Siemtje Möller


Siemtje Victoria Regine Ilse Santjer Möller is a German teacher and politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Lower Saxony since the 2017 elections.
In addition to her parliamentary work, Möller served as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 2025. Since 2025, she has served as the deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Möller is a member of the Seeheim Circle, the more right-leaning fraction of the SPD.

Early life and education

Möller was born on 20 July 1983 in Emden, Lower Saxony, West Germany. She spent her childhood in Emden and later moved to Oldenburg, where she completed her secondary education at the Liebfrauenschule gymnasium, graduating in 2003.
Möller initially enrolled at RWTH Aachen University in 2003, where she studied technical editing within the field of informatics and communication sciences. In 2004, she transferred to the University of Göttingen, where she pursued a teaching degree specializing in French, Spanish, and political science, completing her first state examination in 2011.
During her studies, she worked as a tutor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Göttingen. There, she developed and led an English-language interdisciplinary seminar on the United Nations Security Council, which earned her the Faculty of Social Sciences’ teaching award in the 2009/2010 winter semester. Möller also completed internships at various international institutions, including the United Nations Headquarters in New York, BBJ Consulting in Brussels, and the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Prior to the birth of her first son, she worked as a teacher in gymnasiums in Braunschweig, Berlin and Wilhelmshaven.

Political career

Möller became member of the Bundestag in the 2017 German federal election, representing the Friesland – Wilhelmshaven – Wittmund district. She served on the Defense Committee from 2018 until 2021, where she was her parliamentary group's spokesperson from 2020 until 2021. In addition to her committee assignments, she co-chairs the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Within her parliamentary group, Möller served as one of the three speakers of the Seeheim Circle from 2020 to 2022; she succeeded Johannes Kahrs in that position and was in turn followed by Marja-Liisa Völlers.
In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party following the 2021 federal elections, Möller was part of her party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired by Heiko Maas, Omid Nouripour and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff. In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition under the leadership of Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats and the SPD following the 2025 German elections, she was again part of the SPD delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense, development cooperation and human rights, this time led by Johann Wadephul, Florian Hahn and Svenja Schulze.
Since 2025, Möller has been serving as deputy chair of her parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairman Matthias Miersch. In this capacity, she oversees the group’s legislative activities on foreign affairs, defence, development cooperation, human rights and the Council of Europe.

Personal life

Möller married fellow teacher and SPD member Sören Mandel in 2018, and the couple has two sons. They live together in Varel.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Non-profit organizations