Boris Pistorius (born in 1960 in Osnabrück) is a German politician of the SPD and has been Federal Minister of Defence since January 2023.
He studied law at the universities of Osnabrück and Münster, spent a year studying French at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, and completed both state law examinations by 1990. After working briefly as a lawyer, he joined the Lower Saxony state administration in 1991. From 1991 to 1996, Pistorius worked in various positions in the Ministry of the Interior of Lower Saxony, including as personal assistant to Minister Gerhard Glogowski and later as deputy head of his office.
Between 1997 and 2002, he held leadership roles at the Weser-Ems Regional Administration in Osnabrück. He then served as Second Mayor of Osnabrück (1999–2002) and as head of the Schools and Sports Department of the Weser-Ems Regional Administration (2002–2006), before becoming Head Mayor of Osnabrück from 2006 to 2013. In 2013, Pistorius entered state government as Lower Saxony Minister of the Interior and Sport, a post he held until 2023. From 2017 to 2023, he was also a member of the Lower Saxony State Parliament.
On 19 January 2023, he was appointed Federal Minister of Defence in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet.