Daniel François Malan

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Daniel François Malan

Daniel François Malan (born May 22, 1874 on the Allesverloren farm near Riebeeck Kasteel , Cape Colony ; † February 7, 1959 in Stellenbosch ) was a Dutch Reformed theologian, chancellor of Stellenbosch University and Prime Minister of the South African Union from 1948 to 1954 as well as a leading member of the Boer- nationalist National Party (NP).

Life

education

Malan studied at Victoria College in Stellenbosch, where he first did a bachelor's degree in mathematics and natural sciences, and then studied Reformed theology. After Malan had already obtained a master’s degree in philosophy, he temporarily left South Africa in 1900 and continued his theological studies in the Netherlands in 1901 at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht , where he received his doctorate in 1905 with a thesis on George Berkeley’s “concept of God” ( Doctor of Divinity) ( DD).

Activity as a clergyman

After his return he first became a pastor in the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk and actively campaigned for the acceptance of Afrikaans as an official language. In this role, Malan worked in several places in southern Africa. a. in Montagu . His travels as a preacher took him to what was then southern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo .

Journalist and early politicization

In 1915, Malan joined the National Party (NP) and was the first editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Die Burger (then still Dutch De Burger ) in Cape Town, which was influenced by it and which represented positions critical of the government during the First World War . His political profile took shape with the growing awareness as an Afrikaans . During this time he took over the leadership of the NP association in what was then the Cape Province . In the parliamentary elections of 1915 he was defeated by another candidate, but could be sure of the support to take his position if he lost his mandate.

Parliamentary work and ministerial office

In 1918 he became a member of the Parliament of the Union of South Africa. After the miners' strike of 1922 on the Witwatersrand, during which the Smuts government lost a lot of its popularity, the Boer nationalists gained political influence. This resulted in the government of Barry Hertzog and Frederic Creswell in the 1924 election . In the course of the formation of the cabinet, Malan took over the departmental responsibility as Minister of the Interior, Education and Health ( Afrikaans : Minister van Onderwys en van Binnelandse Sake en Volksgesondheid ) under the then Prime Minister Hertzog.

His influence at that time was already very great. In 1925 he succeeded in changing the South Africa Act of 1909, as a result of which the formulation "The people of the Union acknowledge the sovereignty and guidance of Almighty God" (German for example: "The people of the Union recognize the rule and leadership of Almighty God" ) was established as a constitutional requirement ( South Africa Act of 1909 Amendment Act ( Act No. 9/1925 )). This change in the law was confirmed by the governor-general in the Dutch language variant. There was no comparable wording in the original version of the founding law passed by the British Parliament ( South Africa Act, 1909 ). In the same year, with the replacement of Dutch by Afrikaans as the second state language alongside English, he achieved his party's goal of giving Afrikaans official recognition. Another law promoted by him at this time stipulated that all newspaper articles appearing during a phase of parliamentary elections had to bear the name of their author, as they could have an influence on the election results.

Because the parliamentary elections of 1929 continued to be successful for the nationalists, Malan was able to continue his work in the government. The effects of the Great Depression since 1929 also came under enormous pressure, which led to an all-party alliance in the politics of the South African Union in 1933. This resulted in the merger of the South African Party with the Nasionale Party to form the United National South African Party in 1934 .

Opposition work in parliament and in society

Undeterred, following his positions on racial segregation, which was considered necessary, as well as a future Boer-dominated South African state, supported by 19 African MPs, Malan refused to join forces with the von Smuts party. He left the NP and in October 1934 with his followers founded the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (GNP, English: Purified National Party , German about: " Purified National Party "). From this point on, he himself took on the role of opposition leader in parliament. In the May 1938 elections, the Purified National Party won 27 seats.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Malan was in political alliance with Ossewabrandwag leader Hans van Rensburg , Nuwe Orde exponent Oswald Pirow , African party chairman Nicolaas Christiaan Havenga, and representatives from extremist groups such as the Gryshemde and Swarthemde , who at the time were supporters of the National Socialism occurred.

The beginning of the Second World War exposed numerous domestic political conflicts. Several Boer nationalist MPs turned away from the United South African National Party and ran to the Herenigde Nasionale Party of People's Party, founded by Malan and other supporters on January 29, 1940 . This won a total of 43 seats in the parliamentary elections of 1943. Further domestic political controversies favored an increase in power for Boer nationalism.

Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa

After the parliamentary elections in 1948 , Malan himself became Prime Minister of the South African Union and installed the instrument of political rule in South Africa, known as the apartheid system. 1950 appointed Malan in his capacity as Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd to Minister of Native Affairs , which significantly contributed the apartheid state to develop the political, legal and socio-cultural construction. Malan promoted the fear of left and liberal political drafts, especially among the non-European population, and therefore supported the drafting and enactment of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.

Prime Minister Malan initiated the creation of a socio-economic plan for the rehabilitation and development of large-scale residential areas of the black population in order to develop them into "self-governing" homelands . To this end, he appointed the Tomlinson Commission in 1950 , which presented its comprehensive report as a future policy concept of " separate development " in 1954.

In 1954 Malan finally handed over the successor to Johannes Strijdom rather involuntarily . He had actually favored Finance Minister Nicolaas Havenga, who initially became an interim premier for a short time, but then failed to prevail.

family

In 1926 he married Martha Margaretha Elizabeth Van Tonder b. Zandberg (1897–1930), who died four years later. From this marriage two sons were born. In the 1930s he got his second marriage to Maria Ann Sophia Louw (1905–1973). They adopted a daughter.

Malan's great-nephew, Rian Malan , became a well-known writer who dealt critically with the apartheid period.

Works

  • Het idealisme van Berkeley . Utrecht, Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht ( dissertation ) 1905 ( Dutch )
  • Report of the Select Committee on Asiatics in Transvaal . Cape Town, Parliament, House of Assembly, Select Committee on Asiatics in Transvaal, 1930
  • Dr. Malan explains apartheid: speech in the Union house of assembly, Sept. 2, 1948 . London, South Africa House, publ. relations office, paper no. 9, 1948
  • Dr. Malan defines South Africa's position in the Commonwealth: the new formula . London, South Africa House, 1949
  • Buitelandse insulted the Unie van Suid-Afrika . Pretoria, Staatsinligtingskantoor van die Unie van Suid-Afrika, 1949
  • Foreign policy of the Union of South Africa (statements) . Pretoria, State Information Office of the Union of South Africa, ca.1949
  • The Prime Minister of the South African Union: The Man and Politician / DF Malan . Cape Town, 1952
  • Apartheid; South Africa's answer to a major problem / Apartheid, Suid-Afrika gee sy antwoord op n 'groot problem . Pretoria, State Information Office of the Union of South Africa, 1954
  • Afrikaner-Volkseenheid en my ervarings op die pad daarheen . Cape Town 1961
  • Glo in u people: Dr. DF Malan as redenaar 1908-1954 / Samestelling, inleiding en aantekeninge deur SW Pienaar, bygestaan ​​deur JJJ Scholtz . (Collection of speeches by Malan) Kaapstad, 1964

Web links

Commons : Daniel François Malan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rosemarie Breuer: DF Malan . at www.StellenboschWriters.com (English).
  2. ^ South Africa Act, 1909. at www.media.law.wisc.edu (English).
  3. ^ South African History Online : The South African general elections: 1933 . at www.sahistory.org.za (English).
  4. ^ South African History Online : The South African general elections: 1938 . at www.sahistory.org.za (English).
  5. ↑ Hendrik Bernardus Thom: Dr. Malan as a national figure . Manuscript for Handhaaf , Journal der Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge . Stellenbosch 1974, 6 pages. online at Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service, HB Thom Collection . at www.digital.lib.sun.ac.za (afrikaans).
  6. ^ South African History Online : Timeline of Land Dispossession and Segregation in South Africa 1948-1994. 1950 . at www.sahistory.org.za (English).
  7. ↑ online catalog: Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas within the Union of South Africa: Verslag van die Kommissie vir die Sosio-ekonomiese Ontwikkeling van die Bantoegebiede binne die Unie van Suid-Afrika . Pretoria 1954. at www.explore.up.ac.za (English) bibliographical reference to the report of the Tomlinson Commission.
personal data
SURNAME Malan, Daniel François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prime Minister of South Africa and member of the National Party
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH at Riebeeck Kasteel , Cape Colony
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1959
Place of death Stellenbosch