Lars Klingbeil

The son of a soldier, Klingbeil was born into a working-class family in Soltau.^[5] He has a sister.^[6]

After graduating from school with his Abitur in Munster and completing his alternative civilian service, in 1999 Klingbeil began studying political science at Leibniz University Hannover, graduating in 2004 with a M.A. degree. From 2001 to 2004 he received a scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES); in 2001, he completed an internship in the foundation's New York office and witnessed the September 11 attacks.^[7][8]

Whilst at university, Klingbeil worked in the constituency offices of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Heino Wiese [de] from 2001 until 2003. After finishing his studies he worked as youth education advisor for the Social Democratic Party in North Rhine-Westphalia.^[9]

From 24 January 2005 until 18 October 2005 Klingbeil was a Member of the Bundestag following the resignation of Jann-Peter Janssen. During these nine months Klingbeil was a member of the Committee on European Affairs, the Committee on Health and a deputy member of the Defence Committee of the Bundestag.

Leaving office after the 2005 national elections, Klingbeil worked as chief of staff to the chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Lower Saxony Garrelt Duin. Furthermore, Klingbeil was a member of the SPD leadership's International Commission from 2004 until 2007, and since 2006 he has been the deputy leader of the SPD in the Soltau-Falingbostel regional council.

Klingbeil stood in the 2009 federal elections in the constituency Rotenburg I – Soltau Fallingbostel, however, he lost with 35.2% of the vote against the CDU's candidate Reinhard Grindel who had won 40.2% of the vote. He did manage to enter the Bundestag as a List MP for Lower Saxony.

Klingbeil has been a member of the Defence Committee since 2009 as well as being a deputy member of the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Media. Since 2013, he has also been leading the Bundestag group of SPD parliamentarians from Lower Saxony, the second largest delegations within the SPD parliamentary group. In addition to his committee assignments, he served as deputy chairman of the German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2010 until 2013.

Klingbeil managed to win the constituency of Rotenburg I – Heidekreis in the 2017 elections, winning with 41.2% of vote. He contested the same constituency at the 2021 German federal election.

On 19 October 2017, Social Democratic Party chairman Martin Schulz nominated Klingbeil as secretary general. He was confirmed on 8 December 2017 with 70.62% of the vote at the SPD Party Conference in Berlin, succeeding Hubertus Heil who had announced his resignation after the SPD disastrous loss in the 2017 election. In the negotiations to form a fourth cabinet under Chancellor Angela Merkel following the elections, he was part of the leadership team of his party's delegation. He also led the working group on digital policy, alongside Helge Braun and Dorothee Bär.

On 30 April 2025, Klingbeil was announced as the next Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Finance in Friedrich Merz's cabinet.^[10] He was sworn in on 6 May 2025.

In November 2025, Klingbeil visited China as part of the biannual financial dialogue talks between the two countries. During the visit, he met with Vice Premier He Lifeng and Wang Huning, the chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[11] He also met with Liu Haixing, the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, in his capacity as the co-leader of the Social Democratic Party as part of the party dialogue between the SPD and the CCP established in 1984.^[12]