Daniel François Malan

Daniel François Malan ( May 22nd, 1874 in Riebeek West, Cape Province, † February 7, 1959 in Stellenbosch ) was Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1948 to 1954 and member of the Afrikaner National Party.

Life

Malan studied at Victoria College in Stellenbosch, where he made first a bachelor's degree in mathematics and natural sciences, then he studied Reformed theology. After Malan had already obtained a master's degree in philosophy, he left South Africa in 1900 at times and sat in the Netherlands at the University of Utrecht his theological studies continued, there he obtained in 1905 a degree as Doctor of Divinity (DD). After his return he was first minister and has been actively supporting the acceptance of Afrikaans as an official language. 1915 had Malan was the first editor of the daily newspaper Die Burger (then Dutch De Burger ).

In 1918 he became a member of the South African Parliament. 1924 took over Malan board responsibility as interior, health and education minister under the then Premier Barry Hertzog. In 1925, he reached his old goal to send Afrikaans official recognition with the exchange of the Netherlands by Afrikaans as a second state language in addition to English.

After the parliamentary elections in 1948, he was himself Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa and installed the apartheid system in South Africa. 1954 gave Malan eventually involuntarily the successor to Johannes Strijdom, he had actually finance Nicolaas Havenga favors, the first also briefly interim Prime Minister was, but then could not prevail.

Malan Rian Malan 's great-nephew was a well-known writer who took a critical look with the apartheid period.