Ole Bjørn Kraft

Ole Bjørn Kraft (1893–1980) was a Danish journalist and politician who was the leader of the Conservative People's Party. He also served as the minister of foreign affairs.

Ole Bjørn Kraft
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
1950–1953
Prime MinisterErik Eriksen
Minister of Defense
In office
1945–1945
Prime MinisterVilhelm Buhl
Personal details
Born17 December 1893
Copenhagen
Died2 December 1980(1980-12-02) (aged 86)
Political partyConservative People's Party
ProfessionJournalist

Early life

Kraft was born in Copenhagen on 17 December 1893.[1] He studied journalism at the University of Copenhagen.[2] He and Max Kjaer-Hansen, his friend from the University of Copenhagen, formed the West Indian Society of Danish Academics to reinforce the protests over the sale of Virgin Islands.[2] Although their attempt was not a success, it paved the way for the establishment of the Det unge Danmark (Danish: The Young Denmark).[2] The group was established just before World War I and supported imperialistic, ethno-nationalist and anti-liberal views.[3][4]

Career

Kraft began his career as a journalist. In 1918 he edited a magazine entitled Det nye Tid which was affiliated with the Det unge Danmark.[1] From May 1919 he worked for Århus Stiftstidende.[1] Then he worked for other newspapers, including Svendborg Amts Dagblad, Nationaltidendes Søndag and Fædrelandet.[1] Between 1928 and 1932 and between 1934 and 1938 he was the editor of another magazine entitled Det nye Danmark which he co-founded with the theologian Alfred Bindslev.[5]

Kraft joined the Conservative People's Party. In 1926 he was first elected to the Parliament representing Ålborg[1] and functioned as the leader of the Conservative People's Party at the Parliament.[3] In 1945 Kraft briefly served as the minister of defense.[4] In November 1947 he was elected as the political leader of the Conservative People's Party, and under his leadership the party supported the right-wing policies.[3] Kraft was a member of the Danish Committee of the European Movement which was established after the Congress of Europe organized in The Hague on 7–9 May 1948.[6] The Danish Committee was founded on 11 August and headed by Thorkil Kristensen.[6]

In 1950 Kraft was named as the foreign minister to the cabinet formed by Prime Minister Erik Eriksen.[7] Kraft remained in the office until 1953.[1] When Kraft was in office Denmark objected to the admission of Greece and Turkey into NATO, and Kraft stated that although these countries had legitimate security concerns, a Mediterranean pact could be establish by them to meet their security needs.[8] Eventually, Denmark voted against acceptance of these countries by NATO as full members.[8] In 1955 Kraft's term as the political leader of the Conservative People's Party ended, and Aksel Møller succeeded him in the post.[4] Kraft was a contributor of Berlingske Tidende and a member of the Parliament until 1964.[1]

Personal life and death

Kraft married in Aarhus in May 1919.[1] He died on 2 December 1980.[1]

He published his memoirs entitled Ung mand undervejs.[2]

Views

At the beginning of his political career Kraft's views were based on Christianity and national idealism.[4] He objected to the sale of the Virgin Islands to the USA in 1916.[2] He was among the admirers of the Italian fascism arguing that its corporative ideas should be integrated into the Danish constitution.[3] He also stated that not all Danes were the same in that some of them were more truly Danish than others.[3]

See also

References
  1. Helge Larsen. "Ole Bjørn Kraft". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish).
  2. Christian Egander Skov (Summer 2013). "Radical conservatism and Danish imperialism: the empire built "anew from scratch"". Contributions to the History of Concepts. 8 (1). doi:10.3167/Choc.2013.080104.
  3. Christian Egander Skov (2021). "A true People's Party?—The rise and fall of one nation conservatism in Denmark in the 1940s". Scandinavian Journal of History. 46 (2): 254–255, 264. doi:10.1080/03468755.2020.1815572. S2CID 225323421.
  4. "Ole Bjørn Kraft, 1893-1980" (in Danish). Danmarks Historien. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  5. Christian Houlberg Skov (2013). "Dansk radikalkonservatismes sekulærreligion". Historisk Tidsskrift (in Danish). 110 (2).
  6. Finn Laursen (2019). "The Discussion on European Union in Denmark". In Walter Lipgens; Wilfried Loth (eds.). The Struggle for European Union by Political Parties and Pressure Groups in Western European Countries 1945–1950. De Gruyter. p. 570. ISBN 978-3-11-087642-0.
  7. A.H.H. (October 1952). "Some Problems Facing Denmark". The World Today. 8 (10): 422. JSTOR 40392508.
  8. Joe R. Wilkinson (August 1956). "Denmark and Nato: The Problem of a Small State in a Collective Security System". International Organization. 10 (3): 395. doi:10.1017/S0020818300007803. S2CID 154983738.
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