Areas of Expertise

Technology and geopolitics
German and European digital foreign policy
Digital and technology diplomacy
Internet and cyber governance
International cooperation and organizations (e. g. G7, G20)

Short Bio

Dr. David Hagebölling is the Private Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation and an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics and Technology at the DGAP. Previously, he was responsible for developing the Federal Government’s first Strategy for International Digital Policy and represented Germany in numerous international digital policy forums, including at the G7, G20, and OECD. His research focuses on German and European digital foreign policy, digital and technology diplomacy, and internet and cyber governance.

Before joining the federal administration, Hagebölling was a Senior Scientist at the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering and a Research Fellow at the DGAP. He was also a Visiting Researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre and at the Technical University of Munich. Earlier in his career, he gained experience at the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, and the German Investment Corporation.

Hagebölling earned his doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Oxford. He completed his trilingual bachelor’s degree at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and also studied at the London School of Economics, the University of Cologne, and Fudan University in Shanghai.