Robert Habeck

Robert Habeck (German: [ˈʁoːbɛʁt ˈhaːbɛk] ^ⓘ; born 2 September 1969) is a German writer and former politician (Alliance 90/The Greens) who served as Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and as a Member of the German Bundestag for Flensburg – Schleswig from 2021 to 2025. From 2018 to 2022, he also served as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, alongside Annalena Baerbock. For the 2021 German federal election, he was a member of the leading duo, alongside Baerbock, who ran for chancellor of Germany.

In 2009, Habeck was voted into the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein as a deputy of The Greens and became group chairman. In both early elections in 2012 and at the federal elections in 2017 he ran as the top candidate of his party. From 2012 to 2018 he held office as deputy minister-president and minister for energy revolution, agriculture, environment, and nature (since 2017 for digitisation as well) for the cabinet of Albig as well as for the cabinet of Günther. After he was elected federal chairman of his party in 2018, he retired from his function as minister. In the 2025 federal elections, Habeck ran for the office of chancellor. However, his bid was unsuccessful, as his party's share of the vote fell to 11.6 percent, a drop of 3.1 percentage points. He also lost his direct mandate from his electoral district of Flensburg – Schleswig, but still entered the 21st Bundestag through the state list.

Habeck passed his final secondary school examinations in 1989 at the Heinrich Heine School in Heikendorf in the Plön district. After completing his alternative civilian service in 1991 he began studying for a master's degree with a combination of philosophy, German and philology at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg im Breisgau. After the intermediate examination in 1992/93 he attended Roskilde University in Denmark. In 1996 Habeck received a master's degree from the University of Hamburg. From 1996 to 1998 he completed a doctorate at the University of Hamburg and was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in 2000, with a thesis on the depiction of nature in literature.

From 1999 Habeck and his wife Andrea Paluch worked as freelance writers. In addition to children's books and translations of English poetry, Habeck, with Paluch, published six novels, among others, Hauke Haien's Death (2001), The Day I Met My Dead Man (2005) and Under the Gully Lies the Sea (2007). Habeck is fluent in Danish.

In 2009, Habeck was elected to the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag via the party list. In November 2011, he was voted as the top candidate of his party for the 2012 Schleswig-Holstein election. From 2009 to 2012, Habeck was chairman of the Alliance 90/The Greens group in Schleswig-Holstein.

Habeck served as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for Energy, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas in the centre-left Albig Cabinet since 2012 and in the centre-right Günther Cabinet between 2017 and 2018. Under his leadership – he was not a candidate for parliament – the Green Party became the third largest group in the Landtag after the 2017 state elections. As one of his state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he served on the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Consumer Protection; the Committee on the Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety; the Committee on Economic Affairs; and the Committee on Transport. From 2014 and 2016, Habeck was one of the members of Germany's temporary National Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste.

Habeck served as a Green Party delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2012. He ran to become one of the two top candidates for the Greens for the 2017 German federal election, but lost by 75 votes to Cem Özdemir.

On 27 January 2018, the Green Party's national convention in Hanover elected him as chairman, a position shared with Annalena Baerbock.