The State Secretaries

The State Secretaries represent the Minister in their areas of responsibility, which are laid down in the additional stipulations of the Federal Minister of Defence. They must ensure that tasks of the Federal Ministry of Defence are carried out in the most efficient manner possible.

Areas of responsibility of the Permanent State Secretaries 

In his role as State Secretary, Nils Hilmer performs the tasks of augmentation in the Bundeswehr, budget and defence policy. He is responsible for personnel augmentation and infrastructure. The Directorate-General for Budget also falls within his area of competence. This will ensure that the planned augmentation is provided with the necessary funding. Nils Hilmer will also act on behalf of the Federal Minister if he is absent or unable to carry out his duties, including as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Jens Plötner is the State Secretary for Armament, Innovation and Cyber. He is responsible for coordinating the acceleration of procurement and for increasing the Bundeswehr's capacity for innovation. Under his leadership, the areas of armament and innovation will be more closely interlinked in order to speed up procurement of state-of-the-art equipment. To this end, he will also be given responsibilities in the field of planning.

Dr Jan Stöß is the State Secretary for Administrative Tasks. He is in charge of the Directorate-General for Central Affairs and the Directorate-General for Legal Affairs. This makes him responsible for an efficient administration. He acts as head of administration for the entire Ministry of Defence and as such is responsible for disciplinary and organisational matters.

Areas of responsibility of the Parliamentary State Secretaries 

Sebastian Hartmann and Dr Nils Schmid are the Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Defence.

Parliamentary State Secretary Sebastian Hartmann is responsible in particular for the areas of policy, operational readiness and support for the armed forces, military strategy and operations as well as personnel and cyber/information technology. He also represents the Ministry on the Defence Committee of the German Bundestag.

Parliamentary State Secretary Dr Nils Schmid primarily concerns himself with the areas of armament, planning, budget, legal affairs and infrastructure. He represents the Ministry on the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag.

Note: The Directorates-General will remain assigned to the State Secretaries in their current structure until 1 October 2025.