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Reconsidering the Crisis Agreements of the 1930s: The Defence of Democracy in a Comparative Scandinavian Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2018

Kristina Krake
Kristina Krake*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities, Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Cultures, P.C. Hoofthuis, Room 6.02, University of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 134, 1012 VBAmsterdam
*
*k.krake@uva.nl
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Abstract

This article examines the Scandinavian countries’ response to extreme political movements in the interwar period. Historians have considered the crisis agreements of the 1930s as pivotal to Scandinavian resistance to fascism. The present article revises this explanation by conducting a comparative empirical study of political practice and rhetoric. The comparison makes it clear that the socio-economic measures were primarily aimed at combating the economic crisis. However, the social democratic labour parties conceptualised their social and economic policy as a defence of democracy after Hitler seized power in Germany. The findings indicate that the social democratic solution to the depression in Scandinavia left no political space for either communism or fascism.

Type
Article
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

1 In a Northern European context, ‘Scandinavia’ denotes Denmark, Sweden and Norway, while the term ‘Nordic countries’ also comprises Finland and Iceland.

2 Besides Norway, which had introduced parliamentarianism in 1884 and universal and equal suffrage in 1913, Denmark adopted these basic democratic components in 1901 and 1915 and Sweden in 1917 and 1919. Especially the Swedish transition to democracy occurred in the years immediately prior to the interwar period.

3 Lindström, Ulf, Fascism in Scandinavia 1920–1940 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985)Google Scholar; Larsen, Stein Ugelvik, Hagtvet, Bernt and Mykkelbust, Jan Petter, eds., Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1980), 586–677Google Scholar and 702–42. For national studies, see, for example, Lööw, Heléne, Hakkorset och Wasakärven: En studie av nationalsocialismen i Sverige 1924–195 (Gothenburg: Historiska Institutionen, 1990)Google Scholar; Lauridsen, John T., Dansk nazisme 1930–45 – og derefter (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2002)Google Scholar; Djursaa, Malene, DNSAP: danske nazister 1930–45 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1981)Google Scholar; Dahl, Hans Frederik, Quisling: A Study in Treachery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

4 See, for instance, Larsen, Stein Ugelvik, ‘Conservatives and Fascists in the Nordic Countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, 1918–45’, in Martin Blinkhorn, ed., Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth-Century Europe (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990), 240–263Google Scholar; Theien, Iselin, ‘Norwegian Fascism 1933–40: The Position of the Nasjonal Samling in Norwegian Politics’, Ph.D. thesis, Oxford University, 2001Google Scholar.

5 Berman, Sheri, The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe’s Twentieth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 152–176CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Berman emphasises the exceptionalism of the Swedish social democrats in particular, due to their revisionism.

6 Lindström, Fascism, 177; Lidegaard, Bo, Kampen om Danmark 1933–45 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2005), 32–33Google Scholar; Johansson, Alf W., Den nazistiska utmaningen: Aspekter på andra världskriget (Stockholm: Prisma, 2006), 152Google Scholar; Bjørgum, Jorunn, Bogefeldt, Christer and Kalela, Jorma, ‘Krisen og arbeiderbevegelsen’, in Sven A. Nilssson, Karl-Gustaf Hildebrand and Bo Öhngren, eds., Kriser och krispolitik i Norden under mellankrigstiden (Uppsala: Almqvist och Wiksell, 1974), 265Google Scholar. Overall, this article discusses the Scandinavian social democratic crisis policy of the 1930s as a means to fight fascism. For a more subtle analysis, stressing the framing of the Danish Agreement, see Grelle, Henning, Thorvald Stauning: Demokrati eller kaos. En biografi (Copenhagen: Jyllands-Postens Forlag, 2008), 343Google Scholar. See also Sejersted, Francis, The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011), 84–87Google Scholar. Nevertheless, regarding the failure of fascism, Sejersted specifically stresses the anti-totalitarianism of the bourgeois parties in Norway and Sweden.

7 An exception is the study of the Norwegian Labour’s response to fascism by Bjørgum, Jorunn, ‘Krisen, fascismen og Det norske Arbeiderparti på 1930-tallet’, in Pauli Kettunen, Auli Kultanen and Timo Soikkanen, eds., Jäljillä Kirjoituksia historian ongelmista, 2nd Vol. (Turku: Kirja-Aurora 2000), 221–247Google Scholar.

8 Paxton, Robert O., The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004)Google Scholar.

9 Note that the agrarian party press was differentiated into forty-five to fifty local newspapers of which three have been chosen as representative sources.

10 Denmark experienced seven government formations from 1920 to 1929, including the two cabinets, appointed by the Danish king during a constitutional crisis from March to April 1920. Sweden experienced ten government formations from 1920 to 1932 and Norway eleven in the period 1920 to 1935, when Labour took office.

11 ‘Protokol for den 21. socialdemokratiske Partikongres i København den 7.–10. Juni 1931’, 26.

12 See the original text ‘Stillingen bliver uge for uge værre, og kommunisterne vinder terræn gennem deres agitation på baggrund af arbejdsløsheden og nøden’, Ministermødeprotokol 1929–1933 (Aarhus: Jysk Selskab for Historie, Universitetsforlaget i Aarhus, 1981), 119Google Scholar.

13 See the article ‘Voldsomme Trusler fra de danske Lappo-Bønder’, Social-Demokraten, 4 Jan. 1932, 1 and 5. (In general the cited newspapers do not specify the author.)

14 ‘Om Landmændenes Sammenslutning’, Socialdemokratiske Noter, 1 Mar. 1932, 103.

15 In 1932 the average of unemployed organised workers was 31.7 per cent, cf. 17.9 per cent in 1931. Table 130, Statistisk Aarbog 1933 (Copenhagen: Statistisk Departement), 115Google Scholar.

16 In 1932 4,259 foreclosures were recorded in rural areas, cf. 2,658 in 1931. Table 151, Statistisk Aarbog 1934, 129.

17 The parliamentary debate, 21 June 1932, Rigsdagstidende, col. 5441. See also Lidegaard, Kampen, 29–31.

18 Rigsdagstidende, col. 5477.

19 See, for example, the statement by the Minister of Social Affairs, ‘Rigsdagen gennemførte i Gaar Krisekomplekset’, Social-Demokraten, 22 June 1932, 6.

20 Andersen, Peter Ramskov, ‘Vildskab over land: Landbrugernes Sammenslutning: En protestbevægelse i landbruget 1930-45’, Ph.D. thesis, Odense Universitet, 1996, 110Google Scholar.

21 Rigsdagstidende, Folketinget 1932–33, col. 1305.

22 The agreement was named after the address of Prime Minister Stauning’s domicile, where the confidential negotiations took place the night to 30 Jan. 1933.

23 Rigsdagstidende, col. 2757. This bill, banning strikes and lockout, was part of the government’s crisis management.

24 Rigsdagstidende, col. 2761.

25 The original text reads as follows: ‘Vi maatte netop til Bekæmpelsen af Kommunisme og Nazisme bevare vor Ledelse af Regeringsmagten og vise, at det parlamentariske System kan benyttes til positivt Arbejde til Bekæmpelse og Llndring af Krisen’, see the annual report ‘Beretning fra Socialdemokratisk Forbund i Danmark Aaret 1933’, 95. Printed as appendix to the party congress protocol June 1935: ‘Protokol for den 22. socialdemokratiske Partikongres i Aalborg den 23.–26. Juni 1935’.

26 Danmark for Folket: For Arbejde, Brød og Frihed, 1934, 21–2, The Royal Library, Copenhagen. See also the booklet I Kamp mod Krisen! (Fighting the Crisis!) 1934, The Royal Library.

27 ‘Protokol Partikongres 1935’, 61.

28 The radio speech, broadcasted on 21 October and printed in the newspaper the following day, see ‘Hvad Valget Gælder’, Social-Demokraten, 22 Oct. 1935, 13–5.

29 The original text reads as follows: ‘Vi kan ikke have Enhedsfront med et Parti, der bekender sig til middelalderligt Diktatur, til Vold og Terror’.

30 For a general treatment see Nevers, Jeppe, ‘The Rise of Danish Agrarian Liberalism’, Contributions to the History of Concepts, 8, 2 (2013), 96–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Ramskov Andersen, ‘Vildskab over land’, 40. Note, that the membership was relatively large, compared to the total Danish population of approximately 3.5 million.

32 After the German occupation of Denmark in 1940 LS allied with the fascist party DNSAP, aiming at government. Although they failed, the alliance confirmed LS’s proto-fascist nature.

33 Minutes, 30 Jan. 1933, ‘Rigsdagsgruppens fælles forhandlingsprotokol 1927–1935, Venstre IV 19, Venstres arkiv, no. 11005, The Danish National Archives.

34 ‘Madsen-Mygdal om Forliget’, Fyns Tidende, 7. Feb. 1933, 4 and 6; ‘Venstres Politik sejrede trods Valgets Resultat’, Horsens Folkeblad, 13 Feb. 1933, 2.

35 Andersen, ‘Vildskab over land’, 113.

36 See the proclamation ‘Til Vælgerne!’, Horsens Folkeblad, 7 Apr. 1934, 1.

37 Newspaper report ‘Dr. Krag trækker Linjerne op for den politiske Situation paa et Møde i Give’, Horsens Folkeblad, 9 Apr. 1934, 3.

38 Newspaper report ‘Naar Folket har mistet sin Frihed, føles det først, hvad der er tabt’, Aalborg Amtstidende, 30 May 1934, 7.

39 The proclamation ‘Venstre kalder til Samling’, Horsens Folkeblad, 31 May 1934, 1.

40 ‘Dr. Krag om den nærmeste Fremtids politiske Opgaver’, Horsens Folkeblad, 24 May 1934, 1.

41 ‘Et manende Opraab fra Venstres Landsmøde’, Horsens Folkeblad, 22 July 1936, 4.

42 ‘Frihed eller Diktatur’, Aalborg Amtstidende, 21 July 1936, 3.

43 See the manifesto ‘Stauningsystemet paa Anklagebænken’ 1936, The Royal Library, Copenhagen.

44 For this point see also Grelle, Thorvald Stauning, 371.

45 ‘SAP Protokoll 14:d kongressen 1932’, 6. Swedish Labour Movement’s Archives and Library.

46 The annual report 1933, ‘SAP Verksamhet 1932–1937’, 7. Swedish Labour Movement’s Archives and Library.

47 Möller’s utterance reads as follows ‘ett positivt program i krisfrågorna vore det viktigaste i kampen mot fascisterna’ and Åkerberg’s reads as ‘Det gäller för vårt parti att försöka medverka till ett positivt resultat, som ger människorna förhoppning om bättre förhållanden. Då bortfalla också fascismens förutsättningar’, see ‘Partistyrelsens protokoll 1932–1935’, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetarparti, Refkod: 1889/A/2/A/11, Swedish Labour Movement’s Archives and Library.

48 See the article ‘Arbetar-bondesamverkan ger demokratin hos oss ett starkare ankarfäste’, Skånska Social-Demokraten, 30 May 1933, 1.

49 The annual report 1934, ‘SAP Verksamhet 1932–1937’, 8.

50 Manifesto on 1 May 1935, The annual report 1935, ‘SAP Verksamhet 1932–1937’, 7; the congress protocol, ‘SAP Protokoll 15:e kongressen 1936’, 4.

51 Minutes, 28 Apr. 1935, ‘Partistyrelsens protokoll 1932–1935’.

52 Minutes, 8 May 1933, Protokoll Bondeförbundets Riksdagsgrupp 1932–1936, Centerpartiets arkiv, A: Vol. 1, 1927–1936, The National Archives of Sweden.

53 Nyman, Olle, Krisuppgörelsen mellan socialdemokraterna och bondeförbundet 1933 (Uppsala: Skrifter utgivna av statsvetenskapliga föreningen i Uppsala, 1944), 82–84Google Scholar.

54 Thullberg, Per Bönder går samman. En studie i Riksförbundet Landsbygdens Folk under världskrisen 1929–1933 (Stockholm: LTs förlag, 1977), 232–235Google Scholar and 245.

55 Thullberg, Bönder går samman, 295.

56 Lindström, Fascism, 143.

57 See the programme, clause 4, approved at the party conference 8–9 June 1933, Bondeförbundets riksstämmeprotokoll 1923–1942, Centerpartiets arkiv, AI: Vol. 2. Microfilm 209, 1013:505, The National Archives of Sweden.

58 See the election programmes from 1921, 1924 and 1928, available at www.snd.gu.se/sv/vivill (last visited 8 Feb. 2016).

59 See also Lööw, Hakkorset och Wasakärven, 214 and 257.

60 Draft, 11 Sep. 1936, Koncept till tal och uttalanden, Centerpartiets arkiv, B Ib: Vol 1, The National Archives of Sweden.

61 Draft, 13 Sep. 1936, Koncept till tal och uttalanden.

62 Bondeförbundets riksstämmeprotokoll 1923–1942.

63 ‘Det norske Arbeiderparti: Protokoll fra landsmøtet 1933’ (Oslo, 1934), 29. For a thorough analysis of the congress see Bjørgum, ‘Krisen, fascismen’.

64 ‘Protokoll 1933’, 39.

65 ‘Protokoll 1933’, 97–9.

66 ‘Protokoll 1933’, 30–7 and 67–83. Later in 1933 Colbjørnsen elaborated his economic ideas in the book En norsk 3-årsplan (A Norwegian three-year plan), written together with Axel Sømme.

67 ‘Det norske Arbeiderparti: Protokoll fra landsmøtet1930’ (Oslo, 1930), 38–70. See also Maurseth, Per, Gjennom kriser til makt (1920–1935) (Oslo: Tiden Norsk Forlag, 1987), 532–547Google Scholar.

68 Actually, the NS-leader Vidkun Quisling had previously been Minister of Defence in the agrarian government 1931–3.

69 Bull, Edvard, ‘Kriseforliket mellom Bondepartiet og det norske Arbeiderparti i 1935’, Historisk Tidsskrift, 39 (1959–60), 126 and 130–2Google Scholar.

70 For Torp and Tranmæl, respectively, see ‘Det norske Arbeiderparti: Protokoll fra landsmøtet 1936’ (Oslo, 1937), 23 and 38.

71 Minutes, 26 Apr. 1933, Protokol for Hovedstyret 05.11.1931–01.04.1936, RA/PA-0652/A/L0006, Senterpartiets arkiv, The National Archives of Norway.

72 For this interpretation see Theien, ‘Norwegian Fascism’, 185–219.

73 The original expression ‘den klippe marxismen skal strande på’ quoted by Gabrielsen, Bjørn Vidar, Menn og politikk: Senterpartiet 1929–1970 (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1970), 125Google Scholar.

74 Minutes, 6 Sept. 1935. Protokol for Hovedstyret.

75 Stortingstidende, femogåttiende ordentlige Stortings forhandlinger 1936, 90.

76 Stortingstidende, 91.

77 The speech ‘Vår politikk’, Landsmødeprotokollen 1938, RA/PA/-0652/A/L0001, Senterpartiets arkiv, The National Archives of Norway. Note that Hundseid’s democratic stance should be evaluated with reservations due to the fact that after the German occupation of Norway in 1940, where Quisling was appointed as the leader of a fascist puppet government, Hundseid joined the NS.