1. Niels Annen was born on 6 April 1973 and is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party who was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2021.
Niels Annen served as Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021 in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Niels 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.
In 2009, Niels 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.
Besides his native language German, Niels Annen speaks English and Spanish fluently.
Niels Annen served as national chairman of the SPD's youth organization from 2001 to 2004.
Niels Annen was elected to the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, at the 2005 election, representing the Hamburg-Eimsbuttel district.
Under controversial circumstances Niels Annen was deselected for the 2009 election, losing a primary election to Danial Ilkhanipour by 45 votes to 44.
In March 2010, Niels Annen joined the German Marshall Fund as a Senior Fellow in Washington, DC, for a six-month term.
Niels Annen returned to the Bundestag at the 2013 election, regaining the Hamburg-Eimsbuttel district from the CDU.
Niels Annen soon re-entered the leadership of the Parliamentary Left in 2014.
Niels Annen 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.
Niels Annen co-chaired the SPD's national conventions in Dortmund Wiesbaden and Berlin.
In March 2018, Niels Annen was appointed Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office in the fourth Merkel Cabinet, alongside Michael Roth and Michelle Muntefering.
In December 2021, Niels Annen was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.
In June 2024, Niels Annen announced that he would not stand in the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.
Niels 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.
Niels Annen stated that "[m]any say [the SPD] is losing its way as a party oriented to finding peaceful solutions to international problems".
Niels Annen has frequently expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided by NATO headquarters.
In 2008, Niels Annen called on the United States to remove all nuclear weapons stored in military bases in Germany after a US Air Force report found that safety standards at most sites for nuclear weapons in Europe fall well short of Pentagon requirements.
In July 2015, Niels Annen joined Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a trip to Cuba; it was the first time a German foreign minister had visited the country since German reunification in 1990.
Niels Annen responded angrily to statements by US Senator John McCain, who said that Germany was pursuing appeasement policies akin to those of the 1930s.
Niels Annen has made public statements about the transnational conflict against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Niels Annen considered the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad partially responsible for the formation and strength of Islamic State, and warned of legitimizing Assad as the lesser evil in the conflict.
In 2014, news media revealed that Niels Annen had not paid taxes for his second home in Berlin during his first term as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009.