Lower Saxon rose to party leader. After the debacle of the 2025 election, he also sought the parliamentary group chairmanship; now, as vice chancellor and finance minister, Klingbeil will be the second strong man in the Merz government.
Work and Social AffairsBärbel Bas: The former President of the Bundestag will now lead the department with the largest budget in the federal budget – and at the same time, as Minister for Employee Affairs, she will hold a key position for the Social Democrats. Bas is familiar with labor and social affairs: she served for many years as a works council member in Duisburg. Bas was born in the Ruhr city and grew up in materially modest circumstances as the second eldest of six siblings.
defenseBoris Pistorius: The current Defense Minister was a given for the SPD—after all, he is Germany's most popular politician. The lawyer was born in Osnabrück, worked in several Lower Saxony government departments, and was mayor of his hometown from 2006 to 2013. For the next ten years, he served as Interior Minister of Lower Saxony. In 2023, he took over the Defense Ministry from Christine Lambrecht and quickly won the recognition of the troops and allies. He stands for making Germany "war-ready" and massively rearming to achieve this.
Justice and Consumer ProtectionStefanie Hubig: The former Minister of Education from Rhineland-Palatinate holds a doctorate in law and worked as a judge and public prosecutor in Bavaria. She is already well-known at the Federal Ministry of Justice: In early 2014, Hubig, who was born in Frankfurt am Main, was appointed State Secretary by then-SPD Minister Heiko Maas. She had already worked there as a consultant and later as head of department since 2000.
Housing, urban development and constructionVerena Hubertz: The topics of construction and housing were already part of Hubertz's area of responsibility during the last legislative period as deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. She also served as a deputy member of the Building Committee. In parliament, she contributed to legislative initiatives on sustainable construction, the social design of the Heating Act, and the specifications for municipal heating planning. The Rhineland-Palatinate native is also considered an expert in business and digital issues.
Economic cooperationReem Alabali-Radovan: A native of Moscow with Iraqi roots, she is the outgoing German Federal Government's Commissioner Against Racism and Minister of State for Migration, Refugees and Integration. She has been a member of the SPD for four years. In 2021, she was elected to the Bundestag on her first attempt as a direct candidate for her Schwerin constituency. Three and a half years later, she finished only third behind the AfD and CDU candidates and was subsequently re-elected via the state list.
Environment and climate protectionCarsten Schneider: Environmental and climate protection have not been among the core topics of the current Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe. According to media reports, the Erfurt native could bring back a proven expert, the former State Secretary for Development, Jochen Flasbarth, to the Ministry of the Environment. This department will once again be responsible for national and international climate protection. In the outgoing government, this responsibility was located in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Federal Foreign Office, respectively.
Ministers of StateElisabeth Kaiser: The Thuringian politician will be the new Commissioner for Eastern Europe. The 38-year-old was previously Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Construction. Since 2017, she has represented the Gera-Greiz-Altenburger Land constituency in the Bundestag.
Natalie Pawlik: She will become the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration. Pawlik previously held the position of Commissioner for Ethnic German Repatriates and National Minorities. She herself came to Germany in 1999 as a Russian-German ethnic German repatriate. Agencies/nd
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