Oscar Fredrik von Sydow (12 July 1873 – 19 August 1936) was a Swedish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served briefly as

Prime Minister of Sweden The prime minister ( sv, statsminister ; literally translating to "Minister of State") is the head of government of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subj ...

from 23 February to 13 October 1921.

Biography

Oscar von Sydow was the son of Henrik August von Sydow, a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

's clerk, and Euphrosyne Maria Modin. He was born in

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

and raised in

Norrland Norrland (, "Northland", originally ''Norrlanden'' or "the Northlands") is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administr ...

. In 1890, he passed his higher education examination and proceeded to study

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 ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. In 1894, he graduated with a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in the

civil service 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 ...

. In 1906, von Sydow was appointed

Undersecretary of State Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

at the

Ministry for Civil Service Affairs The Ministry for Civil Service Affairs ( sv, Civildepartementet) was a ministry in Sweden, established through the 1840 ministerial reform. The ministry and its most important areas of responsibility were agriculture, ''bergsrörelse'', trade, ship ...

, and in 1911 he became the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County ( sv, Norrbottens län; se, Norrbottena leatna, fi, Norrbottenin lääni) is the northernmost county or '' län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares border ...

. In the governments of

Hjalmar Hammarskjöld Knut Hjalmar Leonard Hammarskjöld (; 4 February 1862 – 12 October 1953) was a Swedish politician, scholar, cabinet minister, Member of Parliament from 1923 to 1938 (first chamber), and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917. In 1890, he m ...

and

Carl Swartz Carl Johan Gustaf Swartz (5 June 1858 – 6 November 1926) was a Swedish right-wing politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from March to October 1917. He also served as Minister for Finance from 1906 to 1911. He married Dagmar L ...

(1914–1917) he was

Minister for Civil Service Affairs The Minister for Civil Service Affairs ( sv, Civilminister), since 2010 called Minister for Public Administration, is a member of the Government of Sweden. The minister for civil service affairs was the head of the Ministry for Civil Service Aff ...

, during which time he established the Unemployment Commission (''arbetslöshetskommissionen''). Between 1917 and 1934, he was Governor of

Gothenburg and Bohus County Gothenburg and Bohus County ( sv, Göteborgs och Bohus län) was a county of Sweden until 1997, when it was merged with Skaraborg County and Älvsborg County to form Västra Götaland County. The county was named after the city of Gothenburg a ...

. Following the sudden resignation of the Prime Minister Louis De Geer in 1921, the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

had difficulties finding a candidate willing to form a new government, as the elections were drawing near.

Hjalmar Branting Karl Hjalmar Branting (; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician who was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1907 until his death in 1925, and three times Prime Minister of Sweden. When Branting cam ...

declined, after being asked twice to become Prime Minister, and the appointment was offered to Oscar von Sydow, who accepted and took office on 23 February. Von Sydow gave an ultimatum that he would not lead a powerless government and demanded that the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

promise to support him in important finance and defence issues. Despite such agreements, all of the propositions made by the new government were voted down by the opposition, and as a result von Sydow resigned on 13 October 1921. His lasting legacy as Prime Minister is for presenting the bill that abolished the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in Sweden. Von Sydow was Marshal of the Realm (''riksmarskalk'') from 1934 until his death in 1936.

References

*Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Swedish-language Wikipedia article (retrieved June 23, 2006). {{DEFAULTSORT:Sydow, Oscar 1873 births 1936 deaths Prime Ministers of Sweden Governors of Gothenburg and Bohus County Marshals of the Realm People from Kalmar Uppsala University alumni

Biography

See also

References