Ralf Törngren

Ralf Törngren, 1950s

Ralf Johan Gustaf Törngren (born March 1, 1899 in Oulu , † May 16, 1961 in Turku ) was a Finnish politician and Prime Minister.

Study and job

Törngren graduated from 1922 to 1927 with a degree in economics from Åbo Akademi , a Swedish-speaking university in Turku . During his student days, he was chairman of the student union at his university from 1923 to 1924. After receiving his doctorate in 1927, he taught economics at the Åbo Akademi Business School until 1936 . In addition, from 1931 to 1948 he was treasurer of the foundation of the academy and a member of the board of directors of the local commercial college. From 1958 until his death he was rector of the commercial college. In 1958 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the commercial college. The Åbo Akademi has been awarding a sponsorship award in his honor since 2001.

In addition, he was temporarily a member of the board of directors of the Codex legal club.

Political career

He began his political career in 1936 when he was elected a member of the Reichstag , where he represented the interests of the Swedish People's Party (sfp) until his death . From 1945 to 1955 he was chairman of the sfp.

Between 1944 and his death he was a minister in several governments. First he was Minister of Social Affairs from November 1944 to 1945 and then Minister of Finance until July 1948 in the cabinets of Juho Kusti Paasikivi and Mauno Pekkala . In Urho Kekkonen's first cabinet , he was successively Minister of Social Affairs (March 1950 to 1951, 1951 to 1952), Deputy Finance Minister (1951) and Deputy Foreign Minister (1952 to November 1953). He was then from November 1953 to May 1954 Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Sakari Severi Tuomioja .

On May 5, 1954, he succeeded Tuomioja as Prime Minister and was in office until October 20, 1954.

In the presidential election in 1956 , he ran for the sfp. After the first ballot, in which he was able to unite all the votes of his 20 electors, he withdrew his candidacy. His competitor Urho Kekkonen was ultimately elected with a majority of only one vote.

From March 1956 to May 1957 Törngren was Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Karl-August Fagerholm and from January 1959 until his death in the cabinet of Vieno Sukselainen . During this time he was also Deputy Prime Minister.

Web links

Commons : Ralf Törngren  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Törngren's government declaration 1954 (Finnish) Official website of the Finnish government

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Press release on the Ralf Törngren Prize 2010 (Swedish)  ( 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. Åbo Akademi, accessed July 9, 2012  
2. ↑ Juristklubben Codex rf ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.