Jürgen Trittin studied social sciences in Göttingen. After his studies, he worked as a research assistant, press officer and freelance journalist. He has been a member of the Green Party since 1980.

His career with the Green Party began in 1982 as executive director of the council faction of the Alternative Green List in Göttingen. From 1984 to 1985 he was press spokesman for the Green parliamentary group in Lower Saxony, before becoming a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament from 1985 to 1990 and, from 1990, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Federal and European Affairs and a member of the Bundesrat. From 1994, Jürgen Trittin was spokesman for the federal executive committee of the Green Party for 4 years. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1998. From 1998-2005 he was Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and from 2005-2009 he was deputy chairman of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group. He led the caucus from 2009-2013.

He is currently a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag and a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. From 2015-2016, Jürgen Trittin was co-chair of the Commission to Review the Financing of the Nuclear Phaseout. He has been a member of the ICEM Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board since 2019.