Horst Seehofer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born July 4, 1949 in Ingolstadt) is a German politician (CSU). He was Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and now serves as Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.

[edit] Life and Profession

He is a son of a truck driver and construction worker. Seehofer graduated, after the secondary school level I certificate in 1965, in administration and passed the management exam for the higher level in 1970. Afterwards until 1980 he worked at the district offices of Ingolstadt and Eichstätt. Besides, from 1974 to 1980 he was the director of the Association of Planning and Administration for the Region of Ingolstadt. He studied at the Academy for Administration and Economy in Munich and finished with an academic degree as public official in nontechnical service (Diplom-Verwaltungswirt) in 1979.

In 1969 he joined the Junge Union (Young Christian Democrats) and in 1971 the CSU.

Horst Seehofer is married and has three children.

[edit] Member of the Bundestag

Since 1980 he is a member of the Lower House of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Germany. Since October 1998 he was assistant chairman of the CDU/CSU faction of the Bundestag. Because of disagreements concerning a co-pay (Gesundheitsprämie) for the federal health insurance, which he rejected, he resigned from that post on November 22, 2004, but remained the assistant chairman of the CSU and kept his mandate.

Since joining the Bundestag Horst Seehofer has kept his mandate as a directly elected delegate (Direktkandidat) from his Constituency Ingolstadt. At the German federal election, 2005 he received 65.9 percent of the first votes.

Preceded by: Gerda Hasselfeldt	Federal Minister for Health and Social Security (Germany) 1992-1998	Succeeded by: Andrea Fischer
Preceded by: Jürgen Trittin	Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Germany) 2005-	Succeeded by: incumbent