[1][2] After the election, the Greens formed a traffic light coalition led by Olaf Scholz, and Baerbock was sworn in as Germany's first female foreign minister on 8 December 2021.

Born in Hanover, West Germany, in 1980, Baerbock attended the University of Hamburg and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

[11] As a teenager, Baerbock was a competitive trampoline gymnast, taking part in German championships and winning bronze three times.

From 2009 to 2012, she was a member of the executive board of the European Green Party, under the leadership of co-chairs Philippe Lamberts and Monica Frassoni.

[24] In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Minister-President of Brandenburg Dietmar Woidke after the 2019 state elections, Baerbock was a member of her party's delegation.

Wie wir unser Land erneuern)[31] came to light,[32] with Baerbock becoming the latest in a series of German politicians found to have plagiarised since the 2011-Guttenberg scandal.

For example, Baerbock claimed membership of the German Marshall Fund and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees when she, in fact, was not a member.

[42][43] According to studies conducted by the German Marshall Fund and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, both German and Russian state-backed sources have targeted Baerbock, spreading a large amount of disinformation, from false assumptions about the Greens to explicit sexism, such as the circulated online image featuring Baerbock's face photoshopped onto a naked female body with the caption "I was young and I needed the money".

[47] Prior to the 2021 election, Wolfgang Streeck wrote that Baerbock harbours strong Atlanticist and pro-NATO views and would follow a foreign policy aligned with that of U.S. President Joe Biden.

[48][full citation needed] Following the 2021 German federal election, the Greens agreed to enter government with the FDP and the Social Democrats, as part of a traffic light coalition led by Olaf Scholz.

Baerbock backed Poland's efforts to stop the flow of migrants seeking entry in EU territories from Belarus.

Poland rejects this view, stating that the Polish government was then under the sway of the Soviet Union and that its 1953 agreement is non-binding,[51][52] somewhat similar to the manner in which German reunification was predicated upon Germany renouncing explicitly any possible claims to the former eastern territories of Germany including East Prussia, most of Silesia, as well as the eastern parts of Brandenburg and Pomerania in the Two Plus Four Agreement.

"[54][full citation needed] She also promised to speed up the evacuation of more than 15,000 vulnerable Afghans, including staff who worked for Germany and their family members.

"[63] She warned that Turkey's threat to launch a new offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria will only help the Islamic State jihadists.

[64][full citation needed] In January 2023, Baerbock made her third visit to Ukraine by touring Kharkiv, following her travels to Bucha in May and Kyiv in September of the previous year.

A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Germany was not a party to the conflict and the speech was in a context of establishing a unified stance in opposition to a war of aggression.

[76] In September 2023, Baerbock accused Azerbaijan of breaking its promise not to resort to military action in Armenian-held Nagorno-Karabakh and called on it to halt the offensive and return to negotiations.

[80] Baerbock rejected calls for a ceasefire but supported "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

[83] She and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote a joint article published in The Sunday Times on 17 December 2023 calling for actions which would "pav[e] the way to a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza".

[84] Francesca Albanese, incumbent UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, criticised Baerbock[85] following a speech by the Foreign Minister in the German Bundestag on 7 October 2024, in which Baerbock alluded to Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip as "self-defense" and said that "that's what Germany stands for", pointing to the fact that civilian sites could use their "protected status if terrorists abuse this status".

[89] Baerbock is regarded as taking a centrist line on defense and pushing for a stronger common EU foreign policy,[17][90] especially against Russia and China.

"[95] In December 2021, Baerbock proposed a "values-driven" foreign policy in conjunction with other European democracies and NATO partners,[96] and called on the EU to implement sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik.

[101] She has cited a need for technology transfer so that countries worldwide can limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 °C, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.

[94] Baerbock has called for phasing out of coal use in Germany by 2030, implementation of a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (81 mph), and restriction of registration to emission-free cars "by 2030 at the latest".

[105] Amid the European migrant crisis in 2015, Baerbock joined fellow Green parliamentarians Luise Amtsberg, Franziska Brantner, Manuel Sarrazin, and Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn in calling for more responsibilities for the European Commission in managing the EU's intake of refugees, a clear mandate for Frontex, and EU-managed facilities for asylum seekers in their countries of origin.

[108][109] Since 2020, Baerbock has participated in the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders program, a group that has coached political representatives such as Emmanuel Macron, Sanna Marin and Jacinda Ardern.

[115] Since 2007,[116] Baerbock has been married to Daniel Holefleisch, a political consultant and PR manager who has been Senior Expert Corporate Affairs for Deutsche Post DHL Group since 2017, a lobbyist position.