Kurt Seibt was chairman of the Central Revision Commission of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands; SED) and East Germany's Minister for Direction and Control of Regional and District Councils.

Biography

Seibt completed training as a metal spinner in 1922-1926 and worked until 1933 as a civil engineering worker and a stone setter. In 1922, he joined the Socialist Worker Youth, in 1924 the Young Communist League of Germany

Young Communist League of Germany

The Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925...

 (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands; KJVD) and in 1932 the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

 (KPD). From 1927 to 1930, he was First Secretary of the KJVD subdistrict of Berlin-Kreuzberg, from 1930 to 1931 State Youth Leader of the Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

 Red Sport Unit (Rote Sporteinheit) and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg KJVD district leadership.

From 1934 to 1939, Seibt was a stagehand and a theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 master at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, and also a member of the outlawed KPD's party leadership. In 1939 he was arrested and in 1941, he was sentenced by the Volksgerichtshof to life at hard labour in a Zuchthaus for "undermining German fighting forces and conspiracy to commit high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

". Thereafter he was an inmate at Brandenburg-Görden Prison

Brandenburg-Görden Prison

Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden section of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. It was a Zuchthaus for inmates with lengthy or life sentences at hard labor, as well as...

 in Brandenburg an der Havel until 1945.

From 1945 to 1946, Seibt was the first secretary of the Brandenburg district leadership and a member of the KPD Brandenburg state leadership. From 1946 to 1952, he was secretary of the SED Brandenburg state leadership, and from 1947 to 1952, he was a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg

Landtag of Brandenburg

The Landtag of Brandenburg is the unicameral legislature of the state of Brandenburg in Germany.It has 88 members of parliament, currently belonging to four parties.-History:...

. From 1952 to 1964, he was first secretary of the SED Potsdam

Potsdam

Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

 district leadership, although this was interrupted by his studies at the CPSU

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

 Party College in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in 1956-1957. Moreover, he was from 1950 a candidate, from 1954 to 1989 a member of the SED Central Committee, and from 1953 to 1989 a Member of the Volkskammer

Volkskammer

The People's Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic . From its founding in 1949 until the first free elections on 18 March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected on a slate controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , called the National Front...

.

From 1964 to 1966, Seibt was Minister for Direction and Control of Regional and District Councils and a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, and from 1967 to 1989, succeeding Fritz Gäbler

Fritz Gäbler

Fritz Gäbler was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and communist from the GDR. Gäbler was chairman of the SED Central Revision Commission. He was born in 1897 and he died in 1974.-See also:*Kurt Seibt...

, he was chairman of the SED Central Revision Commission.

Seibt received the Fatherland Order of Merit (Vaterländischer Verdienstorden) in 1965, the Karl-Marx-Orden in 1968 and 1988, the Clip of Honour for the Fatherland Order of Merit in 1973, the Star of the Friendship of Peoples (Stern der Völkerfreundschaft) in 1978, and the Great Star of the Friendship of Peoples (Großer Stern der Völkerfreundschaft) in 1983.

External links

• Helmut Müller-Enbergs and Elke Reuter. Wer war wer in der DDR? (Who was who in the German Democratic Republic?) Entry for Seibt, Kurt. 4th Edition, Vol. 2. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin (2006) ISBN 3-86153-364-2