Per Albin Hansson

Born Oct. 28, 1885, near Malmö; died Oct. 6, 1946, in Stockholm. Swedish state and political figure.

The son of a mason, Hansson helped found the Social Democratic Youth Association of Sweden in 1903; he edited the association’s journal, Fram, from 1905 to 1909. He became a member of the administrative board of the Social Democratic Labor Party of Sweden (SDLPS) in 1908 and a member of the party’s Executive Committee in 1911. Hansson was the editor in chief of Social-Demokraten, the central organ of the SDLPS, from 1917 to 1924 and was the party’s chairman from 1925 to 1946. In 1918 he was elected a deputy to the lower chamber of the Riksdag. Hansson was defense minister in 1920, from 1921 to 1923, and from 1924 to 1926; he was prime minister from 1932 to 1936 and from 1936 to 1946. The SDLPS first led a stable government coalition under Hansson.