Hjalmar Branting

Karl Hjalmar Branting (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjǎlmar ˈbrânːtɪŋ] ; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish statesman and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Sweden on three occasions from 1920 to 1925. From 1907 until his death in 1925, Branting led the Social Democratic Party (SAP), playing a major role in advocating universal suffrage, an eight-hour workday, and other labor rights. He was also instrumental in foreign policy, including his support for the League of Nations.

In 1921, Branting shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Norwegian secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Christian Lous Lange.

Branting was supporter of the campaign of E. D. Morel claiming that French colonial troops were committing mass rapes during the occupation of the Rhineland. On 10 May 1920, Branting, declared that he believed Morel, saying that as a white man he was outraged that the French would deploy Senegalese troops in the Rhineland.

Biography

Born to the professor Lars Gabriel Branting and the noblewoman and pianist Emma af Georgii, Branting was educated in Stockholm and at Uppsala University. He developed a scientific background in mathematical astronomy and was an assistant at the Stockholm Observatory, but gave up his devotion to scientific work to become a journalist in 1884 and began editing the newspapers Tiden and Social-Demokraten. The latter was official media outlet of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. His decision to publish an article by the more radical socialist Axel Danielsson, a piece denounced by opponents as insulting to religious sensitivities, resulted in political convictions for blasphemy and imprisonment for both men. Branting was imprisoned for three months in 1888.