"Things couldn't go fast enough for me"

In May 2000, you opened the Red Tower Gallery in the heart of the city in a ceremony with former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Was it a load off your mind at that moment when you cut the ribbon? Because, as we hear, the financing was on shaky ground.

I said at the time that building in Chemnitz city centre was like squaring the circle. Because potential investors had already backed out. We had the dilemma that immediately after reunification, almost during it, a lot of retail had been built outside the city centre, for example in Röhrsdorf. The purchasing power was therefore outside the city centre. That's why no investor or retail chain wanted to start building in the city centre. Everyone waited for each other and said that if someone started, we would follow suit.

The Galerie Roter Turm was the first major investment in the city centre. But the financing from the investor Sachsenbau was not secured. GGG stepped in with a loan of DM 120 million, the project was completed and the gallery was sold to a fund.

I was then able to go to Metro AG in Cologne, to which Kaufhof belonged at the time, and say, now it's your turn. This is how Galeria Kaufhof and, a short time later, Peek and Cloppenburg came about. The architects were world stars Hans Kollhoff, Helmut Jahn and Christoph Ingenhoven.

Would you do it differently or the same today?

Something had to be done to bring urbanity to the city centre. It had something to do with quality of life. There were huge wastelands and you could see the town hall standing alone a kilometre away. I have always said that if we want to promote industry, attract industrial investors and scientists to Chemnitz, we need quality of life in the city centre.

Of course, there were discussions about whether we needed so much expensive art and culture in the city. The opinion was often that the main thing is that we have jobs. But it all belongs together. Not everyone realised that at the time.

In his 16 years in the town hall, 13 of them as Lord Mayor, Dr Peter Seifert focused on two core areas. The development of the city centre and the preservation and redevelopment of the industrial cores during and after the Treuhand period. "We are neither Leipzig nor Dresden. We are not a city of civil servants, we don't have this big trade fair centre or an airport. Chemnitz has always been a city of industry. These centres had to be preserved. That was our only chance. And we succeeded," says Seifert. During his time in office, city-defining buildings were constructed. Chemnitz was the first East German city to have a synagogue, the former savings bank building became the Gunzenhauser Museum, the trade fair centre and the Hartmannhalle were built, the Esche Villa and the TIETZ cultural department stores' were renovated - all milestones in the city's history. But for Peter Seifert, it's not just the buildings that count, but even more the people of Chemnitz who voted for him and the people he has worked with.

What are you most proud of?

Oh, I'm proud of the people I worked with directly. They were really good people. Also the mayors Frank Motzkus from Düsseldorf and Ralf-Joachim Fischer from Constance as well as the then GGG boss Peter Naujokat. We got things done together in Chemnitz. Back then, there was the concept of a gang of four: Motzkus, Fischer, Naujokat and Seifert. Everything that had to do with urban development passed across our table and one stood up for the other.

Looking back on your 13 years as mayor, is there anything you wouldn't do again?

I don't want to sound arrogant, but no, I think we were able to avoid serious mistakes.

Peter Seifert was a good athlete, a sprinter. He also loved football. But he never became a successful footballer. He was always faster than the ball. That's why athletics remained his great passion to this day. But sport brought him what was probably the biggest annoyance of his time in office. He wanted to bring the 2002 European Athletics Championships to Chemnitz. But the Free State of Saxony did not play ball. And so the 2002 European Championships were held in Munich.

A missed opportunity that still hurts today?

Yes, it still hurts. Because we had largely secured this European Championship. Kurt Biedenkopf, the then Minister President of Saxony, undoubtedly had his strengths, but unfortunately they weren't in sport. He had no interest in that. It simply didn't interest him. And yet the award to Chemnitz was actually already a done deal.

I had already clarified the funding with the Ministry of the Interior, which was still based in Bonn at the time. It was one-third financing. The stadium in Chemnitz was to cost DM 100 million. The architectural design by Kulka was available and it was clear within the European Athletics Association that Germany would be awarded the contract for this European Championship. And within the German Athletics Association it was clear that if an East German city applied, it should be the organiser. And we were the only East German bidder.

In 1996, the European Championships were awarded by the German Athletics Association. And Kurt Biedenkopf repeatedly expressed reservations, whether out of ignorance or for other reasons. He never understood or wanted to understand that construction of the stadium would only begin after the contract had been awarded. The risk was allegedly too great for him that he would pledge funding, we would use it to build a stadium and ultimately not get the European Championship at all. That was simply nonsense. In any case, he then said that the Free State of Saxony would not be involved.

At the meeting of the German Athletics Association in Cologne in June 1996, the contract was finally awarded. People looked at me in disbelief when I said that we would have to withdraw. Munich then stepped in.

Athletics was and still is Dr Peter Seifert's passion. He founded the Chemnitz Athletics Club (LAC) after reunification. At a meeting in Chemnitz, Seifert showed Helmut Meyer, then President of the German Athletics Association, the conditions under which the runners trained back then. "Our 400 metre runners were all world class. Thomas Schönlebe became world champion in 1987, the only European to this day. There were also Rico Lieder and Jens Carlowitz, who all ran the 400 metres in under 45 seconds. I wanted to show the DLV president the training conditions in the Sportforum, the so-called tube. It was a 120 metre long "hall" made of garage parts, unheated. When he saw it, he promised us the second athletics hall in East Germany, after Erfurt. That's what happened in 1994."

One of the highlights of Seifert's time in office was the reception for the Olympians who returned from the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and were greeted by thousands of Chemnitz residents. First and foremost the gold medallists Jens Fiedler (track cycling), Lars Riedel and Ilke Wyludda (discus).

Rumour still has it that you were a speedy driver. The mayor's office had ordered a driver for a business trip to Bonn. There were many roadworks and speed limits on the A4 motorway. The driver drove in an exemplary manner. However, he had to stop near Erfurt and move into the passenger seat. You were going too slowly. So you drove the driver to Bonn and back again. How many points did you have in Flensburg?

I had some (laughs). I also had to walk for four weeks once. Fortunately, the press didn't find out at the time. Because that doesn't make you a role model, of course.

But for me, things couldn't go fast enough. No matter whether I was driving or dealing with important administrative procedures. I often found it very difficult to be patient. I pulled a lot of things onto my desk. In my first few years as Lord Mayor, it felt like I was working a 100-hour week. I was never home before midnight. I had taken on a task that was incredibly difficult at the time. Investors passed Chemnitz by because we couldn't offer a single square metre of undeveloped commercial space. We then developed the first industrial estate in 1993, and twelve more followed.

I remember the early days as mayor: every Friday I had all the offices that were involved in investment projects together at one table - i.e. real estate, repossession claims, construction planning, the environment, etc. I didn't want the issues to be dealt with by other departments. I didn't want the issues to move from one office to the next; instead, decisions had to be made quickly. In the end, it paid off, but it was tedious.

Was it an advantage that you were not an administrative expert or lawyer?

At least I didn't see it as a disadvantage to have come from a different background. I was often asked by my West German colleagues how I, as a graduate engineer, could manage the position of Lord Mayor.

In industry under GDR conditions, we were used to coming up with solutions under difficult conditions. I think it's an advantage for a mayor to have previously worked in business and not to have grown out of politics. Chemnitz is a city of engineers, inventors and technicians anyway. That is our tradition.

What have you been doing since you left the town hall in 2006? What are you doing now?

I deliberately didn't do anything that was directly related to my work up until then. But you have to know what you do with your time. I am a person who always has to have meaningful tasks. That's still the case today.

I was very involved in the university. I was Chairman of the Chemnitz University of Technology for two legislative periods, ten years in total, until January of this year. I have been Chairman of the Chemnitz University of Technology's Friends' Association since 2006. I was very involved in setting up a foundation at Chemnitz University of Technology. All on a voluntary basis. The university is still very close to my heart. I am also still President of the LAC.

It's never been boring in the past 15 years. Except for the first time during the pandemic, when I often got up and thought about what I was doing today. That's terrible. I've never felt that way before. The day was always planned out.

And what did you do then?

I looked after the house and farm, and my two children and their families are in Chemnitz. I have four grandchildren who bring me a lot of joy. That's very important in old age.

You are described as a strategist who has always thought about the next generation. How do you see the development of Chemnitz over the past 15 years?

We have developed well. We are excellently positioned in many areas of business and science, but this is not always recognised, for example in the development of technical software, lightweight structural engineering or autonomous driving. Our industrial companies are modern businesses with high export shares. We have a good technical university. We need to maintain and further develop this. We will not be a city of services.

My former colleague in Leipzig, Hinrich Lehmann-Grube, focussed on the things that made Leipzig strong. The trade fair centre, airport, media, insurance companies, banks - classic service industries. He didn't really look at industry.

We only had one chance: to focus primarily on industry and manufacturing. That was my firm conviction. After the political turnaround, many people told me to let industry go. That's yesterday's news. But far from it: manufacturing industry is the guarantor of our prosperity in the city. Yesterday and still today. Germany needs more value creation and a stronger focus on the technical sciences.

How are you celebrating your 80th birthday?

I'm travelling with the families of my two children to the Baltic Sea. We've rented a holiday home there.

What do you want for Chemnitz by 2025?

It's really great work that has been done here for the Capital of Culture 2025 project. I assume that something will be made of this title. We still have an image problem. The image needs to be polished up. Culture is indispensable for this. But this also requires even greater self-confidence on the part of the people of Chemnitz. They can be really proud of what they have achieved. We still have some catching up to do.