Career in local politics

Lambrecht joined the SPD in 1982 and was a member of the Viernheim City Council from 1985 till 2001, of which she was the chair in the years 1997 till 2001. Additionally she was a member of the Bergstraße County Council from 1989 until 1997.

Member of the German Parliament, 1998–2021

Lambrecht first became a Member of the Bundestag in the 1998 elections. From 1998 until 2002 she was the member for Bergstraße, however, she lost against her CDU challenger in the 2002 federal election and has subsequently always been elected via the SPD Hessian state list. In parliament, she has served on the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Sports and on the Council of Elders, which sets the agenda for the parliamentary sessions. Lambrecht was seen as being on the left wing of the SPD parliamentary group.^[6]

From 2002 until 2005 and from 2013 until 2017, Lambrecht served on the parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the Highest Courts of Justice, namely the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH), the Federal Labour Court (BAG), and the Federal Social Court (BSG).

Following the 2009 elections, Lambrecht became her parliamentary group's spokesperson on legal affairs. In 2011, she was elected as a deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairman Frank-Walter Steinmeier. She was a deputy leader of the group till her election as first parliamentary secretary of the SPD parliamentary group after the 2013 federal election. In the ensuing negotiations to form a third coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, she was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs, led by Hans-Peter Friedrich and Thomas Oppermann.

In the negotiations to form Merkel’s fourth coalition government following the 2017 federal elections, Lambrecht was part of the working group on financial policies and taxes, led by Peter Altmaier, Andreas Scheuer and Olaf Scholz. In Merkel's fourth cabinet, she joined the federal government as one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries serving under Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

Federal Minister of Justice, 2019–2021

On 19 June 2019 it was announced that Lambrecht would succeed justice minister Katarina Barley on the 1 July 2019, after the latter moved to Brussels to serve in the European Parliament.^[7] During Lambrecht's time in office, German authorities fined Facebook 2 million euros for under-reporting complaints about illegal content on its social media platform in breach of the country’s law on internet transparency.^[8] In December 2019, she proposed a law requiring internet service providers like Gmail or WhatsApp to handover personal data including passwords upon request.^[9]

In response to the burning of an Israeli flag at a demonstration in 2017, Lambrecht led efforts in 2020 to make the destruction of foreign state flags, including that of the European Union, and the denigration of national anthems punishable by a fine and up to three years in prison.^[10]

In September 2020, Lambrecht announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.^[11]

Federal Minister for Family Affairs, 2021

In May 2021, Lambrecht additionally took on the portfolio of the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Women, and Youth, after Franziska Giffey resigned in reaction to her plagiarism affair.

Federal Minister of Defence, 2021–2023

Lambrecht was named Federal Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz, taking office on 8 December 2021.^[12] At the time, German defence forces were in a very bad condition. In one of her first speeches, Lambrecht asked for more money for the German army. Referring to many deficiencies in the materiel, she said that the army was too often ridiculed for helicopters that did not fly and guns that did not hit.^[13] Indeed, Lambrecht was not exaggerating. E.g. it had been known for years that the army was lacking 20-30 billion euros worth of ammunition.^[14]

Early in her tenure, Lambrecht and Germany as a whole were severely criticized for their very sluggish response to requests by Kyiv for military aid in face of the threatening Russian invasion. In January 2022 Lambrecht and much of the German public opinion eschewed weapons in favor of non-lethal items. In the end, Lambrecht offered 5,000 helmets and a field hospital and said that it was "a clear signal that Germany was behind Ukraine". Lambrecht probably intended it as such, but the offer was received very differently. Ukraine's capital's mayor, Vitaly Klitschko dismissed it as "a joke".^[15] In Germany itself reactions were no less critical. Many media thought that Germany was the laughing stock of international politics and was proving itself to be unreliable.^[16] Criticism centered on Lambrecht's actions, and the incidents that she had caused while barely two months in office.^[16]

In early February Lambrecht oversaw efforts to send up to 350 more German troops to Lithuania, reinforcing a German-led NATO Enhanced Forward Presence combat unit deployed there to deter a Russian attack on the Baltic states.^[17] After the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Scholz held his Zeitenwende speech on 27 February. Immediately after this speech, the ministry of defense requested 250 firms to mobilize every resource in order to make the Bundeswehr combat ready as soon as possible.^[14]

With regard to the air force, the ministry quickly announced plans to purchase 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to replace its Panavia Tornado.^[18] and to buy 60 Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopters worth around 5 billion euros ($5.40 billion).^[19]

In March 2022, Lambrecht was openly criticized by Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian president, for saying that "NATO won't intervene in the Russo-Ukrainian War". Podolyak stated that each such statement encourages the Russian massacre in Ukraine.^[20]

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany delivered aid and weapons to Ukraine. Taken from the German Bundeswehr this included 3,000 Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, over 2,000 9K32 Strela-2 anti-aircraft missile systems, 100 MG 3 machine guns, 16 million rounds of ammunitions, 23,000 combat helmets, 1,300 bullet-proof vests, night vision devices, 500,000 military food rations, 14 armored cars and other systems.^[21][22][23]

By April 2022, Lambrecht announced that the German army's stocks are depleted and additional deliveries have to come from the arms manufacturers directly.^[24]

In May 2022, Lambrecht led negotiations with fellow cabinet members Christian Lindner and Annalena Baerbock as well as Mathias Middelberg on securing a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to change Germany’s constitution to allow for a credit-based special defense fund of 100 billion euros ($107.35 billion).^[25]

In August 2022, Lambrecht sent 13 military aircraft to join the Exercise Pitch Black in Australia, the German Air Force’s largest peacetime deployment, underlining Germany’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific amid rising tensions with China in the region.^[26]

In October 2022, Lambrecht visited Odesa to meet with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, in her first visit to the country since the invasion.^[27]

In a widely criticized New Year's Eve address she stated that the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to "a lot of special experiences" and a chance for "many encounters with great and interesting people".^[28]

On 16 January 2023, Lambrecht announced her decision to step down as Defence Minister.^[2] This came after she had repeatedly been criticized for her work in the role and after multiple politically embarrassing incidents.^[29][30] Lambrecht blamed the media for focusing on her, instead of conducting fact based reporting.^[31] A few weeks after her resignation it became clear that the already very weak German army had supplied goods to Ukraine for about 1 billion euros, but that the ministry had only ordered replacements for 50 million euros. Replacement of the other goods had not even been requested, even while funding was available.^[32]