Wilhelm Friedrich "Gaius" de Gaay Fortman (8 May 1911 – 29 March 1997) was a Dutch jurist and politician of the
Anti-Revolutionary Party
The Anti-Revolutionary Party ( nl, Anti-Revolutionaire Partij, ARP) was a Protestant conservative and Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist theologian and m ...
(ARP), which later merged into the
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary ...
(CDA) party.
De Gaay Fortman attended a
Gymnasium in
Dordrecht
Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...
from June 1923 until September 1925 and the
Amsterdams Lyceum
The Amsterdams Lyceum is a Dutch secondary school combining '' gymnasium'' and '' atheneum''. Both school types prepare students to go to university. It was established in 1917. The Amsterdams Lyceum has around 1100 students, most of whom are from ...
from September 1925 until July 1929 and applied at the
Free University Amsterdam in July 1929
majoring in
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
and obtaining a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
degree in June 1930 before graduating with a
Master of Laws
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
degree in July 1933 and worked as a researcher at the Free University Amsterdam from 5 July 1933 until 12 June 1936 when he got a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
as an
Doctor of Law
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...
on 12 June 1936. De Gaay Fortman worked as a civil servant from April 1934 until January 1947 for the department of Agricultural Emergency Management of the
Ministry of Economic Affairs from April 1934 until September 1935 and for the department of Legal Affairs of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from September 1935 until February 1938 and for the department of Employment Insurances of the
Ministry of Social Affairs
A Ministry of Social Affairs or Department of Social Affairs is the common name for a government department found in Sovereign state, states where the government is divided into Ministry (government department), ministries or departments. While th ...
from February 1938 until January 1947 and as Deputy Director-General of the department for Employment Insurances from April 1939 until August 1943 and as Director-General of the department for Employment Insurances from August 1943 until January 1947. On 10 May 1940
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
the Netherlands and the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
fled to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to escape the
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
. During the
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
De Gaay Fortman continued his work for the Ministry of Social Affairs and but sympathetic with the
Dutch resistance against the German occupiers and worked as an editor for the
underground newspaper
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group.
In specific rec ...
''
Free Netherlands'' from January 1943 until May 1945. De Gaay Fortman worked as professor of
Labour law
Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...
,
Privacy law
Privacy law is the body of law that deals with the regulating, storing, and using of personally identifiable information, personal healthcare information, and financial information of individuals, which can be Personally identifiable information ...
and
Property law
Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual pro ...
at the Free University Amsterdam from 10 January 1947 until May 1973. He also served as
Rector Magnificus of the Free University Amsterdam from 1 January 1961 until 1 January 1962 and from 1 January 1965 until 1 January 1972. De Gaay Fortman was elected as a
Member of the Senate after the
Senate election of 1960, taking office on 20 September 1960. After the
Senate election of 1971 De Gaay Fortman was selected as
Parliamentary leader
A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. They are the ...
of Anti-Revolutionary Party in the Senate, taking office on 11 May 1971.
After the
election of 1972 De Gaay Fortman was appointed as
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
and
Minister for Suriname and Netherlands Antilles Affairs in the
Cabinet Den Uyl, taking office on 19 December 1977. In March 1977 Gaius de Gaay Fortman announced that he would not stand for the
election of 1977 but wanted tot return to the Senate. Following the resignation of
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
and
Minister of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
Dries van Agt
Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt (; born 2 February 1931) is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) and later the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and jurist who served as Prime Minister of t ...
De Gaay Fortman took over both positions on 8 September 1977. The
Cabinet Den Uyl was replaced by the
Cabinet Van Agt–Wiegel on 19 December 1977.
De Gaay Fortman remained in active politics, he was elected again as a Member of the Senate after the Senate election of 1977, serving from 20 September 1977 until 10 June 1981. De Gaay Fortman was selected as a
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
and
dual served in those positions from 13 March 1978 until 15 July 1979. Following the end of his active political career, De Gaay Fortman returned as a professor of privacy law, labor law and administrative law at the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...
, serving from 20 December 1977 until 10 February 1979. After his retirement De Gaay Fortman occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director for supervisory boards for non-governmental organizations and research institutes (
Organisation for Scientific Research,
Institute of International Relations Clingendael,
Transnational Institute
The Transnational Institute (TNI), is an international non-profit research and advocacy think tank that was founded in 1974, Amsterdam, Netherlands. According to their website, the organization promotes a "... just, democratic and sustainable wor ...
,
T.M.C. Asser Instituut
The T.M.C. Asser Instituut (or ''Asser Institute'') is a professional inter-university centre of knowledge and research. The institute carries out research in private and public international law, European law, as well as all other related fields, ...
and the
Carnegie Foundation).
De Gaay Fortman was known for his abilities as a
negotiator and
consensus builder. De Gaay Fortman continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death. His eldest son
Bas de Gaay Fortman
Bastiaan "Bas" de Gaay Fortman (born 6 November 1937) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Political Party of Radicals (PPR) and later the GreenLeft (GL) party and economist.
Career before politics
After attending public elementar ...
was also a politician, professor and author, he like his father had served in the Senate.
Biography
Early life
Wilhelm Friedrich "Gaius" de Gaay Fortman was born in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
on 8 May 1911 to an orthodox
Reformed Protestant
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the Christian theology, theological tradition and forms of Christianity, Christ ...
family. The De Gaay Fortman family were descendants of 17th century Walloon immigrant Jacques Le Gay, and became one of the foremost
Neo-Calvinist
Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is a theological movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. James Bratt has identified a number of different types of Dutch Calvinism: The Seceders, split into ...
families in the Dutch Patriciate, with prominent ministers, scholars, business people and politicians.
Politics
The Reformed De Gaay Fortman was a progressive politician of the
Anti-Revolutionary Party
The Anti-Revolutionary Party ( nl, Anti-Revolutionaire Partij, ARP) was a Protestant conservative and Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist theologian and m ...
, the party which later merged with other Christian parties to form the
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary ...
politician. He was a
Public servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, secretary of the government labour negotiation team and a teacher at the CNV-school (Christian Labour Union). Later he became a professor at the
Vrije Universiteit
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...
and its Rector Magnificus. In 1956 he was unsuccessful as informateur during the long 1956 cabinet formation. However, he was able in 1960 to quickly resolve a cabinet crisis. In 1973 he, together with Boersma, were persuaded to become a minister in the
Cabinet Den Uyl. He had a good relationship with the formerly Reformed social-democrat party leader
Joop den Uyl
Johannes Marten den Uijl, better known as Joop den Uyl (; 9 August 1919 – 24 December 1987) was a Dutch politician and economist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 to 1977. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA).
...
. As Minister of Home Affairs he proposed a plan to divide the Netherlands into 24 mini-provinces and he played a key role in the independence negotiations for
Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
in 1975. In 1981 he again acted in a cabinet formation as informateur and managed to pave the way for a government of CDA, PvdA and D66. De Gaay Fortman was in favor of co-operation of the ARP and later the CDA with the PvdA (left). He refuted offered positions in Christian Democrat – Liberal coalitions. De Gaay Fortman became a member of the CDA, but he became alienated from the party mainstream. In his view the CDA too much emphasised policies that resulted in the dismantling of social security. In the parliamentary elections of 1994 he endorsed
Gert Schutte
Gerrit Jan Schutte (24 May 1939 – 25 January 2022) was a Dutch politician and teacher. A member of the defunct Reformed Political League (GPV) now merged into the Christian Union (CU), he served as party leader from 1981 to 2001.
Early life
...
, the leader of the
Reformed Political League
The Reformed Political LeagueTranslation used by Andeweg and Irwin in ''Governance and Politics of the Netherlands'' (2002: 45) ( nl, Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond, GPV) was an orthodox Protestant political party in the Netherlands. The GPV is o ...
. He is buried at
Zorgvlied cemetery.
His son
Bas de Gaay Fortman
Bastiaan "Bas" de Gaay Fortman (born 6 November 1937) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Political Party of Radicals (PPR) and later the GreenLeft (GL) party and economist.
Career before politics
After attending public elementar ...
followed in the political footsteps of his father and became leader of the
Political Party of Radicals
The Political Party of Radicals ( nl, Politieke Partij Radikalen, PPR) was a progressive Christian and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to fo ...
in the Second Chamber and later a Senator for its successor, the GreenLeft party.
Decorations
References
External links
;Official
*
Mr.Dr. W.F. de Gaay FortmanParlement & Politiek
*
Mr.Dr. W.F. de Gaay Fortman (CDA)Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaay Fortman, Gaius de
1911 births
1997 deaths
Anti-Revolutionary Party MEPs
Christian Democratic Appeal politicians
Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Deputy Prime Ministers of the Netherlands
Dutch academic administrators
Dutch legal scholars
Dutch legal writers
Dutch magazine editors
Dutch newspaper editors
Dutch nonprofit directors
Dutch nonprofit executives
Dutch people of Walloon descent
Dutch people of World War II
Grand Officers of the Order of Leopold II
Grand Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Honorary Order of the Yellow Star
Labour law scholars
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the Senate (Netherlands)
Ministers of Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands
Ministers of Justice of the Netherlands
Ministers of the Interior of the Netherlands
MEPs for the Netherlands 1958–1979
Politicians from Amsterdam
People from Dordrecht
Politicians from The Hague
Rectors of universities in the Netherlands
Recipients of the Order of the House of Orange
Reformed Churches Christians from the Netherlands
Scholars of administrative law
Scholars of privacy law
Scholars of property law
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam faculty
Writers from Amsterdam
Writers from The Hague
20th-century Dutch civil servants
20th-century Dutch educators
20th-century Dutch jurists
20th-century Dutch male writers
20th-century Dutch politicians
Members of the European Commission of Human Rights