Niels Matthiasen

Niels Peter Jacob Matthiasen (born July 21, 1924 in Copenhagen , † February 16, 1980 in London ) was a social democratic politician of the Social Democrats who was minister several times.

Life

Resistance fighters, publishers and members of parliament

Matthiasen was the son of the publisher and active social democrat Heinrich Matthiasen, who published works by Martin Andersen Nexø, among other things , for Danmark- Verlag . Through his parents, he had contact with personalities such as the social democratic politicians Thorvald Stauning , Frederik Borgbjerg and later HC Hansen as a child . At first he attended Skt. Jørgens - Gymnasium , but in 1939 he only obtained a middle school diploma and then joined his father's publishing house and worked there in various departments.

During the occupation of Denmark by the German Wehrmacht , he joined the resistance movement at the age of eighteen in 1942 and helped found the organization Frihedskampens Veteraner . In the following years he wrote articles for various social democratic, but also communist underground newspapers.

After the end of the Second World War , however, he became involved in social democrats under the influence of Hans Hedtoft and HC Hansen. In 1949 he was one of the founders of the security organization Atlantsierendenlutningen and also acted as its secretary. After the death of his father in 1954 he became head of the publishing house and held this position until 1957. In 1957 he was appointed by HC Hansen, who had been Hedtoft's successor as Prime Minister since February 1, 1955 , to head the Social Democrats' campaign team for the May 14, 1957 elections for the Folketing . Although the party suffered a slight loss of mandate compared to the Folketing elections of September 22, 1954 , he subsequently became secretary of the Social Democratic Association ( Socialdemokratisk Forbund ). In addition, he was editor of the newspaper Verdens Gang from 1958 to 1961 .

In the elections of November 15, 1960 Matthiasen was first self-elected as an MP in the Folketing and represented there first the constituency Gentofte followed since the election September 22, 1964 the constituency Gladsaxe-Amager , who he succeeded in the election on 22nd November 1966 in the constituency of Amager was elected member of the Folketing. He ultimately represented this constituency until his death, with the exception of the legislative periods between 1973 and 1975 and 1977 to 1978.

Party Secretary and Minister

After Matthiasen was elected party secretary of the Social Democrats in 1961, he carried out numerous modernizations within the party organizations and introduced modern methods of agitation and public relations work , which he made known on numerous visits to the individual party organizations and at public appearances. He held the function of party secretary until 1970 and also took on leading positions in the social democratic press. He was also a member of the board of directors of Lands Organizations i Danmark (LO), the umbrella organization of the trade unions, and chairman of the information center of the labor movement .

In these functions he took on a leading role in the new, more democratic restructuring of the party and gave a keynote address on this at the party congress of the Social Democrats in 1969. In 1969 Matthiasen, who in 1963 became chairman of the supervisory board of Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen and between 1966 and 1968 was chairman of the Social Democrats' foreign affairs committee, was also chairman of his party's cultural committee. He also served temporarily as a member of the office of the Socialist International and was editor of the newspaper Ny Politik from 1970 to 1971 .

After the electoral success of the Social Democrats in the Folketing elections on September 21, 1971 , Matthiasen was appointed Minister of Culture by Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag in his third government and held this ministerial office until December 19, 1973 in the subsequent government formed by Anker Jørgensen .

He then worked as a department head in the Nordic Council 's cultural secretariat, before being reappointed Minister of Culture by Prime Minister Jørgensen on February 13, 1975 after his party's renewed victory in the 1975 Folketing elections , and held this position until his death. As minister of culture, he campaigned for the promotion of all cultural areas and promoted music, theater and museums. This resulted in a decentralization and democratization of public funding structures. On the other hand, during his tenure, he also pushed through partially criticized personnel measures, for example by Robert Jacobsen as a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Art . Due to his long term in office and his extensive commitment, he was nicknamed "Kultur-Niels" in public. As Minister of Culture, he was also responsible for sport.

At the same time he took over the office of Minister for Public Works ( Minister for offentlige Arbejder ) between February 13, 1975 and February 26, 1977 and then from February 26, 1977 to August 30, 1978 the position of Environment Minister ( Miljøminister ).

Publications

• En Rydningsmand , 1948

Web links

• Entry in Den Store Danske Encyklopædi (online version)
• Niels KRAKS BLÅ BOG 1974

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jørgensen Governments
2. ↑ Homepage of the MILJØMINISTERIET  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.