She served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 8 December 2021; she announced her resignation on 11 April and was dismissed by the President on 25 April 2022[1] In 2021, Spiegel served as Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Energy and Forests in the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Previously, she was Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in the second cabinet of Minister-President Malu Dreyer from 2016 to 2021.

[3] Spiegel grew up in Speyer and Ludwigshafen, and attended the Albert Schweitzer elementary school, passing her Abitur in 2000 at the Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium.

In spring 2007, she graduated as Master of Arts from the University of Mainz with a major in political science and minors in philosophy and psychology.

In the 2006 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Spiegel was the Greens candidate in the constituency of Ludwigshafen am Rhein II, and No.

As State Minister for Families, Spiegel continued the work of her predecessor Irene Alt in advocating for marriage equality,[7] campaigning for a vote in the Bundestag on the issue.

[8] The initiative undertaken by Spiegel led to the introduction and passage of the Act introducing the right of marriage to persons of the same sex in June 2017.

The coalition government between the SPD, Greens, and FDP was subsequently renewed, and Spiegel became Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Energy and Forests.

Up from March 2022, Spiegel was heavily criticized because internal documents revealed that she was more concerned with making her ministry look good than with assuming responsibility for the disaster.

She stated: "Due to political pressure, I decided today to make the office of Federal Minister for Family Affairs available.

[22] After a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her Afghan-born ex-boyfriend in Kandel in 2017, Spiegel – in her capacity as state minister in charge of integration – faced such massive hostility and threats that she was given personal protection.