12 Facts About Franz Seldte

Tobias Wilhelm Franz Seldte was a German reactionary politician who served as the Reich Minister for Labour in Nazi Germany.

Franz Seldte attended the Wilhelm-Raabe-Gymnasium in Magdeburg and, after an apprenticeship as a salesman, studied chemistry at the universities of Braunschweig and Greifswald.

Franz Seldte became a member of the national conservative German National People's Party and was a member of the Magdeburg city council.

However, Franz Seldte hoped that the organization could become a leading organ of a united right-wing movement.

In 1931 Franz Seldte helped create the short-lived Harzburg Front, a right-wing alliance against the government of Muller's successor Heinrich Bruning.

Nevertheless, Franz Seldte obtained a seat in the Reichstag as a DNVP "guest".

Franz Seldte was made a member of the Academy for German Law.

In March 1934 Franz Seldte was made the federal leader of the Nation zialistischer Deutscher frontkampfer-Bund , a successor organization of Der Stahlhelm, which however was disbanded in November 1935.

Franz Seldte was a member of the Prussian state government as Prussian Labour Minister from 1 April 1935, in the cabinet of Minister President Hermann Goring.

In 1935 Franz Seldte requested to be released from official responsibilities, but Hitler refused.

Franz Seldte was captured at the end of the war and imprisoned in Camp Ashcan in Mondorf-les-Bains.

Franz Seldte died in a US military hospital in April 1947 at Furth, before the Nuremberg Tribunal had the chance to formally try him on the charges.