Seebohm attended school in
Dresden,
Saxony and studied
mining at the universities of
Munich and
Technische Hochschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg (now
Technische Universität Berlin). Passing the
Staatsexamen in 1928, he worked as a junior civil servant at
Halle and obtained a
doctorate level degree from
Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg . He became a mining director at Silesian
Gleiwitz and
Bytom and upon the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938/39 supervised the "
Aryanization" of the mines at
Královské Poříčí (
Königswerth). After
World War II, he joined the regionalist
Lower Saxon State Party in the
British occupation zone under
Heinrich Hellwege, which in 1947 was renamed German Party (DP). Seebohm became president of the
chamber of commerce at
Braunschweig and was a member of the
Landtag state assembly of
Lower Saxony from 1946 until 1951. From 1946 until 1948 he held the office of Minister for Reconstruction, Labour and Health in
Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf's Lower Saxon state government. In the run-up to the first
federal election of 1949, he and his party fellows Hellwege and
von Merkatz negotiated a national conservative alliance with the
Deutsche Rechtspartei and
Hessian National Democrats, which however were aborted by the British occupation forces. In 1952, Seebohm was elected DP chairman, but refused to assume office.
Minister for Transport From 1949 until his death he was a member of the
Bundestag for the constituency of
Hamburg-Harburg. From 20 September 1949 until 30 November 1966 he also served as Federal Minister for Transport, firstly under Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer, who forced him to join the CDU in 1960 as he wouldn't support the DP any longer; then under
Ludwig Erhard, under whom he ultimately, but briefly, served as Vice Chancellor. Seebohm was a firm supporter of the
Bundesbahn, and went to some length to hamstring the trucking industry. In April 1953, second trailers were prohibited. In 1954 a law was passed dictating that half of all transports in Germany had to be carried by train; this would be promoted by subventioning rates for train transports. Trucking remained popular, however, due to its higher flexibility. Thus, in 1956, the rules were tightened yet more: Sunday truck traffic was prohibited, along with a host of other new restrictions. Trucks were restricted to a GVW, with a maximum axle load of , and a maximum overall length of . A minimum
power-to-weight requirement of 6 PS/tonne (max 373 lb/hp) was instituted. These various restrictions forced truck manufacturers to develop entirely new trucks meeting the ever tightening requirements, and had a detrimental effect on exports. When the 1966
grand coalition under Chancellor
Kurt Georg Kiesinger took office, he left the cabinet, having served as a federal minister for seventeen years, a record beaten only by Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher's 23 years (with an interruption in 1982) but as of 2011 still the record for uninterrupted service.
Spokesperson for the Sudeten Germans From 1959 Seebohm acted as spokesperson of the
Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft (
Sudeten German Homeland Association) of
German expellees from Czechoslovakia, where he held his so-called "weekend speeches". In line with West German government policy at the time, he questioned the borders of Germany, referring to the borders of the 1937
German Reich as base of any border revision and stating that Germans should also never forget about the
eastern territories lost after
World War I according to the resolutions of the
Treaty of Versailles, while at the same time demanding restoration of the 1938
Munich Agreement, advocating the “return of the stolen Sudeten German homeland to the Sudeten German people.” Seebohm's irredentist leanings about the Sudetenland were a source of embarrassment for the Bonn government, which had to counter West Germany didn't have any claim on these regions and causing him to be chided by Erhard. Adenauer had hoped he would have so much work to do he wouldn't have time for radical activities.
Der Spiegel described him as someone who “with never tiring energy defies Cabinet decision whenever a
demagogic opportunity presents itself.”
End of political career Seebohm died a few months after his retirement and is buried in the
Bad Pyrmont cemetery. == References ==