State Secretaries
The BMEL has a total of eight departments, known as directorates-general, which are headed by State Secretary Silvia Bender and which provide the minister with technical support.
The ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretaries are appointed by the Federal President at the proposal of the Federal Chancellor and facilitate the exchange of information between government and parliament. They represent the minister politically, in the German Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the parliamentary groups, and also represent her in certain technical areas.
