Timon Gremmels (born 4 January 1976) is a German politician in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the State Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts in the government of Minister-President

Boris Rhein Boris Rhein (born 2 January 1972) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister-President of Hesse since 2022. He has been active in the politics of Hesse since the late 1990s. After ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

since 2024. From 2017 to 2023, he was a

Member of the Bundestag Member of the German Parliament () is the official name given to a deputy in the Bundestag, German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichstag building in Berlin. In G ...

for

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

Education and career

After having received his Abitur diploma from Herderschule in

in 1995, Gremmels studied political science with a minor in law and emphasis on peace & conflict studies at

Philipps-Universität Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protes ...

, graduating in 2003. Gremmels worked as a research assistant for

Barbara Weiler Barbara Weiler (born 17 September 1946 in Düsseldorf) is a German politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 until 2014. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Socialist Group. Weiler ...

(SPD), Member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

at the time, until 2007. Afterwards, he took the roles of program officer for the regional SPD in

and of advisor to the Social Democratic Association for Local Affairs (Sozial Demokratischen Gemeinschaft für Kommunalpolitik, SGK). In 2008 he moved to the SPD parliamentary group in Hesse as policy advisor on the economy, transportation, energy, regional development, and Europe. Before moving into the Hessian state Parliament in 2009, Gremmels held the

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

position on the management board of SMA Solar Technology AG.

Political career

Career in local and state politics

Gremmels joined the SPD in 1992. He became involved with

Jusos ''Working Group of'' Young Socialists ''in the SPD'' (, Jusos) is a volunteer youth organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). As of 2025, there are over 50,000 official Juso members. Membership Every member of the SPD w ...

, the Working Group of Young Socialists in the SPD, and was the president of Jusos Kassel between 1997 and 2001. In 2002, he was subsequently elected deputy chairman of Jusos in North Hesse. From 1999 to 2011 he sat on the board of the SPD group in North Hesse. Furthermore, Gremmels was the president of the committee for education (SPD-Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Bildung) in the district of North Hesse from 2003 to 2007. Since 2011, he has been a member of the executive committee of the Hessian SPD. In April 2015 he was elected chairman of the local SPD group in Kassel-Land, the Hessian SPD group with the largest number of members. Gremmels was a Member of the

Landtag of Hesse The Landtag of Hesse () is the unicameral parliament of the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany. It convenes in the Stadtschloss in Wiesbaden. As a legislature it is responsible for passing laws at the state level and enacting ...

from 1 November 2009 to 31 October 2017. Initially, he acted as a replacement MP for Ulrike Gottschalk. Later, in the 2013 state election he successfully defended the direct mandate of the SPD in Kassel with the state's best first vote result of 47.6%. Most recently, he served as his parliamentary group's spokesman on energy topics and deputy chairman for the Hessian SPD parliamentary group. From 2001 until 2013 Gremmels was a member of the municipal council of his hometown

Niestetal Niestetal is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Fulda, 4 km east of Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, no ...

and, among other roles, deputy chairman of the local SPD parliamentary group. Since 2001, Gremmels has been a part of Kassel's county council (

Landkreis Kassel Kassel district (German language, German: Landkreis Kassel) is a Districts of Germany, district in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Northeim (district), Northeim, Göttingen (district), Göttingen, Werra-Meißner, Schwalm-Ede ...

Member of the German Parliament, 2017–2024

In November 2016, Gremmels was nominated as SPD candidate for the Kassel constituency. He was elected to the Bundestag in the 2017 general election where he secured 35.5% of the first vote in his constituency. Thus he moved to the 19th Bundestag as a directly elected parliamentarian. In parliament, Gremmels served on the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy and on the Committee on Petitions. In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

efficient energy use Efficient energy use, or energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. There are many technologies and methods available that are more energy efficient than conventional systems. For ...

. In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the SPD following the 2023 state elections in Hesse, Gremmels was part of his party's delegation. Gremmels resigned in 2024, and was replaced by

Nadine Ruf Nadine Ruf (born 2 February 1978) is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She has been a Member of the German Bundestag since January 2024. Life Ruf was born in Wiesbaden, where she grew up as the daughter of a singl ...

Career in state government

In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' under the leadership of

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...

's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the 2025 German elections, Gremmels was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on cultural affairs and media, led by Christiane Schenderlein,

Volker Ullrich __NOTOC__ Volker Ullrich (born 21 June 1943) is a German historian and journalist. Career Volker Ullrich was born in Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany.

and Carsten Brosda.

Other activities

Government agencies

* Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Advisory Board (since 2022)

Non-profit organizations

* German Academy for Language and Literature, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2024) * Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2020) * Europa-Union Deutschland, Member *

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: , "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider i ...

, Member * Workers' Welfare Association (AWO), Member

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gremmels, Timon 1976 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Hesse People from Marburg University of Marburg alumni Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany LGBTQ members of the Bundestag German gay politicians 20th-century German LGBTQ people 21st-century German LGBTQ people