Jens Otto Krag

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Jens Otto Krag
Jens Otto Krag with his wife, actress Helle Virkner , and their children, 1971.

Jens Otto Krag (born September 15, 1914 in Randers , † June 22, 1978 in Skiveren, Frederikshavn municipality ) was a Danish social democratic politician .

Origin and education

Jens Otto Krag was the son of a tobacco merchant. He studied political science and economics . In 1940 he completed his studies with the academic degree of Candidatus politices (cand. Polit.). He found employment in the Vareforsyningsdirektorat (German goods supply directorate ), which should ensure the supply of the population with important goods during the Second World War . In 1973 he was lecturer in International Politics / International Organizations at Aarhus University .

Political career

Member of Parliament and party leader

In 1947 Krag was elected to the Folketing , the Danish parliament. He remained its MP until 1973.

From 1965 to 1972 Krag was party leader of the Danish Social Democrats.

Government offices

In the same year 1947, Krag took over his first government office as Minister of Commerce (until 1950). From 1953 to 1957 he was Minister of Economic Affairs and Labor, from 1957 to 1958 Minister of Foreign Trade. From 1958 to 1962 and again in 1966/1967 he was Foreign Minister.

From 1962 to 1968 and again in 1971/1972 Krag was Danish Prime Minister . With great personal commitment he successfully campaigned for Denmark to join the EEC .

"Father of the Welfare State"

As secretary of his party's socialization committee, Krag gained decisive influence on their work program Fremtidens Danmark (The Denmark of the Future) in 1945 , earning him the nickname Fremtidens Krag (Future Krag) and the reputation of being the ideological leader of the modern Danish welfare state. The program contained a number of far-reaching reform proposals intended to retain communist-oriented voters, e. B. planned economy elements, democratization of economic life by strengthening the works councils, state-controlled banking and insurance. However, only comparatively moderate approaches were implemented: redistribution through income-equalizing tax policy, striving for full employment, increased socio-political activity by the state.

With Jørgen Paldam, Per Hækkerup , Lis Groes and Henning Friis, Krag belongs to a group of social democratic economists who pushed ahead with the expansion of the welfare state in the 1950s and 60s . Krag was recognized as having great talent for quick reception and concise formulations, but he is not considered an original thinker. The Keynesian financial and economic policies of his government followed the European trend. In 1963, the Krag government implemented the largest complex of economic laws to date, the so-called helhedsløsning (total solution); however, its effect was brief and superficial.

Krag recognized early on how important the economic basis and thus the European market was for the Danish welfare society. Not least because of this, he resolutely campaigned for his country's membership of the EEC, for which he was able to win a clear majority in a referendum in 1972.

The last few years

After the referendum won in 1972, Krag resigned from all offices. His marriage to the popular Danish actress Helle Virkner divorced after 14 years in 1973. He increasingly avoided the public and devoted himself to his memoirs and painting in his house in Skiveren near Aalbæk .

Jens Otto Krag's grave is in the Vestre Kirkegård cemetery in Copenhagen .

Honors

In 1966 he received the International Charlemagne Prize of the city of Aachen “in recognition of his services to European economic cooperation and a common defense policy”.

literature

Web links

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Denmark's political prodigy . In: Die Zeit , No. 36/1962.
  2. ↑ The degree of a Candidatus politices is comparable to that of a Magister in Political Science .
personal data
SURNAME Krag, Jens Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish politician (social democrat), member of the Folketing
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Randers
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1978
Place of death Ski venues