Thorvald Stauning
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Stauning was trained as a cigar sorter and soon became involved with trade union activity. From 1896 to 1908 he was leader of the Cigar Sorters' Union, in 1898-1904 also editor of the magazine Samarbejdet (Co-operation) of the Federation of Trade Unions, and elected Member of Parliament (Folketinget) in 1906.
In 1910 he was elected chairman of the Social Democratic Party, a position he retained for almost thirty years, until 1939. After participating as minister of the Cabinet of Zahle II serving 1913-1920, he returned to government as prime minister in 1924 - for the minority cabinet Cabinet of Thorvald Stauning I which would survive until 1926. His cabinet was considered ground breaking not only as it was the first purely Social Democratic cabinet, but also because a woman, Nina Bang, was appointed Minister of Education, which attracted some international attention.
From 1929 he led the successful coalition cabinet Cabinet of Thorvald Stauning II with the social liberal Det Radikale Venstre party that would steer Denmark out of the Great Depression, shaping a major political compromise that greatly improved the Danish economy, and also transformed the Social Democratic Party from a class party to a popular party.
Under Stauning's leadership Denmark, like the other Scandinavian countries, developed a social welfare state. It's often proposed that the longlived coalition cabinet, and its successful policies, actively averted the Communist and Fascist movements that were sweeping much of Europe from developing a strong following in Denmark.
Stauning's second cabinet lasted until Operation Weserübung, the Nazi occupation of Denmark began April 9, 1940, when the cabinet was widened to include all political parties, called the Cabinet of Thorvald Stauning III. Contrary to most other governments of the Nazi-invaded countries, King Christian X of Denmark and his government ordered the defence forces to give up resistance, and chose to remain in their country also under the occupation, which is believed to have contributed to the Nazi years being more lenient in Denmark than in other countries under Hitler's control.
Thorvald Stauning, whose latter government was in coalition with the Radikale party and sympathetic to its pacifist doctrines, joined other European appeasers of Hitler in trying to avoid the outbreak of war. He died in 1942, deeply depressed about the future of Social Democracy in a Nazi-dominated Europe.
Assessment
Like many other workers' leaders of his generation, such as Hjalmar Branting in Sweden, Stauning was a charismatic leader who played an important role in integrating Danish society after the social changes following the Industrial Revolution and common suffrage. His campaign slogan, "Stauning or Chaos," resonated in a nation not untouched by the economic, social and political turmoil of its neighbors and trading partners. For example, throughout the 1920s, Denmark's chief trading partner Germany was in a state of penury, due to exhaustion from World War I and vanquishment by the terms of the Versailles Treaty; and economic depression in the United States had become the world-wide Great Depression, following the failure, in 1931, of the Kreditanstalt, Austria's largest bank. This period of widespread social malaise was fertile ground for populist leaders like Roosevelt, Hitler and Mussolini, who could communicate a confident and coherent vision to the masses. Stauning was such a man for Denmark.
Though many of his ambitions for Social Democracy were ultimately thwarted, in his lifetime, by events beyond his control, his leadership through grave times places Thovald Stauning among the most admired of twentieth-century Danish statesmen.
| Preceded by: Niels Neergaard | Prime minister of Denmark 1924 – 1926 | Succeeded by: Thomas Madsen-Mygdal |
| Preceded by: Thomas Madsen-Mygdal | Prime minister of Denmark 1929 – 1942 | Succeeded by: Vilhelm Buhl |
| Preceded by: Hans Pieter Hansen | Defence minister of Denmark 1933 – 1935 | Succeeded by: Alsing E. Andersen Further reading |