Leadership
Minister, Ministers of State, State Secretaries
The Federal Foreign Office is led by Guido Westerwelle, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. Next in line are the two Ministers of State, Werner Hoyer and Cornelia Pieper, as well as the three State Secretaries Wolf-Ruthart Born, Peter Ammon and Martin Johannes Biesel.
The Ministers of State assist the Federal Foreign Minister in his government tasks, assuming mainly political functions.
As the highest-ranking civil servants, the State Secretaries represent the Minister at the helm of the Foreign Service as a whole. They direct the sections assigned to them in headquarters and monitor the foreign missions. Every day, there is a Director's meeting under the chair of the State Secretaries with all the Director-Generals of the Federal Foreign Office to discuss current global developments as well as the conclusions to be drawn.
Political staff
The Political Staff of the Federal Foreign Office is directly responsible to the Federal Minister. It is split into three divisions.
The Office of the Minister lends organizational assistance to the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Parliament and Cabinet Division maintains contact between the Federal Foreign Office and parliament and does the preparatory work for Cabinet meetings. Parliamentary work includes contacts with the parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag, preparation of plenary meetings on foreign and European policy questions, preparing and carrying out meetings of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union as well as the Bundesrat Committees on Foreign Affairs and European Union Affairs. Further tasks include answering parliamentary inquiries, preparing and implementing trips by Members of the German Bundestag to foreign countries and fostering international parliamentary contacts together with the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
The Press Division constantly monitors the news and press at home and is the first port of call for the print media, radio and television as well as other opinion-making organs accredited in the Federal Republic of Germany for questions regarding the whole spectrum of Federal Foreign Office work. The Press Division informs the top echelon and the individual divisions on the news and press at home. It helps prepare and carry out press conferences, background talks, interviews and photo calls. The Federal Foreign Office Spokesman represents the Ministry at Federal Press Conferences and accompanies the Federal Foreign Minister at all foreign policy appointments.
Policy Planning Staff
The Policy Planning Staff deals with short and medium-term planning for issues that are relevant to foreign policy, and prepares topics that are of interest for the Minister's work. To this end, it works with academic and scientific institutes, foundations, political consultancy institutions and the policy planning staffs of other countries. It also hires experts from academia and business for specific projects, as required.
The Policy Planning Staff helps coordinate research and development activities within the Federal Government. The Research Coordinator represents the Federal Foreign Office in the competent interministerial committee.
The Policy Planning Staff was established as a top-level unit of the Federal Foreign Office in 1963. It is accountable to the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs.
