H.C. Hansen took over as Prime Minister upon the sudden death of Hans Hedtoft in 1955. H.C. is especially remembered for the introduction of the state pension in 1957 and for his single-handed, secret double game about nuclear weapons on Danish soil.

Hans Christian Svane Hansen was born on November 8, 1906 in Aarhus, and died on February 19, 1960.

H.C. was chairman of DSU 1933-37 and became a member of the Danish Parliament in 1936. In the period 1939-41 and again 1945-53, he was party secretary in the Social Democratic Party.

He served as finance minister in the coalition government in 1945 and again in the first Hedtoft government 1947-50. In the second Hedtoft government, H.C. Hansen was Minister of Foreign Affairs 1953-55, and took over the Ministry of State after Hedtoft’s sudden death in 1955. He continued as Foreign Minister until 1958 and as Prime Minister until his death in 1960.

Portrait of H.C. Hansen, 1957.

H.C. Hansen’s archive contains important material that sheds light on political conditions during the occupation of Denmark. An important issue in the 1950s was Denmark’s security and possible assistance from the NATO alliance. The stationing of foreign troops and equipment was discussed in 1952. A significant political problem arose in 1957 when a new government was formed. A majority could be achieved if the Social Democratic-Radical Alliance could cooperate with the Justice League.

A significant problem was the radicals’ reservations on the defense issue. In the fall of 1957, H.C. Hansen unilaterally and without informing either the government or the Foreign Policy Committee gave the green light for the US to station nuclear weapons in Denmark at the Thule base in Greenland, which at that time was a Danish county. That same year, the government had voted against nuclear weapons on Danish soil, a ban that H.C. Hansen himself had campaigned for in connection with the election that spring.

H.C. Hansen’s archive, like his predecessor Hans Hedtoft’s, contains a large collection of speeches, articles and correspondence. A large part of H.C. Hansen’s political work can be documented in the Social Democratic Archives.