Not even a thousand days have passed since Nils Hilmer moved into his office overlooking the Landwehr Canal in Berlin-Tiergarten. But for the Social Democrat born in Hanover in 1981, it must seem like an eternity: He was promoted to State Secretary in March 2023, just a few weeks after Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz brought Boris Pistorius, Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, to Berlin to head the Ministry of Defense.