Hjalmar Branting

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Hjalmar Branting
16th Prime Minister of Sweden
In office March 10, 1920 – October 27, 1920 October 13, 1921 – April 19, 1923 October 18, 1924 – January 24, 1925
Preceded by	Nils Edén Oscar von Sydow Ernst Trygger
Succeeded by	Gerhard Louis De Geer Ernst Trygger Rickard Sandler
Born	November 23, 1860
Died	February 24, 1925
Political party	Social Democrats

Karl Hjalmar Branting (help·info) (November 23, 1860 – February 24, 1925) was a Swedish statesman and the country's chief Social Democratic leader. He was also the country's first Prime Minister elected through universal suffrage.

His education was in mathematical astronomy, and he was an assistant at the Stockholm Observatory; but he gave up scientific work to become a journalist in 1884. He began editing the newspaper Social-Demokraten in 1886, was together with August Palm one of the main organizers of the Swedish Social Democratic Party in 1889, and was its first Member of Parliament from 1896, and for six years the only one.

He led the Social Democrats in opposing a war to keep Norway united with Sweden. When the crisis came in 1905, he coined the slogan "Hands off Norway, King!" The Social Democrats organized resistance to a call-up of reserves and a general strike against a war, and are credited with a substantial share in preventing one.

Hjalmar Branting accepted Eduard Bernstein's revision of Marxism and became a reformist socialist, advocating a peaceful transition from capitalism towards socialism. He believed that if workers were given the vote, this could be achieved by parliamentary ways.

He was Prime Minister of Sweden, serving for three separate periods in 1920, 1922-1923, and 1924-1925. He was the first Swedish Social Democrat to be head of government.

As Prime Minister he brought Sweden into the League of Nations and was personally active as a delegate within it. Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921.

Branting supported the February Revolution in Russia in 1917. He was pro-Menshevik and defended the government of Kerensky, who he even personally visited in Petrograd. When the October Revolution broke out the same year, Branting condemned the Bolshevik seizure of power.

1917 also saw a split in the Swedish Social Democratic Party, those who supported the Mensheviks remained with Hjalmar Branting and the mother party, while those who supported the Bolsheviks broke away to form the Left Social Democratic Party, headed by Zeth Höglund. This group soon became the (original) Swedish Communist Party.

Zeth Höglund later wrote a two-volume biography about Hjalmar Branting.

[edit] See also

• Swedish general election, 1921
• The Branting Monument in Stockholm

[edit] External link

• Nobel Committee information on 1921 Laureates.

Preceded by: Nils Edén	Prime Minister of Sweden 1920	Succeeded by: Gerhard Louis De Geer
Preceded by: Oscar von Sydow	Prime Minister of Sweden 1921-1923	Succeeded by: Ernst Trygger
Preceded by: Ernst Trygger	Prime Minister of Sweden 1924-1925	Succeeded by: Rickard Sandler

Prime Ministers of Sweden

De Geer, Sr. • Posse • Thyselius • Themptander • G. Bildt • Åkerhielm • Boström • von Otter • Boström • Ramstedt • Lundeberg • Staaff • Lindman • Staaff • Hammarskjöld • Swartz • Edén • Branting • De Geer, Jr. • von Sydow • Branting • Trygger • Branting • Sandler • Ekman • Lindman • Ekman • Hamrin • Hansson • Pehrsson-Bramstorp • Hansson • Erlander • Palme • Fälldin • Ullsten • Fälldin • Palme • Carlsson • C. Bildt • Carlsson • Persson • Reinfeldt