Robert Themptander

Oscar Robert Themptander

Oscar Robert Themptander (born February 14, 1844 in Stockholm , † January 30, 1897 ibid) was a Swedish politician and Prime Minister .

Studies and professional career

The son of a lieutenant studied law at Uppsala University , which he graduated in 1863. He then entered the public service and worked as a committee secretary in the Chancellery of the Reichstag . In 1874 he was first legal advisor and then in 1878 head of the customs authorities ( Generaltullstyrelsen ).

Political career

MP and Minister

Themptander began his political career in 1879 when he was elected member of the Second Chamber of the Reichstag. He was initially a representative of the center, but soon joined the peasant party ( Lantmannapartiet ) under Arvid Posse . During his time in parliament he was also chairman of the banking committee from 1889 to 1890, of the agriculture committee from 1891 to 1892 and of the land and shipping committee from 1894 to 1895.

Posse brought him into his government on December 7, 1880, as minister without portfolio . On March 8, 1881, he succeeded Posse as Minister of Finance. He also held this office under his successor Carl Johan Thyselius until May 16, 1884.

Prime Minister from 1884 to 1888

On May 16, 1884 he became Prime Minister himself and was Sweden's youngest Prime Minister up to that point.

Like his predecessors Louis De Geer , Posse and Thyselius, he began to solve the important army and tax reform.

In 1885, Themptander passed the Defense Act. However, he only succeeded in doing this with substantial concessions to the majority of the Reichstag: According to the Defense Act, a standing army was formed from voluntarily recruited regular troops. In addition, however, every Swede was obliged to serve in the land and sea ​​defense for 20 years , for which he was prepared through short exercises. The new law came into force on January 1, 1887. Among other things, Themptander had waived a third of the military property tax for the sake of the Peasant Party. This also encouraged the party to demand not only the complete abolition of this tax, but also the introduction of grain tariffs to protect agriculture.

When, in March 1887, the majority in the Second Chamber accepted the request for the introduction of grain and protective tariffs, Themptander dissolved the Reichstag and achieved a majority in the new elections that called for free trade . However, this decreased in the ordinary elections to the Reichstag in the autumn of 1887, especially since the highest court declared the election of the 22 free-trade representatives of Stockholm to be invalid due to a formal error and the representatives of protective tariff policy to be elected; In the First Chamber, too, the supporters of the grain tariffs increased in the by-elections. Therefore, after the opening of the new Reichstag in January 1888, the Themptander Ministry submitted his dismissal.

In view of the not yet finally decided position of the majority of the two chambers, the king commissioned Gillis Bildt to put together a moderately protective customs cabinet, which he succeeded on February 6, 1888.

Later offices

After his resignation as Prime Minister, he became District President ( Landshövding ) of Stockholm Province . He held this office until 1896.

He was then director of the Trafik AB Grängesberg-Oxelösundää industrial group until his death .

literature

• Robert Themptander . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 606 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sweden (history to the present) . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 14, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 716.