page_title: Per Albin Hansson
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Per Albin Hansson / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: The birthplace of the swedish prime minister Per Albin Hansson. The house is now a museum. It is located in Kulladal, Malmö, Sweden.
context_page_description: Per Albin Hansson was a Swedish politician, chairman of the Social Democrats from 1925 and two-time Prime Minister in four governments between 1932 and 1946, governing all that period save for a short-lived crisis in the summer of 1936, which he ended by forming a coalition government with his main adversary, Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp. During World War II, in which Sweden maintained a policy of neutrality, he presided over a government of national unity that included all major parties in the Riksdag with the exception of the Communist Party. Forging the Social Democratic grip on Swedish politics that would last throughout the century, Hansson left an astounding legacy on his party as well as creating the idea of Sweden to become "Folkhemmet", "The People's Home". This remained intact until the early 1990s, including a strict policy of neutrality, a wide-stretching welfare state through parliamentary legislation, and reformist social corporatism rather than Marxist socialization of the means of production.
context_section_description: Per Albin Hansson was born in Kulladal, a neighborhood in Malmö, Sweden, on 28 October 1885.
  One of the first professional politicians of Sweden, Hansson participated in the creation of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth in 1903 and presided over it as its chairman in 1908–09, a period in which universal suffrage and proportional representation was gradually to be enacted for all Swedish males by Conservative Prime Minister Arvid Lindman, later a rival of Hansson. Influenced generally by Karl Kautsky's views on socialism, Hansson succeeded Hjalmar Branting as editor of Social-Demokraten in 1917 and was appointed his Minister of Defence in Sweden's first Social Democratic cabinet in 1920, following a Liberal-Social Democratic coalition enacting equal suffrage for men and women (in effect as of the 1921 election). Per Albin Hansson held this office in all of Branting's three cabinets between 1920 and 1925 (years which saw eight governments), performing numerous cut-backs on the military budget. Upon Branting's death in 1925, Hansson rose to be embraced as chairman of the party. His legitimacy remained under dispute, however, and only in 1927 did he become the head of the Riksdag faction, before having been confirmed undisputedly as Branting's successor in a 1928 congress.
  Upon losing power to Carl Gustaf Ekman's pro-prohibition Liberals in 1926, Hansson worked from the opposition bench and, although heading what was to remain the largest party of the Riksdag to date, faced a major setback upon cooperating with the Communists in the infamous election of 1928. Hansson's party did poorly as a result, and not until the 2010 election would the Social Democrats and the Communists (the latter changed its name, in 1995, to the Left Party) would the two parties run in tandem again. 
  In opposition to the Conservative – though equally pragmatic and staunchly anti-fascist – Lindman cabinet, Hansson pressed for the introduction of a welfare state rather than wide-scale nationalizations. He called his vision Folkhemmet ("the People's Home") in a Riksdag debate in 1928.
  Following the fall of Ekman in 1932 due to a corruption scandal involving the recently deceased industrialist Ivar Kreuger, the Social Democrats made gains, which altogether gave them 104 Riksdag seats and 41.7% of the popular vote. Though this left them short of a majority, they benefited from the inability of the Liberal parties (themselves unable to form a single faction until 1934), the Conservatives and the Agrarians to form a stable administration of their own. This inability gave Hansson his chance. He courted and eventually obtained support from the Farmers' League, through promising an agriculture policy favoring the interests of the League (kohandeln), although he stopped short of giving League parliamentarians any cabinet posts.
  In June 1936, the combined efforts of the Liberals, the Conservatives and the Agrarians brought the Hansson-led government to an end and ensured Hansson's own resignation as Prime Minister. Following Hansson's departure, League chairman Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp was able to form a three-month "Vacation Cabinet". That lasted until the elections in September, which saw a rise in support of the Social Democrats. This time Hansson invited certain League members into the cabinet, and Pehrsson-Brahmstorp therefore became Minister of Agriculture. The administration enjoyed a substantial parliamentary majority that lasted until 1939.
caption: The birthplace of Per Albin Hansson
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