Horst Seehofer
President of the Bundesrat
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 November 2011
Preceded by	Hannelore Kraft
Minister-President of Bavaria
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 October 2008
Deputy	Martin Zeil
Preceded by	Günther Beckstein
Chairman of the Christian Social Union
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 2008
Preceded by	Erwin Huber
Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
In office 22 November 2005 – 27 October 2008
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Renate Künast
Succeeded by	Ilse Aigner
Federal Minister of Health
In office 6 May 1992 – 26 October 1998
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl
Preceded by	Gerda Hasselfeldt
Succeeded by	Andrea Fischer
Personal details
Born	(1949-07-04) 4 July 1949 (age 62) Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany
Political party	Christian Social Union
Spouse(s)	Karin Seehofer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Official website

Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician (CSU). He served as the Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and as the Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the cabinet of Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2008. In October 2008 he became chairman of the CSU and Minister-President of Bavaria.^[1]

He is married to Karin Seehofer.

Federal Minister and Member of the Bundestag[link]

He has been a member of the Lower House of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Germany since 1980. Horst Seehofer was Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 in the cabinet of Helmut Kohl. He then became assistant chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group of the Bundestag in October 1998. Because of his disagreement with flat-rate contributions (Gesundheitsprämie) to the federal health insurance he resigned from his post on 22 November 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 2005 federal election he received 65.9 percent of the votes in his district. Seehofer was appointed Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the cabinet of Angela Merkel and stayed in office from 2005 to 2008.

Minister-President in Bavaria[link]

After his party lost more than 17% of the popular vote in the Bavarian state elections of 2008, incumbent Minister-President Günther Beckstein and Chairman of the CSU, Erwin Huber, announced their resignations.^[2][3] Seehofer was quickly proposed as their successor. At a party convention on 25 October he was affirmed as the new Chairman of the CSU with 90% of the votes, and on 27 October he was elected Minister-President by the Landtag with votes from the Free Democratic Party, forming the first coalition government in Bavaria since 1962.

During the term 2011–2012, Seehofer serves as President of the German Bundesrat. As such, he acted as acting head of state between Christian Wulff's resignation on 17 February 2012^{[4][5][6][7][8]} and the election of Joachim Gauck on 18 March 2012.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Horst Seehofer

• Official Site of Seehofer
• Official Bavarian government website Biography of Horst Seehofer (German)

v t e The First Merkel Cabinet, 22 November 2005 – 28 October 2009 Franz Müntefering/Olaf Scholz (since 22 Nov 2007) (SPD) | Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) | Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) | Brigitte Zypries (SPD) | Peer Steinbrück (SPD) | Michael Glos/Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (since 10 Feb 2009) (CSU) | Horst Seehofer/Ilse Aigner (since 31 Oct 2008) (CSU) | Franz Josef Jung (CDU) | Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) | Ulla Schmidt (SPD) | Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) | Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) | Annette Schavan (CDU) | Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD) | Thomas de Maizière (CDU)

v t e Ministers-President of the Free State of Bavaria Revolutionary period (1918-1919) Kurt Eisner Martin Segitz (acting) Weimar period (1919-1933) Johannes Hoffmann Gustav Ritter von Kahr Graf von Lerchenfeld-Köfering Eugen von Knilling Heinrich Held Nazi period (1933-1945) Ludwig Siebert Paul Giesler Modern Bavaria (since 1945) Fritz Schäffer Wilhelm Hoegner Hans Ehard Wilhelm Hoegner Hanns Seidel Hans Ehard Alfons Goppel Franz Josef Strauss Max Streibl Edmund Stoiber Günther Beckstein Horst Seehofer

v t e Current heads of government of the States of Germany States Winfried Kretschmann (Baden-Württemberg) · Horst Seehofer (Bavaria) · Klaus Wowereit (Berlin) · Matthias Platzeck (Brandenburg) · Jens Böhrnsen (Bremen) · Olaf Scholz (Hamburg) · Volker Bouffier (Hesse) · David McAllister (Lower Saxony) · Erwin Sellering (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) · Hannelore Kraft (North Rhine-Westphalia) · Kurt Beck (Rhineland-Palatinate) · Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Saarland) · Stanislaw Tillich (Saxony) · Reiner Haseloff (Saxony-Anhalt) · Peter Harry Carstensen (Schleswig-Holstein) · Christine Lieberknecht (Thuringia) Italic = President of Federal Council