Get a quick overview of Stauning’s political achievements with six milestones

1. The fight for democracy

Stauning said of himself that he was first and foremost a democrat, then a socialist. His interest in politics came from his home, where he read the Social Democrat newspaper and attended the party’s first meetings. Stauning believed that without a social democracy and a politically aware working class, there was no basis for democracy in Denmark. Democratic government was to bring equality and community into society, but was also a bulwark against communism and Nazism.

2. The Easter crisis of 1920

Stauning had to bring all his tactical skills and vigor into play when he managed to avert a serious crisis during the Easter Crisis in 1920 following King Christian the 10th’s dismissal of the radical Prime Minister Zahle’s ministry.

3. The Kanslergade settlement

On the night of January 30, 1933, in Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning’s apartment on Kanslergade in Copenhagen, the government (the Radical Left and the Social Democrats) together with the Liberal Party entered into the most famous settlement in Danish history. The settlement was an attempt to avoid a major conflict caused by the economic crisis and rampant unemployment. Among other things, it meant that lockouts and strikes were banned for one year. All collective agreements were extended by one year, and agriculture was given a so-called meat scheme, which meant that in order to raise prices for agricultural products, the state bought cattle for destruction and distributed the beef to the unemployed. The Chancellery Settlement and Social Minister K.K. Steincke’s social reform (from May 1933) laid the foundation for today’s welfare state with agricultural subsidies, welfare, accident insurance and unemployment benefits.

4. “Denmark for the People”

A planned economic program written by Stauning in 1934 and a declaration of confidence in the people’s government as a secure foundation to protect against regimes built on violence. State regulation rather than aimlessness was the way forward – cooperation between classes for the common good was the solution.

5. Stauning or chaos

The famous slogan from the 1935 election campaign. The Social Democrats received more than 46% of the vote, giving them 68 of the 149 parliamentary seats. This is the largest support for any party in the history of Denmark. Stauning was in many ways the founder of modern social democracy, for whom socialism was still a vision of the future. Regulation and control of capitalism was the means to rebuild a fair, more balanced and democratic society. The victory gave Stauning the status of ‘Father of the Nation’, and the Social Democratic Party, as a popular party, also gained supporters from large population groups outside the working class.

6. The coalition government and the war

To protect Denmark against a future world war, Stauning tried in vain to form a neutrality alliance with the other Nordic countries. In 1939, Stauning realized that national cooperation between the parties was Denmark’s survival option against the militarily superior Germany. Denmark’s weapon was organization and unity as opposed to violence. Until his death in May 1942, Stauning carried the policy of cooperation on his shoulders, despite the many humiliations. The price was high, and the policy of cooperation did not earn him a heroic place in history, but Denmark emerged from the war with less destruction and losses than many other occupied countries.

Back to Denmark’s Stauning