Niels Annen

Niels Annen (born 6 April 1973) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021.

Born to a works council member of Lufthansa, Annen graduated from high school in 1992.

Annen served as national chairman of the SPD's youth organization from 2001 to 2004.

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.

After his first term in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009, Annen was a Senior Transatlantic Resident at the German Marshall Fund in Washington between 2010 and 2011.

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.

Besides his native language German, Annen speaks English and Spanish fluently.

Annen was elected to the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, at the 2005 election, representing the district Hamburg-Eimsbüttel.

In parliament, he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

As a member of Committee on Foreign Affairs, Annen established himself as a left-wing SPD foreign policy expert, 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.

Within the SPD parliamentary group, he was co-chairman of the Parliamentary Left, the largest political coalition within the SPD.

Between 2005 and 2009, he also served as Deputy Chairman of the German-Spanish Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Amid discussions in the Social Democratic Party on whether to terminate Germany's mandate for German elite commando troops within the US-run Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) against Taliban 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".

Along with Green MP Jürgen Trittin, Annen claimed that the American counterinsurgency mission was hindering civilian reconstruction under the umbrella of the second mission, the International 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.

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.

Under controversial circumstances Annen was deselected for the 2009 election, losing a primary election to Danial Ilkhanipour by 45 votes to 44.

Ilkhanipour lost the seat at the 2009 election to the CDU candidate Rüdiger Kruse.

In March 2010, Annen joined the German Marshall Fund as a Senior Fellow in Washington, D.C., for a six-month term.

From 2011 until 2013 he worked for the department for International Policy Analysis of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin.

Subsequently, he obtained a master's degree in International Public Policy from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. in 2011.

Between 2011 and 2013, he served as director of European policy analysis at the Berlin headquarters of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, whose aim is to promote democracy, political education, and promote students of outstanding intellectual abilities and personality

He has served as member of the Bundestag since 2013.

Annen returned to the Bundestag at the 2013 election, regaining the Hamburg-Eimsbüttel district from the CDU.

He soon re-entered the leadership of the Parliamentary Left in 2014.

He also serves as chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Between 2014 and 2015, he represented his parliamentary group in a crossparty committee headed by former defense minister Volker Rühe to review the country's parliamentary rules on military deployments.

Within the SPD, Annen serves as chairman of the SPD's Commission for International Politics, alongside Martin Schulz.

In 2014, he voted in favor of continuing German participation in ISAF.

In April 2014, Annen accompanied Norbert Lammert as well as fellow members of the German Parliament Marieluise Beck and Hans-Peter Uhl on a visit to Pakistan, where they met with President Mamnoon Hussain, Chairman of the Senate Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan.

In April 2015, Annen went on another trip to the region with the German-South-Asian Parliamentary Group.

In Afghanistan, the group met with delegates of both the upper and lower houses of parliament and it met with President Mamnoon Hussain during its trip to Pakistan.

A central point of discussion in both countries was the security in the region.

In a speech on 23 April 2015, after his return from the visit, Annen stated 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.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on foreign policy, led by Ursula von der Leyen, Gerd Müller and Sigmar Gabriel.

Annen co-chaired the SPD's national conventions in Dortmund (2017) Wiesbaden (2018) and Berlin (2019).

He served as Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021 in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In March 2018, Annen was appointed Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office in the fourth Merkel Cabinet, alongside Michael Roth and Michelle Müntefering.

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.