Johann Saathoff

Johann Saathoff (born 9 December 1967) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Lower Saxony since 2013.

Johann Saathoff
Saathoff in 2014
Member of the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office 2013
Personal details
Born	(1967-12-09) 9 December 1967 (age 57) Emden, West Germany (now Germany)
Political party	SPD

In addition to his parliamentary work, Saathoff has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since 2025.^[1]

Saathoff was previously Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (2021–2025)^[2] and the German government's Coordinator for Inter-Societal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership Countries at the Federal Foreign Office in the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel (2020–2021).^[3]

Political career

Saathoff became a member of the Bundestag in the 2013 German federal election.^[4] From 2013 until 2021, he was a member of the Committee for Food and Agriculture and the Committee for Economic Affairs and Energy.^[5][6]

In addition to his committee assignments, Saathoff is part of the German Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the ASEAN States.^{[citation needed]}

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 federal elections, Saathoff was part of his party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired by Carsten Schneider, Cem Özdemir and Michael Theurer.^[7]

Other activities

• Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018)^[8]
• Petersburger Dialog [de], Member of the Board (since 2020)^[9]
• Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Advisory Board (since 2015)
• Agora Energiewende, Member of the Council^[10]
• German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member