Hjalmar Branting

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Hjalmar Branting
16th Prime Minister of Sweden
In office 10 March 1920 – 27 October 1920
Preceded by	Nils Edén
Succeeded by	Louis De Geer
In office 13 October 1921 – 19 April 1923
Preceded by	Oscar von Sydow
Succeeded by	Ernst Trygger
In office 18 October 1924 – 24 January 1925
Preceded by	Ernst Trygger
Succeeded by	Rickard Sandler
Born	23 November 1860 (1860-11-23)
Died	24 February 1925 (aged 64)
Political party	Social Democrats
Spouse	Anna Branting (née Jäderin)
Signature

Karl Hjalmar Branting (help·info) (23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (1907–1925), and Prime Minister during three separate periods (1920, 1922–1923, and 1924–1925). When Branting first came to power in 1920, he was not only the first Swedish Prime Minister who took office following elections with universal suffrage, but also the first socialist politician in Europe to do so.

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. 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, the youth league and the revolutionary sections of the party broke away and formed the Social Democratic Left Party of Sweden, headed by Zeth Höglund. This group soon became the (original) Swedish Communist Party. Zeth Höglund later wrote a two-volume biography about Hjalmar Branting.

As Prime Minister he brought Sweden into the League of Nations and was personally active as a delegate within it. When the question of whether Åland should be handed over to Sweden after the independence of Finland from Russia was brought up, he let the League of Nation decide upon the issue. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921 for his work in the League of Nations.

Branting is commemorated by the Branting Monument in Stockholm.

[edit] See also

• Swedish general election, 1921

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hjalmar Branting

• Nobel Committee information on 1921 Laureates.