Erling Høegh

Erling Jens Peter Høegh (born June 9, 1924 in Qaqortoq ; † February 4, 1993 in Copenhagen ) was a Greenlandic politician , pastor , teacher and radio play author .

Life

Erling Høegh was in 1938 in Denmark when he during the Second World War in captivity came from which he was released only in 1948 again. He then worked as a teacher in his native city of Qaqortoq and in the capital Nuuk before he began studying theology , which he successfully completed in 1953. From then on he worked as a pastor and school inspector in Paamiut , and from 1958 back in Qaqortoq. From 1971 to 1980 he was a pastor in Sørbymagle Sogn, Denmark .

In 1955, at the age of 31, he was elected for Paamiut in Grønlands Landsråd . In 1959 he was re-elected. This time again for Qaqortoq. In the next term, however, he had to admit defeat to his own brother Oluf . For this he was active as the community council chairman of the community Qaqortoq during this time . In the 12th legislative period from 1967 he was again a member of the National Council. This year, for the first time, a regional council chairman - comparable to a parliamentary speaker - was elected, who from then on represented the highest political office in the country. This political reform was initiated by Landshøvding Niels Otto Christensen , who previously held the office ex officio . The choice for the first chairman of the regional council fell on Erling Høegh, who ran for the Danish party Det Conservative Folkeparti . With his move to Denmark he finally left Greenland politics and his successor was Lars Chemnitz , his cousin. Before that, he had failed to defend his seat in the state council against 32-year-old Jonathan Motzfeldt , who would later be one of the country's most important politicians for decades.

Since 1960 he has been a member of the Greenland Committee , which he himself co-founded. From 1959 to 1963 he was a member of the Royal Danish Trade Board of Directors and from 1967 to 1971 in the Greenland Council . He was also a member of a number of political committees, as well as the mining company administration and as vice chairman from 1972 to 1978 in Grønlandske Kirkesag. In Denmark he also worked as a radio play author. He finally died in 1993 at the age of 68 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

On June 21, 1989, he was awarded the Gold Nersornaat for his political activities . As early as 1964 he was knighted by the Order of Dannebrog .

family

Erling was the son of the blacksmith John Otto Abel Jens Høegh (1890–1966) and his wife Augusta Chemnitz (1896–1972). In 1953 he married the kindergarten teacher and theologian Agnes Irene Andersen (* 1925), daughter of the missionary Anders Andersen (1889–1981) and Henriette Schultz (1891–1973) in Helleruplund Sogn in Gentofte . His brothers include the twins Oluf Høegh (1927–2018) and Ingvar Høegh (1927–2007), also politicians. Two uncles on his father's side were Pavia Høegh (1886–1956) and Frederik Høegh (1895–1970), who, like his father, sat on the National Council. About his mother was his cousin Lars Chemnitz (1925-2006), the son of his uncle Jørgen Chemnitz (1890-1956). His ancestors included Peter Hanning Motzfeldt and Jørgen Nielsen Møller , both of whom were Greenland inspectors.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography in Dansk biografisk leksikon
2. ^ Mark Nuttall : Encyclopedia of the Arctic. P. 868