Kurt Sieveking (21 December 1897,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

– 16 March 1986, Hamburg) was a German politician ( CDU) and First Mayor of

. On 7 September 1956 he was elected for a one-year-term as

President of the German Bundesrat In Germany, the president of the Bundesrat or president of the Federal Council (German: ''Bundesratspräsident'') is the chairperson (Speaker (politics), speaker) of the Bundesrat of Germany, Bundesrat (Federal Council). The president is elected ...

. Because his successor-elect, Governing Mayor of Berlin

Otto Suhr Otto Ernst Heinrich Hermann Suhr (17 August 1894 – 30 August 1957) was a German politician as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He served as the Governing Mayor of Berlin (i.e. West Berlin) from 1955 until his death. Lif ...

, had died on 30 August 1957, Sieveking was re-elected as President of the Bundesrat in order to avoid a vacancy. He resigned on 1 November 1957, when

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

became the new Governing Mayor of Berlin and President of the Bundesrat subsequently. Because of that, Sieveking is, as yet, the only President of the Bundesrat to be re-elected to a second consecutive term (seven other persons have held two non-consecutive one-year-terms). Sieveking was from a well known Hamburg family, his great-granduncle Friedrich Sieveking preceded him in office as First Mayor in the 1860s. Many streets and places in Hamburg were named after them: e.g. ''Sievekingsallee'', ''Sievekingdamm'' or ''Sievekingsplatz'' (53°33'19"N 9°58'34"E). In 1951, Sieveking was appointed as the

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in Stockholm and later ambassador in Sweden. In 1953, Sieveking was the candidate of the conservative parties for the office of the First Mayor. He won the election, in his office term he reformed the school system and initiated the town twinning with

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

(then ''Leningrad'') in 1957. After the election defeat he remained member of the

Hamburg Parliament The Hamburg Parliament (; literally “Hamburgish Citizenry” or, more poetically, “Hamburgish Burgess (title), Burgessry”) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. ...

. Sieveking is buried at the

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are c ...

(S25 T25 1–19.

References

1897 births 1986 deaths Presidents of the German Bundesrat Mayors of Hamburg Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Kurt {{Germany-mayor-stub