Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 2009 to 2017, which made him the party's longest-serving leader since Willy Brandt. He was the Federal Minister of the Environment from 2005 to 2009 and the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 to 2017. From 1999 to 2003 Gabriel was Minister-President of Lower Saxony.
He represented Salzgitter – Wolfenbüttel in the Bundestag.
Gabriel is a member of the Seeheimer Kreis, an official internal grouping of the party with liberal economic positions.
Early life and education Gabriel was born in Goslar, West Germany, son of Walter Gabriel (1921–2012), a municipal civil servant, and Antonie Gabriel (1922–2014), a nurse. Gabriel's parents divorced in 1962, and for the next six years he lived with his father and grandmother Lina Gabriel, while his sister lived with their mother. After a lengthy custody battle his mother was awarded custody for both children in 1969.
Gabriel's father was a Lutheran originally from Hirschberg im Riesengebirge in Silesia (now Poland), while his mother was a Catholic originally from Heilsberg in the Ermland (Warmia) region of East Prussia who had most recently lived in Königsberg; both parents came as refugees to West Germany during the flight and expulsion of Germans at the end of the Second World War. Gabriel described his family history as a "wild story of flight and expulsion" and noted that his parents dealt with the trauma of expulsion in different ways. According to Gabriel, his father was physically and emotionally abusive to him and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi Party "until his dying breath;" However, Walter Gabriel never saw active service during the war due to suffering from polio. His mother was involved in relief and solidarity work for Poland during the period of martial law in Poland.
Sigmar Gabriel attended school in Goslar, and served as a soldier in the German Air Force from 1979 to 1981. He studied politics, sociology and German at the University of Göttingen from 1982 and passed the first state examination as a grammar school teacher in 1987 and the second state examination in 1989.
Political career
Gabriel joined the SPD in 1977 and soon held a number of positions in local politics. In 1990, he was first elected to the State Parliament of Lower Saxony, where he led the SPD parliamentary group from 1998 until 1999.
Minister-President of Lower Saxony, 1999–2003 On 15 December 1999, after the resignation of Gerhard Glogowski, who had succeeded Gerhard Schröder in office, Gabriel became Minister-President of Lower Saxony. He had previously won an internal party vote against Wolfgang Jüttner and Thomas Oppermann. He served until 4 March 2003. During these years, he was widely presented as a protégé of Schröder, and even as a possible successor as chancellor.
After being voted out of office in 2003, Gabriel became the SPD's "Representative for Pop Culture and Pop Discourse" from 2003 to 2005, for which he was bestowed the nickname Siggi Pop.
Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2005–2009 He was elected in Salzgitter – Wolfenbüttel in the 2005 federal election.
From 2005 to 2009 Gabriel was the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the first cabinet of Angela Merkel (CDU).
During his time in office, Gabriel promoted the International Renewable Energy Agency. He also led the German delegation to the 2006 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi. In 2007, when Germany held the presidency of the Council of the European Union, he led the negotiations between European Union environment ministers on an ambitious effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels. That same year, he accompanied Merkel on a two-day visit to Greenland to see the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO world heritage site, and the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in order to get a firsthand look at the effects of global warming.
Opposition leader, 2009–2013 Following the SPD's defeat in the federal election of 2009, Franz Müntefering resigned from the position of party chairman of the Social Democratic Party. Gabriel was nominated as his successor and was elected on 13 November 2009. He was re-elected as party chairman for a further two years at the SPD party conference in Berlin on 5 December 2011, receiving 91.6 percent of the vote.
During his early years as chairman, Gabriel pushed through internal party reforms. He abolished the party steering committee in favor of an expanded executive committee and led the regular party conventions, the most important meetings for the party.Bettina Marx (14 December 2013), Sigmar Gabriel: Losing his way to the top Deutsche Welle. He also played a critical role in founding the Progressive Alliance in 2013 by canceling the SPD payment of its £100,000 yearly membership fee to the Socialist International in January 2012. Gabriel had been critical of the Socialist International's admittance and continuing inclusion of undemocratic "despotic" political movements into the organization.
For the 2013 federal election, Gabriel was considered a possible candidate to challenge incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel but deemed too “unpopular and undisciplined” at the time.Noah Barkin (3 September 2012), Merkel's Opponents Struggle to Find Relevant Issues New York Times. As a consequence, he and the other members of the party's leadership agreed to nominate Peer Steinbrück after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the party's parliamentary leader, withdrew from the contest.Melissa Eddy (28 September 2012), Merkel’s Ex-Finance Minister to Oppose Her New York Times.
During the election campaign, Gabriel became the first SPD leader to address a party convention of Alliance '90/The Greens; in his speech, he called for a red–green alliance to defeat Merkel in the elections.Erik Kirschbaum (27 April 2013), German SPD leader woos Greens for anti-Merkel alliance Reuters.
Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister, 2013–2018
In 2013, Gabriel turned the Social Democrats’ third successive defeat to Angela Merkel in the federal election into a share of government, after successfully navigating the three-month process of coalition negotiations and a ballot of about 475,000 party members, who endorsed the accord.Patrick Donahue (15 December 2013), Merkel’s Third-Term Cabinet: Social Democratic Party Ministers Bloomberg L.P.. At the time, he was widely considered to have negotiated skillfully, particularly considering the relative weakness of his party, which had received just over 25 percent of the vote in the elections, against more than 41 percent for Merkel's conservative bloc.Alison Smale (14 December 2013), Social Democrats Secure a Third Term for Merkel New York Times.
At an SPD convention shortly after the elections, however, Gabriel and the other members of the party's leadership were punished by delegates who re-elected them to their posts with reduced majorities; he received 83.6 percent of members’ ballots after 91.6 percent at the previous vote in 2011.Brian Parkin and Birgit Jennen (15 November 2013), German SPD Chief Set to Sell Party on Merkel Coalition Bloomberg News.
Gabriel, who serves as vice-chancellor in the third Merkel cabinet, took on responsibility for Germany's energy overhaul as part of a newly configured Economy Ministry. Since late 2016, he has been a member of the German government's cabinet committee on Brexit at which ministers discuss organizational and structural issues related to the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.Joseph Nasr (13 January 2017), Merkel to chair first Brexit committee meeting next week Reuters.
As Minister of the Economy in 2014, Gabriel tried to choke the exports of the German defence industry.
Speculation about Gabriel's future as leader of the SPD has been brewing since he registered just 74 percentStefan Wagstyl (13 July 2016), German court accuses Merkel rival Gabriel of ‘bias’ and ‘secrecy’ Financial Times. in a party delegates' vote of confidence in December 2015 – the lowest for an SPD leader in 20 years.Caroline Copley (8 May 2016), Germany's Gabriel makes light of rumors he's stepping down Reuters. On 24 January 2017 Gabriel announced that we will not run as candidate for chancellor in 2017; instead, he proposed that Martin Schulz become candidate and replace him as party chairman.Florian Gathmann (24 January 2017), Gabriel übergibt an Schulz: Rumms Spiegel Online 24 Jan.
Gabriel also announced that he would succeed Frank-Walter Steinmeier as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He took office on 27 January 2017, the previous Parliamentary State Secretary Brigitte Zypries followed Gabriel as Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy.Spiegel Online (27 January 2017), l Wechsel im Kabinett: Gauck ernennt Gabriel und Zypries Spiegel Online 27 Jan.
At the Munich Security Conference in February 2017 Gabriel called on NATO members, rather than focus mainly on traditional defense, to focus more on the "root causes of conflict" such as "poverty and climate".
Gabriel proposed in March 2017 that expenses such as development aid should be considered as part of the NATO 2% GDP defense expenditure guideline. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg later responded that development aid cannot be part of defence spending.
As Foreign Minister Gabriel has said Germany's "arms will remain outstretched" to the US to continue the trans-Atlantic alliance between the two countries. However he has said that Germany will step into global markets the US abandons and take on a bigger role on the international stage if Donald Trump continues his protectionist and isolationist policies.
Life after politics Since leaving public office, Gabriel has taken on various paid and unpaid positions.
In 2018, Gabriel was among six of 11 candidates nominated by Siemens to join the board of directors of Siemens Alstom, a planned merger of two railway companies;Douglas Busvine (15 May 2018), Germany's ex-foreign minister to join board of Franco-German rail venture Reuters. he ended up not taking the office when the merger was prohibited by the European Commission amid competition concerns. Also in 2018, the German government's ethics committee rejected his request to join the supervisory board of Kulczyk Investments, citing potential conflict of interest.Arbeit für polnischen Konzern: Regierung verbot Gabriel Aufsichtsratsposten Tagesschau, 16 August 2019.Germany bars ex-foreign minister from job with Polish firm Deutsche Welle, 16 August 2019. In 2019, he rejected an offer to become the head of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) after media reports that he was in line for the post caused a public outcry and prompted accusations of nepotism.Michael Nienaber (5 November 2019), Ex-foreign minister Gabriel rejects offer to head German auto lobby Reuters.