My seat stopped working on my 1998 c280 mercedes

You have t o move the seat to its forward most position before you can move it back past its half way point

it says that in the owners manual.

i don't know if this is your problem, but i had that problem when i first tried to adjust t he seat in a Mercedes i had to drive.
i adjusted it and then forgot for almost a year and read it again and i just happened to remember that.

you have to be out of the car to do it.

some mercedes's that have power seats are designed
with this " safty factor". the drivers seats are designed so they can not be moved back ward past the half way point,,
i think that this is to ensure that even if the power seat gets moved back by accident,,, people with shorter than average legs will always have a good chance of reaching the break peddle. or maybe the mercedes is designed to accommodate people with extremely long legs and short legs and its range is so extreme that the engineers had to design in this safety.feature.
could that be the problem?

Seat fuses are in the trunk fuse box. Check to see if they bare good and that they have power. Fuses # 10,11,12,13.