Torsten Nilsson
Harald Leonard Torsten Nilsson ( born April 1, 1905 in Nevishög, Malmo County, † December 14, 1997 in församling Oscars, Stockholm ) was a Swedish politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ).
Life
After Realexamen he completed an apprenticeship in Germany and then worked 1922-1929 as a bricklayer.
In addition, he began his political career within the Social Democratic Labour Party and became first secretary of the Youth League in 1927 in Skåne. In 1934 he was elected chairman of the youth organization of the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( Sveriges socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbund ) as the successor to Adolf Wallentheim. This post he held for six years until his replacement by Ossian Sehlstedt in 1940.
Subsequently, he was party secretary of the Social Democrats in 1940 as the successor to Anders Nilsson, and in 1941 member of the Reichstag. In 1945 he handed over the post of party secretary to Sven Andersson after he was appointed itself to the communications minister in the government of Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and held that office under Hansson's successor Tage Erlander.
As part of a reshuffle Erlander appointed him on October 1, 1951, first as Minister of Defence and then when a new government reshuffle on 22 March 1957 to the Minister of Social Affairs. As such, he carried out numerous reforms such as the retirement pension.
In another reshuffle Erlander finally called him on September 19, 1962 as the successor to Easts Undén as Foreign Minister of Sweden. This function held Nilsson nearly nine years until 30 June 1971. As Foreign Minister, he proposed on January 1, 1969 North Vietnam in a telegram to establish diplomatic relations before. Thus Sweden was the first western country to recognize North Vietnam.
After retiring from the Reichstag 1976, Nilsson drew largely withdrew from political life.
External links and sources
- Meyers Lexicon Great people, Mannheim 1968, p 953
- Torsten Nilsson in Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available )