Wilfried Telkämper studied History and German at universities in Münster and Freiburg (1977-1979). He worked as a teacher and he also was an activist of the German Greens.
On behalf of this party, in 1987, he was elected to the European Parliament and he remained as an MEP until 1999. During that period he was Vice-President of the European Parliament (1989-1992), member of the Delegation for relations with the Member States of ASEAN and the ASEAN Interparliamentary Organisation (AIPO) and the Republic of Korea, member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation, Vice-President of the Parliament's Bureau, member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and member of the Membres fron the European Parliament to the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribben and Pacific States and the EEC (ACP-EEC).
On June 16, 2007, he joined the party congress of Die Linke. For the European elections in 2009 Telkämper was placed on the 14th place on the list on March 1, 2009 at the European Congress of the party Die Linke.
Since July 1, 2010 he has been director of the Center for International Dialogue and Cooperation (ZID), an institution of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.