Krell studied sociology, politics, history and economics at the
University of Siegen and the
University of York from 1997 to 2003. From 1998 to 2005 he received a scholarship from the
Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation. Krell received his doctorate in 2006 with a comparative study of the European policies of British, German and French social democrats. From 2007 to 2016, Krell headed the Academy for Social Democracy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation and in this function was the author and editor of numerous textbooks. In 2014 he was appointed to the Basic Values Commission of the SPD. Between 2016 and 2018, Christian Krell headed the Nordic Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation based in Stockholm and responsible for Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. One focus of his work was comparative welfare state research. In November 2018, Krell was appointed professor of constitutional law and politics at the Federal University for Public Administration. In April 2019, at the suggestion of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, he was awarded the title of honorary professor. He previously worked as a lecturer at the University of Siegen. In October 2021, Krell accepted a call to the HSPV NRW (Cologne) and teaches political science and sociology there. Krell occasionally appears as an expert on current political issues for media such as BBC World,
Deutschlandfunk and other broadcasters. In addition, Krell acts as a moderator. In this capacity, he moderated the Webtalk series "Looking out". Krell's interlocutors included the French economist
Thomas Piketty, the German sociologists Andreas Reckwitz and Heinz Bude, the philosopher and social scientist Lisa Herzog and the Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph E. Stiglitz. == Research ==