Biography

The Hon. Dirk Niebel is a Former Federal Minister of Economy Cooperation and Development of Germany. He was born in Hamburg on 29 March 1963 and during his youth Niebel lived for one year in a Kibbutz in Israel. Followind this, he graduated from the German College of Public Administration in Mannheim and finished his studies in 1993 as Diplom-Verwaltungswirt (similar to a Master of Public Administration degree). In 1990, he joined the FDP and was co-founder of the Heidelberg division of the Junge Liberale. Niebel has been a member of the Bundestag within the Parliamentary Group on Labor Policy and in addition a Member of the group of German-Israeli Parliament. From 2002 to 2005, he was chairman of the State group of Baden-Württemberg in the parliamentary group of the FDP. In addition to his previous professionals and personals activities, from 2000 to 2010, Niebel served as the vice president of the Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (German Israeli Society). In January 2011, Niebel met with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and signed a joint Declaration of Intent aimed to increase bilateral cooperation in effort to assist developing nations, agreeing to work towards the rehabilitation of the contaminated Lake Victoria in Kenya.