The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (german: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, ), abbreviated BMWK (was BMWi), is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was previously known as the "Ministry of Economy". It was recreated in 2005 as "Ministry of Economics and Technology" after it had previously been merged with other ministries to form the Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour between 2002 and 2005. The ministry is advised by the Council of Advisors on Digital Economy.

History

The historical predecessor of the current Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action was the ''Reichswirtschaftsamt'' (Reich Economic Office), founded in 1917. In 1919, this became the ''Reichswirtschaftsministerium'' (Reich Ministry of Economy), which existed until 1945. In postwar occupied Germany, its functions were exercised by the Administrative Office of Economy (german: Verwaltungsamt für Wirtschaft) between 1946 and 1949. After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Ministry of Economics (german: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft) existed from 1949 to 1998. From May 1971 to December 1972, it was temporarily merged with the Federal Ministry of Finance, in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Finance. In 1998 the technology section of the Ministry of Research was added, making it the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Between 2002 and 2005, it was merged with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and one part of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs - the other part being merged with the old Federal Ministry for Health, then the Ministry of Health and Social Security. This transformations aimed to consolidate the policy-fields of economics and labour market, on which the second term of chancellor Gerhard Schröder wanted to focus, into one hand. Because the new Ministry was very large and important, it was often referred to as a super-ministry (''Superministerium'') and its minister as a super-minister (''Superminister''). The creation of the new Ministry was widely seen as failed, basically because of the poor performance of the only office-holder Wolfgang Clement. Under the following

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

headed by Angela Merkel, the portfolio reshuffle was reversed, and the old Federal Ministries of Economics and Technology, of Labour and Social Affairs and of Health were created once again as Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. It was renamed to Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in 2013.

Structure

The Ministry is organised into 9 departments and one central department. * Central Administration – Z * Political Staff and Policy Planning - L * European Policy – E * Economic Policy – I * Energy Policy: Heating and Efficiency – II * Energy Policy: Electricity and Grid – III * Industrial Policy – IV * External Economic Policy – V * Digital und Innovation Policy – VI * SME Policy - VII The ministry is headquartered in Berlin.

Agencies

In addition to its own operations, the Ministry also oversees the following agencies: The Ministry's Agencies
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Federal Cartel Office The Federal Cartel Office (, ; BKartA) is Germany's national competition regulatory agency. First established in 1958, BKartA comes under the authority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The agency is headquartered ...

* Federal Network Agency * Federal Office of Economics and Export Control * Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing *

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe or BGR) is a German agency within the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. It acts as a central geoscience consulting institu ...

* German National Metrology Institute

Ministers and Secretaries of State

Ministers

Political Party:

Secretaries

Ministry for Economy (1949–1998)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * 1967–1970:

Klaus Dieter Arndt Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American base ...

, SPD * 1970–1971: Philip Rosenthal, SPD * 1972:

Rainer Offergeld Rainer Offergeld (born 26 December 1937) is a German politician. He was minister of Economic Cooperation from 1978 to 1982. Offergeld was mayor of Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to th ...

, SPD * 1972–1987: Martin Grüner, FDP/DVP * 1983–1987: Rudolf Sprung, CDU * 1987–1989: Ludolf-Georg von Wartenberg, CDU * 1987–1993: Erich Riedl, CSU * 1989–1992:

Klaus Beckmann Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American baseba ...

, FDP * 1992–1998:

Heinrich Leonhard Kolb Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

, FDP * 1993–1994:

Reinhard Göhner Reinhard Göhner is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former member of the German Bundestag. Life He was Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Justice from ...

, CDU * 1994–1997:

Norbert Lammert Norbert Lammert (born 16 November 1948) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 12th President of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017. Early life and education The son of a baker, Lammert attended gymnasi ...

, CDU ;State Secretaries * 1949–1951:

Eduard Schalfejew Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Following the succ ...

* 1951–1963: Ludger Westrick, no party * 1958–1963: Alfred Müller-Armack, CDU * 1963–1966:

Wolfram Langer Wolfram may refer to: * Wolfram (name) * Wolfram, an alternative name for the chemical element tungsten * Wolfram Research, a software company known for the symbolic computation program Mathematica ** Wolfram Language The Wolfram Language ( ...

* 1963–1968:

Fritz Neef Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin an ...

* 1967–1972:

Johann Baptist Schöllhorn Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...

* 1968–1969: Klaus von Dohnanyi, SPD * 1969–1978: Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, SPD * 1972: Ernst Wolf Mommsen * 1973–1991:

Otto Schlecht Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

* 1979–1995:

Dieter von Würzen Dieter or dieter may refer to: * A person committed to dieting People Dieter is a German given name (), a short form of Dietrich, from ''theod+ric'' "people ruler", see Theodoric. Given name *Dieter Althaus (born 1958), German politician ...

* 1991–1994:

Johann Eekhoff Johann Eekhoff (25 July 1941 – 3 March 2013) was a German economist and former state secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. He held a chair for economic policy at the University of Cologne until 2009. A native of Moor ...

* 1994–1997:

Johannes Ludewig Johannes Ludewig (born 6 July 1945, in Hamburg) is a German manager and former secretary of state. He was executive director of Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Comp ...

* 1995–1998:

Lorenz Schomerus Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by h ...

* 1997–1998: Rudi Geil, CDU * 1997–1998:

Klaus Bünger Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American baseba ...

Ministry for Economics and Technology (1998–2002)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * 1998–2002: Siegmar Mosdorf, SPD ;State Secretaries * 1998–2002:

Alfred Tacke Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

, SPD * 1999–2002: Axel Gerlach

Ministry for Economics and Labour (2002–2005)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * 2002–2005:

Gerd Andres Gerd Andres (born 8 April 1951 in Wirges, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German politician and member of the SPD. From 1987 to 2009 he was a member of the Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the onl ...

, SPD * 2002–2005:

Rezzo Schlauch Rezzo ( lij, Ressu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about southwest of Genoa and about northwest of Imperia. Geography As of 31 December 2004, Rezzo had a population of 390 and ...

, Greens * 2002–2005: Ditmar Staffelt, SPD ;State Secretaries * 1999–2003: Axel Gerlach * 2002–2004:

, SPD * 2002–2005: Rudolf Anzinger * 2002–2005: Georg-Wilhelm Adamowitsch * 2004–2005: Bernd Pfaffenbach

Ministry of Economics and Technology (2005–2013)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * 2005–2013: Peter Hintze, CDU * 2005–2009:

Dagmar Wöhrl Dagmar Gabriele Wöhrl (''née'' Winkler; born 5 May 1954) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). She has served as Chairwoman of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag. Sh ...

, CSU * 2005–2009:

Hartmut Schauerte Hartmut is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Hartmut of Saint Gall (died 905), Benedictine abbot *Hartmut Bagger (born 1938), retired German general of the Bundeswehr * Hartmut Becker (born 1938), German actor *Hartmut Boockmann ...

, CDU * 2009–2013: Ernst Burgbacher, FDP * 2009–2013: Hans-Joachim Otto, FDP ;State Secretaries * 2005–2006: Georg-Wilhelm Adamowitsch * 2005–2008:

Joachim Wuermeling Joachim Wuermeling (born 19 July 1960 in Münster) a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. Between 2005 and 2008, he served as State Secretary for the European Union in the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technolo ...

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

* 2006–2009:

Walther Otremba Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was firs ...

* 2005–2011: Bernd Pfaffenbach * 2008–2012:

Jochen Homann Jochen is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jochen Asche, East German luger, competed during the 1960s *Jochen Böhler (born 1969), German historian, specializing in the history of World War II *Jochen Babock (born 1953), East G ...

* 2009–2013:

Bernhard Heitzer Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar *Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen 1946 ...

, FDP * 2011–2013:

Stefan Kapferer Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

, FDP * 2012–2013:

Anne Herkes Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (2013–2021)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * 2013–2017: Brigitte Zypries, SPD * 2013–2018:

Uwe Beckmeyer Uwe Karl Beckmeyer (born 26 March 1949 in Bremerhaven) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 until 2017. From October 2004, he served as the SPD parliamen ...

, SPD * 2013–2018:

Iris Gleicke Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...

, SPD * 2017–2018: Dirk Wiese, SPD * 2018–2019:

Oliver Wittke Oliver Wittke (born 24 September 1966) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Early life and education Born in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Wittke studied geosciences and economics at the Ruhr University Bochum. Care ...

, CDU * 2018–2020:

Christian Hirte Christian Hirte (born 23 May 1976) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2008. Since 2020, he has been the chai ...

, CDU * 2018-2021: Thomas Bareiß, CDU * 2019–2021: Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, CDU * 2020-2021:

Marco Wanderwitz Marco Wanderwitz (born 10 October 1975) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 2018 until 2021, he served as Parliamentary State Secretary in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Education and ear ...

, CDU ;State Secretaries * since 2013:

Rainer Baake Rainer may refer to: People * Rainer (surname) * Rainer (given name) Other * Rainer Island, an island in Franz Josef Land, Russia * 16802 Rainer, an asteroid * Rainer Foundation, British charitable organisation See also * Rainier (disambiguation ...

, Greens * since 2014:

Matthias Machnig Matthias is a name derived from the Greek Ματθαίος, in origin similar to Matthew. People Notable people named Matthias include the following: In religion: * Saint Matthias, chosen as an apostle in Acts 1:21–26 to replace Judas Iscariot * ...

, SPD * since 2013:

Dr. Rainer Sontowski Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

, SPD

Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (since 2021)

;Parliamentary State Secretaries * Since 2021: Franziska Brantner, Greens * Since 2021: Oliver Krischer, Greens * Since 2021:

Michael Kellner Michael Kellner (born 8 May 1977) is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens) who has been serving as a Member of the Bundestag representing electoral constituency Uckermark – Barnim I since 2021. In addition to his parliamentary work, Ke ...

, Greens ;State Secretaries * since 2021: Anja Hajduk, Greens * since 2021:

Sven Giegold Sven (in Danish and Norwegian, also Svend and also in Norwegian most commonly Svein) is a Scandinavian first name which is also used in the Low Countries and German-speaking countries. The name itself is Old Norse for "young man" or "young warri ...

, Greens * since 2021:

Udo Philipp Udo is a masculine given name. It may refer to: People Medieval era *Udo of Neustria, 9th century nobleman *Udo (Obotrite prince) (died 1028) *Udo (archbishop of Trier) (c. 1030 – 1078) *Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark (c. 1025 – 1 ...

* since 2021:

Patrick Graichen Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Economy Economy of Germany Germany Germany Germany Germany