Svenja Schulze was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in December 2021, in the Cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. She served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 1988, she was Secretary General of the North Rhine-Westphalia SPD from 2017 to 2018, and served both as member of the State Government, heading the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 to 2017, and the North Rhine-Westphalia state Parliament (2004-2018, 1997-2000). Schulze was born in Düsseldorf and studied German Studies and Political Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, which she completed in 1996 with the academic degree of Magistra Artium.
