Career
He was elected to the Parliament of Bremen in 1955 and served as deputy chair of his party group 1966–1968, before being elected chairman During the Nazi era, he was active in the anti-Nazi resistance, and was imprisoned from 1936 to 1939 as a political prisoner. In 1942, he was conscripted into the 999th Light Afrika Division, a penal military unit
He was taken prisoner of war by the Americans in 1943 and repatriated in 1946.
He was elected chair of the works council of AG Weser, his employer, in 1951, and served in this capacity until 1979. The election of Böhrnsen, a social democrat, to this position, meant the communists were finally ousted from influence in the works council.
He was the father of Social Democratic Party of Germany politician Jens Böhrnsen, who would hold the same position as his father did and eventually become Mayor of Bremen. A street in Bremen-Gröpelingen is named in his honour.
