Rickard Sandler

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Minister for Foreign Affairs
Rickard Sandler

20th Prime Minister of Sweden
In office January 24, 1925 – June 7, 1926
Preceded by	Hjalmar Branting
Succeeded by	Carl Gustaf Ekman
In office 1932 September 24 – 1936 June 19 1936 September 28 – 1939 December 13
Preceded by	Fredrik Ramel Karl Gustaf Westman
Succeeded by	Karl Gustaf Westman Christian Günther

Born	January 29, 1884 Torsåker, Västernorrland County
Died	November 12, 1964 Stockholm
Political party	Social Democrats
Spouse	Maria Lindberg

Rickard Johannes Sandler (January 29, 1884 – November 12, 1964) was a Swedish Social Democratic politician. He served as Prime Minister of Sweden from January 24, 1925 to June 7, 1926.

1 Early life and career
2 Rise in politics
3 As Prime Minister
4 Foreign affairs
5 Other achievements
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Rickard Sandler was born in Torsåker parish in the Västernorrland County, Sweden. His father Johan Sandler was a headmaster at a folk high school and later a Member of Parliament. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Uppsala University, Rickard Sandler became a teacher at a folk high school in Kramfors (where his father was headmaster) and another in Brunnsvik. After joining the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, Sandler's political career took off. He received a Licentiate of Arts degree in 1911 at the age of 26, after which he became a member of the board of the Social Democratic Party, and would remain a member until 1952. In 1917 he became editor-in-chief for Ny Tid, a social democratic newspaper in Gothenburg.

[edit] Rise in politics

In 1918, in the government of Prime Minister Nils Edén, Sandler became Secretary of State to the Minister of Finance, Fredrik Thorsson. He continued in the same capacity when Hjalmar Branting became Prime Minister in 1920. In 1921 when Thorsson went on to start the new Ministry of Trade, Sandler took his place as the Minister of Finance, a capacity he held until 1923. In Hjalmar Brantings second government (1921 – 1923), Sandler was a Minister without Portfolio, and in the third the Minister of Trade. He took the latter position after some persuasion, as he was intent to take up a job as the headmaster of the folk high school in Brunnsvik.

[edit] As Prime Minister

When Hjalmar Branting became ill and left office before his death on February 1925, and Fredrik Thorsson who was a likely candidate to replace Branting as Prime Minister also fell sick and died, Sandler was appointed Prime Minister, at the age of 41.

As Prime Minister, Sandler had to deal with the issue of reducing the Swedish military, as had been promised during the election campaign. He was supported by the Freeminded People's Party in what became the largest disarmament in Sweden. Following disarmament, the issue of unemployment came into focus when the government annulled a decision by the Unemployment Commission (arbetslöshetskommissionen) to deny payment to workers at the Stripa mine who were on strike. The liberal and conservative parties, who held the majority seats in the riksdag (parliament), disagreed with the government, called for a vote of no confidence, and defeated the government. The 1928 elections saw Carl Gustaf Ekman of the Freeminded People's Party becoming the Prime Minister.

[edit] Foreign affairs

Rickard Sandler on his way to meet King George VII in London 1937. His wife on the left.

Sandler returned to the government in 1932 as Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he held (except for a brief period in 1936) until 1939. Sandler left the government over a disagreement with the Prime Minister about the Winter War. Sandler wanted Sweden to actively help Finland after the Soviet Union had attacked it on November 30, 1939, a stance the Prime Minister did not hold.

Now a Member of Parliament, Sandler continued to be influential in Swedish foreign policy. In 1940 he became a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs (utrikesutskottet), and the chairman from 1946 to 1964. He was also a United Nations Delegate (1947 – 1960).^[1]

[edit] Other achievements

Sandlar was Governor of Gävleborg County (1941 – 1952). He was chairman of several governmental inquiries, including the Socialization Committee (1920 – 1936), a commission appointed to audit the Swedish refugee policy during World War II, known as the Sandler Commission (1945 – 1947), and the Commission on the Constitution (1954 – 1963).

Sandler was one of the founders of The Workers' Enlightenment League (Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund ABF) in 1912. He was the main writer of the Marxist-oriented party programme of the Social Democratic Party in 1920. He published the widely-circulated statistical outline of social classes "The society as it is" (1911). Between 1926 and 1932 he was director of Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån). Sandler translated Das Kapital by Karl Marx into Swedish, and in 1943 he authored a book on literary and historic secret writings called Cipher.

[edit] References

^ (Swedish)Partiledare, PDF document from Socialdemokraterna - s-info.se

A major expansion of this article on June 23, 2006 was translated from the Swedish Wikipedia article se:Rickard Sandler.

Preceded by Fredrik Thorsson	Minister for Finance July–October 1920	Succeeded by Henric Tamm
Preceded by Fredrik Thorsson	Minister for Trade 1924–1925	Succeeded by Henric Tamm
Preceded by Hjalmar Branting	Prime Minister 1925–1926	Succeeded by Carl Gustaf Ekman
Preceded by Fredrik Ramel	Minister for Foreign Affairs 1932–1936	Succeeded by Karl Gustaf Westman
Preceded by Karl Gustaf Westman	Minister for Foreign Affairs 1936–1939	Succeeded by Christian Günther