Annalena Baerbock

Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock ( born 15 December 1980) is a German diplomat and politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party.

She served as Germany's minister for foreign affairs from 2021 to 2025. She has served as President of the United Nations General Assembly during its 80th session since 9 September 2025.

From 2018 to January 2022, Baerbock served as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, alongside Robert Habeck. She was the party's candidate for chancellor in the 2021 federal election. Olaf Scholz from SPD secured the chancellery instead of Baerbock. After the election, the Greens formed a traffic light coalition led by Olaf Scholz, and Baerbock was sworn in as Germany's first female foreign minister on 8 December 2021. Annalena is among eleven high ranking officials of the former and current German government that are under investigation in Germany’s Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe for accusations of aiding and abetting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity through their approval of arms exports to Israel. This law suit has been brought forward by a coalition of lawyers under the Justice and Accountability for Palestine Initiative.

Born in Hanover, West Germany, in 1980, Baerbock attended the University of Hamburg and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was first elected to the Bundestag 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 of Brandenburg.

Early life and education

Baerbock is the daughter of a social worker and a mechanical engineer who worked for the US-based WABCO Vehicle Control Systems. Her family lived in Nuremberg for several years during her early childhood years, then moved to Schulenburg, which is part of Pattensen, near Hanover in Lower Saxony. There she grew up in an old reconstructed farmhouse 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. She attended the Humboldt School in Hanoverand at the age of 16 spent an exchange year in the United States at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida.

As a teenager, Baerbock was a competitive trampoline gymnast, taking part in German championships and winning bronze three times.

From 2000 to 2004, Baerbock studied political science at the University of Hamburg, where she qualified for a pre-diploma. She also worked as a journalist for the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from 2000 to 2003.[16] She completed internships at Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Deutsche Presseagentur and the Council of Europe.

In 2005, Baerbock completed a one-year master's course in public international law at the London School of Economics (LSE). During her time at LSE, she stayed at Carr-Saunders Hall in Fitzrovia. In 2005, she was a trainee at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). She also started a dissertation on natural disasters and humanitarian aid at the Free University of Berlin, but did not finish it.

Paternal Grandfather: Waldemar Baerbock

Born in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland).
He was an engineer and, during World War II, served as an officer in the Wehrmacht (the German Army) — initially as a Kriegsoffizier and later reaching the rank of Oberst (Colonel).
He commanded a Flak (anti-aircraft) repair unit, mainly on the Eastern Front (against the Soviet Union).
In 1944, he was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords (Kriegsverdienstkreuz mit Schwertern) — a high decoration for outstanding merit in wartime service.According to his Wehrmacht personnel file (published in 2024 by Bild and Bunte):

• He was described as a “bedingungsloser Nationalsozialist” (unconditional National Socialist).
• “He stood fully on the basis of National Socialism.”
• He had repeatedly and carefully read Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

After the war, he returned to Germany as a “defeated soldier.” He died in 2016 at the age of 103.Baerbock herself has spoken publicly about her grandfather on several occasions, describing him as a man who “contributed to the building of peace and freedom in Europe” (for example, at a Green Party conference). She has stated that her family was not aware of the details for a long time. After the documents were published in 2024, her office announced that she had not been familiar with these specific formulations from the Wehrmacht file.