Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

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Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
Agency overview
Formed1961
JurisdictionGovernment of Germany
HeadquartersBonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen
Minister responsible
Websitewww.bmz.de
The old Bundeskanzleramt, Bonn

The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is a ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ministry's headquarters are in what used to be the Bundeskanzleramt (the Federal Chancellor's Office building) in Bonn, with a second office in the Europahaus, in Berlin.

History[change | change source]

The BMZ was founded 1961, as the Ministry for Economic Cooperation. Lots of different ministries had a little to do with helping the economies of foreign countries. These jobs were all taken away and given to the new ministry. It became the "Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development" on 23 January 1993. The change was to show that Germany was not just interested in working with Less Developed Countries, but in helping those countries as well.

Ministers[change | change source]

Ministers of Economic Cooperation
No Name Term start Term end Party
1 Walter Scheel (1919-2016) 1961 1966 FDP
2 Werner Dollinger (1918-2008) 1966 1966 CSU
3 Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (1922-2005) 1966 1968 SPD
4 Erhard Eppler (1926-) 1968 1974 SPD
5 Egon Bahr (1922-2015) 1974 1976 SPD
6 Marie Schlei (1919-1983) 1976 1978 SPD
7 Rainer Offergeld (1937-) 1978 1982 SPD
8 Jürgen Warnke (1932-2013) 1982 1987 CSU
9 Hans Klein (1931-1996) 1987 1989 CSU
10 Jürgen Warnke (1932-2013) 1989 1991 CSU
11 Carl-Dieter Spranger (1939-) 1991 1998 CSU
12 Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (1942-) 1998 2009 SPD
13 Dirk Niebel (1963-) 2009 2013 FDP
14 Gerd Müller (1955-) 2013 2021 CSU
15 Svenja Schulze (1968-) 2021 SPD

Job[change | change source]

The BMZ main job is help to other countries to develop and become richer. It does this by giving money and other aid.

The BMZ also oversees giving money to international organisations and private charities which can help the BMZ's main job.

The money that Germany gives to the European Development Fund, the World Bank and regional development banks is paid by the BMZ.

The BMZ also makes sure that countries which get money are democratic and have a good human rights record.

Germany thinks that giving this help is so important that the BMZ is a member of the Federal Security Council, which helps to make sure that Germany is safe and at peace.

Aims[change | change source]

  • Halving the number of people in the world that suffers from poverty and hunger
  • Making a basic school education possible for all children
  • Promoting equality between men and women
  • Lowering the number of child mortality
  • Improving the health of the mothers
  • Fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses
  • Improving the protection of the environment