Mr Gabriel said the North Korea missile test programme and US attempts to undermine the Iran nuclear deal were threatening to destabilise the world order.
And he said he feared a breakdown in trust on all sides had put the successes of arms control and disarmament programmes of the 1980s and 1990s in jeopardy.
Mr Gabriel was sharply critical of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s reluctance to take a firmer stand against the nuclear crisis and accused her of “running after Donald Trump’s armaments plans”.
He has previously described the US President as “a threat to peace” and urged Mrs Merkel not to cave in to Washington’s demands to ramp up Germany’s military spending.
Mr Gabriel told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “We Germans in particular must finally stand up for a new disarmament.
“Germany must be a peacemaker and not run after the armaments plans of Donald Trump, as Angela Merkel intends to unfortunately.”
And he said if relations between the US and did not improve the world would becone “dangerous, chaotic and filled with nuclear weapons”.
He said: “We are about to embark on a new global upgrade.
“New nuclear medium-range missiles in the middle of Europe are unfortunately more than likely.
“Completely destroyed relations between the United States and Russia are the biggest threat to peace on the planet.
“If North Korea can acquire nuclear weapons, many others will follow.
“Only the United States and Russia can work together to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“If the relationship between Washington and Moscow does not improve again, our children will grow up in a dangerous, disorderly and nuclear well-equipped world.”