Peer Stefan Wenzel (born 5 May 1962) is a German agricultural economist and politician for the

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

who served as a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from 2021 to 2025, representing the

Cuxhaven – Stade II Cuxhaven – Stade II is an electoral constituency (German language, German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as con ...

district. In addition to his parliamentary work, Wenzel served as

Parliamentary State Secretary A Parliamentary State Secretary (') is a member of the Bundestag given a portfolio to assist a Minister with running a government ministry Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations us ...

at the

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (, ; abbreviated BMWE, formerly BMWi) is a Cabinet of Germany, cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was previously known as the "Ministry of Economy". It was recreate ...

in the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...

from 2022 to 2025.

Political career

Career in state politics

2013-01-20-landtagswahl-niedersachsen-by-RalfR-N3S 0017 cropped

Stefen Wenzel State Secretary BMWK panel discussion Gas Gipfel 9 December 2024 shot 4

A trained agricultural economist, Wenzel was elected to the Lower Saxon Landtag in the 1998 state elections, and has been re-elected on two occasions. In 2004 he succeeded

Rebecca Harms Rebecca Harms (born 7 December 1956) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Green Party. From 2010 until 2016 she ser ...

as chairman of the Green Party's parliamentary group. Wenzel was a Green Party delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

in 2009 and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. On 19 February 2013, Wenzel was sworn in as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection in the state government of Minister-President Stephan Weil. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he served as chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety. In 2014, Wenzel led the negotiations on the future of controversial

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

disposal facility in

Gorleben Gorleben is a small municipality ('' Gemeinde'') in the Gartow region of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony, Germany, a region also known as the Wendland. Gorleben was first recorded as a town by the rulers of ...

. From 2014 and 2016, he was one of the members of Germany's temporary National Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste. When the Green Party had to leave the coalition government following 2017 state elections, Wenzel was succeeded by

Olaf Lies Olaf Lies (born 8 May 1967) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In May 2025 he was elected as Minister-President of the federal state of Lower Saxony. Political career Lies joined the Social Democratic Party in 2002. ...

. From 2017 until 2021, he chaired the State Parliament's Finance Committee and the Audit Committee.

Member of the German Parliament, 2021–present

In parliament, Wenzel has been serving on the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the German delegation to the

Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly The Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (, ''APFA''; , ''DFPV'') is a joint body of the German Bundestag and the French National Assembly formed to enable cooperation between both houses. Background The French and German parliaments had p ...

. In October 2024, Wenzel announced that he would not stand in the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

* German Energy Agency (DENA), Ex-Officio Chairman of the supervisory board (since 2022) *

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed Protestantism, Reformed, and united and uniting churches, United Protestantism in Ger ...

(EKD), Member of the Synod * German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), Member of the Board of Trustees * Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Alternate Member of the Advisory Board * Erneuerbare Energien Göttingen GmbH & Co. KG, Member of the advisory board (-2013)

Personal life

Wenzel is married and has three daughters. The family lives on an estate of low-energy houses.Speakers: Stefan Wenzel
International Conference on Climate Action (ICCA2015), Hannover.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenzel, Stefan 1962 births Living people Alliance 90/The Greens politicians Members of the Landtag of Lower Saxony Ministers of the Lower Saxony State Government People from Nakskov Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025