# Annalena Baerbock ## The power she actually held Annalena Baerbock was federal foreign minister from 8 December 2021 to 6 May 2025. Richtlinienkompetenz sat with the chancellor. Export licences are inter-ministerial. She still owned the diplomatic daily file on Ukraine, China, and the feminist guidelines. That limit is the first fact. The second is that a values paper, a China strategy, and a campaign-integrity file still move welfare. The live score has to read those instruments as they were enacted, not as a brand of “feminist foreign policy” that erases export practice. ## What went wrong, and what is proven The [2021 campaign file](/facts/de-baerbock-campaign-2021) is the integrity start: CV inaccuracies and plagiarised passages in a book. She stayed the candidate. It is a completed campaign act, not a criminal judgment. It still strengthens [institutional-corruption](/drivers/institutional-corruption) as distrust of presentation. The [Kabul airlift](/facts/de-baerbock-kabul-2021) began as she took office. Local partners were left. A later inquiry criticised planning that sat across [Merkel](/people/angela-merkel)’s last cabinet and the new traffic light. [Feminist foreign-policy guidelines](/facts/de-feminist-foreign-policy-2023) promised a rights lens; [arms-export practice](/facts/de-baerbock-arms-exports) toward Gulf partners sat uneasily beside that brand. After 7 October her [Gaza line](/facts/de-baerbock-gaza-2023) emphasised Israel’s right to defend itself more loudly than access corridors. Rights groups documented the gap. Taurus is a split file: she publicly favoured delivery; Scholz refused. Recording her advocacy is fair. Recording her as the export authority is not. China industrial dependence continued even after the [2023 strategy](/facts/de-china-strategy-2023) named a systemic rival. [ICJ intervention](/facts/de-baerbock-icj-israel) against South Africa’s case is a completed litigation act. [Israel-bound licences](/facts/de-baerbock-israel-arms-gaza) during the Gaza war sit on the same [humanitarian-access](/drivers/humanitarian-access) ledger as the public line after 7 October. A Green collapse in the [2024 European election](/facts/de-baerbock-ep-2024) is a completed political cost while she was still in cabinet. ## What improved, and how far She was among the loudest German voices for [heavier Ukraine weapons](/facts/de-baerbock-ukraine-weapons) earlier than the chancellery’s calendar. [Temporary protection](/facts/eu-temporary-protection-directive-activated-2022), [candidate status](/facts/eu-ukraine-candidate-status-2022), and [accession talks](/facts/eu-accession-talks-ukraine-moldova-2024) are collective. The China strategy is a completed foreign-office text. [Nord Stream 2 opposition](/facts/de-baerbock-ns2-opposition) as incoming minister matched a later halt she did not solely cause. [Climate diplomacy](/facts/de-baerbock-cop) at COPs is a dated representational act. [UNGA election](/facts/de-baerbock-unga-2025) is a completed UN act after she left the Auswärtiges Amt. ## Shared responsibility, and what the score does not say Scholz, [Friedrich Merz](/people/friedrich-merz), Volodymyr Zelenskyy, von der Leyen, and the chancellery’s export cell are not extras. Treating her as author of Zeitenwende, or as a bystander on Kabul, would be the same error in opposite directions. The score does not say she plagiarised a statute. It does not say Taurus flew. It does not convert a feminist guideline into a delivered rights outcome. Confidence is high on published strategies and on her Taurus interviews, and only medium where Scholz’s veto and export-control law sit between the foreign office and a welfare indicator. ## Dated facts - 2025: UN General Assembly elects Baerbock president of the 80th session. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-unga-2025. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/un-elects-baerbock-general-assembly-president-2025/, https://www.un.org/pga/. - 2025: Baerbock leaves the foreign office as Merz takes the chancellery. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-leave-aa-2025. Sources: https://www.bundesregierung.de/, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-merz-elected-chancellor-2025-05-06/. - 2024: Union opens accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. https://factrail.ai/facts/eu-accession-talks-ukraine-moldova-2024. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-open-membership-talks-with-ukraine-moldova-2024-06-25/, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/06/25/ukraine-moldova-eu-opens-accession-negotiations/, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-countries-give-green-light-accession-talks-with-ukraine-moldova-2024-06-25/, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/06/25/ukraine-and-moldova-eu-opens-accession-negotiations/. - 2024: Greens lose European Parliament seats while Baerbock is still in cabinet. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-ep-2024. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/european-parliament-election-concludes-2024/, https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/. - 2024: Germany under the traffic light backs the Union asylum pact. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-migration-pact. Sources: https://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-eu-pact-migration-asylum, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32024R1351. - 2024: Germany continues selected military exports to Israel during the Gaza war. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-israel-arms-gaza. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-israel-arms-gaza-2024/, https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Publikationen/Ruestungsexportbericht.html. - 2024: Baerbock publicly favours Taurus missiles for Ukraine while Scholz refuses. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-taurus-2024. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/baerbock-taurus-ukraine-2024/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/. - 2024: Germany intervenes at the ICJ in South Africa’s case against Israel. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-icj-israel. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-icj-israel-2024-01-12/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/. - 2023: Germany withdraws from MINUSMA in Mali. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-mali-withdrawal. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/germany-withdraw-mali-minusma-2023/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/. - 2023: Baerbock emphasises Israel’s right to defend itself after 7 October. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-gaza-2023. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-foreign-minister-israel-gaza-2023-10-12/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/. - 2023: Greens including Baerbock defend the Building Energy Act against CDU attack. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-baerbock-heating-green. Sources: https://www.gruene.de/, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-parliament-passes-controversial-heating-law-2023-09-08/. - 2023: Germany publishes its first China strategy. https://factrail.ai/facts/de-china-strategy-2023. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-china-strategy-2023-07-13/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/regionaleschwerpunkte/asien/china-strategy, https://www.reuters.com/world/germany-unveils-china-strategy-aimed-reducing-dependencies-2023-07-13/, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/regional-agreements/asia/china-strategy/2608140. ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/annalena-baerbock