Social Democrats (Denmark) - Founding and History Through The 20th Century

Founding and History Through The 20th Century

The party was founded in 1871 by Louis Pio, Harald Brix og Paul Geleff. The goal was to organize the emerging working class on a democratic and socialist basis. The industrialization of Denmark had begun in the mid 19th century and a period of rapid urbanization had led to an emerging class of urban workers. The social democratic movement emerged from the desire to give this group political rights and representation in parliament.

In 1876 the Party held an annual conference, adopting the first party manifesto. The stated policy was that:

In 1884 the Social Democracy party (Socialdemokratiet), as it was called then, had their first to members of parliament elected, P. Holm and Chr. Hørdum.

In the 1924 parliamentary elections the Social democratic party won the majority with 36,6 percent of the vote, and its first government was put in place with Thorvald Stauning as prime minister. The same year he appointed the world's first female minister Nina Bang, nine years after women's suffrage had been given in Denmark. Stauning stayed in power until his death in 1942, his party laying the foundations for the Danish welfare state, based on a close collaboration between labor unions and the government.

In January 1933 Stauning's government entered into what was then the most extensive settlement yet in Danish politics — the Kanslergade settlement (Danish: Kanslergadeforliget) — with the liberal party Venstre. The settlement, which was named after Stauning's apartment in Kanslergade in Copenhagen, included extensive agricultural subsidies and reforms of the legislation and administration in the social sector. In 1935, Stauning was reelected with the famous slogan "Stauning or Chaos".

Stauning's second cabinet lasted until the Nazi occupation of Denmark in 1940, when the cabinet was widened to include all political parties, called the Cabinet of Thorvald Stauning III, and the Danish government pursued a collaborative policy with the German occupiers.