| Agency Name: | Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection |
| Nativename: | Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV) |
| Headquarters: | Robert-Schuman-Platz 3, 53175 Bonn, Germany |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of Germany |
| Employees: | 814 |
| Budget: | €2.657 billion (2021)[1] |
| Minister1 Name: | Steffi Lemke |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Federal Environmental Minister |
| Child1 Agency: | Federal Environmental Agency |
| Child2 Agency: | Federal Agency for Nature Conservation |
| Child3 Agency: | Federal Office for Radiation Protection |
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (German: Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz, pronounced as /de/), abbreviated BMUV, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has branches in Bonn and Berlin.
The ministry was established on 6 June 1986 in response to the Chernobyl disaster. The then Federal Government wanted to combine environmental authority under a new minister in order to face new environmental challenges more effectively. Furthermore The Greens had been formed a few years prior in part as an anti-nuclear environmentalist party and had achieved federal representation in 1983 and Joschka Fischer had been appointed minister of the environment for Hesse the previous year, marking the first state level red-green coalition in Germany.[2] Thus the CDU/CSU intended to project a message of taking the environment seriously in an era in which the Greens were widely perceived as the only party with a policy focus on environmental issues, notwithstanding the fact that CSU-led Bavaria had had a state environment minister since 1971 and the FDP was the first to pass an environment-related plank in the party platform in 1971.[3] [4] Prior to the establishment of the ministry of the environment, responsibilities for environmental issues were distributed among the ministries of the Interior, Agriculture and Health.
The ministry's primary functions include:[5]
The ministry is led by the Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The current Minister is Steffi Lemke, appointed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The minister is supported by two parliamentary state secretaries (members of the cabinet and federal government, "deputy ministers") and two career state secretaries (public servants)[6] who manage the ministry's nine directorates:[7]
Political Party:
| Name (Born-Died) | Portrait | Party | Term of Office | Chancellor (Cabinet) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Reactor Safety | |||||||
| 1 | Walter Wallmann (1932–2013) | CDU | 6 June 1986 | 22 April 1987 | Kohl (II) | ||
| 2 | Klaus Töpfer (1938–2024) | 75px | CDU | 7 May 1987 | 17 November 1994 | Kohl (III • IV) | |
| 3 | Angela Merkel (born 1954) | 75px | CDU | 17 November 1994 | 27 October 1998 | Kohl (V) | |
| 4 | Jürgen Trittin (born 1954) | Green | 27 October 1998 | 22 November 2005 | Schröder (I • II) | ||
| 5 | Sigmar Gabriel (born 1959) | 75px | SPD | 22 November 2005 | 28 October 2009 | Merkel (I) | |
| 6 | Norbert Röttgen (born 1965) | CDU | 28 October 2009 | 22 May 2012 | Merkel (II) | ||
| 7 | Peter Altmaier (born 1958) | 75px | CDU | 22 May 2012 | 17 December 2013 | ||
| Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Housing, and Reactor Safety | |||||||
| 8 | Barbara Hendricks (born 1952) | 75px | SPD | 17 December 2013 | 14 March 2018 | Merkel (III) | |
| Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety | |||||||
| 9 | Svenja Schulze (born 1968) | SPD | 14 March 2018 | 8 December 2021 | Merkel (IV) | ||
| Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection | |||||||
| 10 | Steffi Lemke (born 1968) | Green | 8 December 2021 | Incumbent | Scholz (I) | ||