Rudolf Seiters
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Rudolf Seiters, born October 13, 1937 in Osnabrück, Germany is a German politician of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party.
From 1989-1991 he was Federal Minister for Special Affairs and the Head of the Office of the German Chancellery. From 1991-1993 he was the Minister of the Interior. From 1998-2002 he was the Vice President of the German Bundestag, or Parliament. Since 2003 he has been the President of the German Red Cross.
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[edit] Life and Jobs
After graduating from the Gymnasium Carolinium in Osnabrück in 1959, Seiters graduated from the University of Münster with a degree in Jurisprudence, finishing his first examinations (roughly equivalent to bachelor's degree) in 1963, and his second examination (professional degree) in 1967. From 1968-69 he was a legal assistant in the office of the Osnabrück Department of the Economy and Social Housing. Since November, 2003 he has been the President of the German Red Cross.
He is married with three daughters and lives in Papenburg. In 2000 he was given an honorary doctorate from the Universität der Bundeswehr in Munich (University of the Military).
[edit] Party
Since 1958 he has been a member of the CDU. From 1963 till 1965 he was the Borough-president of the Osnabrück-Emsland chapter of the CDU youth organization Junge Union. Then from 1965-1968 he was the of the president of the state chapter in Hannover and from 1968-1971 of the newly founded Lower Saxony chapter. From 1967-1971 he was furthermore a member of the Federal Executive Board of the Junge Union and then from 1971-1973 a member of the Federal Managing Board of the CDU itself. From 1972-1998 he was deputy secretary of the CDU in Lower Saxony and from 1992-1998 also a member of the CDU National Executive Committee.
[edit] As a Representative
From 1969-2002 Mr. Seiters was a member of the German Parliament, the [[Bundestag ]]. There he served from 1971-1976 and from 1982-1984 as an Executive Officer (Geschäftsfuehrer) of the CDU/CSU parliamentary fraction and from 1984-1989 he was the Party's fraction Head Executive Officer. After the elections in 1994, he became the deputy Chair of the party's Bundestag fraction, a position he retained until 1998 when he became the Vice President of the Bundestag
[edit] In the Cabinet
Mr. Seiter was named on April 21, 1989 as the Federal Minister for Special Affairs and the Head of the Office of the German Chancellery. Then on November 26, 1991 he was the Minister of the Interior. On June 27, 1993 in a German Police raid in the train station of the mecklenburgian town of Bad Kleinen, both the wanted terrorist of the Red Army Faction (RAF), Wolfgang Grams, and a GSG 9 agent, Michael Newrzella, lost their lives. Seiters took responsibility for the raid and stepped down on July 4, 1993
[edit] Cabinets
Mr. Seiters was a member of the Cabinet Kohl III and Cabinet Kohl IV
[edit] Links
|Photo and short biography in German
This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of November 17, 2006.
