Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (
English: ,; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second
secretary-general of the United Nations
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
from April 1953 until his death in
a plane crash in September 1961. As of 2025, he remains the youngest person to have held the post, having been only 47 years old when he was appointed. He was a son of
Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who served as
Prime Minister of Sweden
The prime minister of Sweden (, "minister of state") is the head of government of the Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subject to th ...
from 1914 to 1917.
Hammarskjöld's tenure was characterized by efforts to strengthen the newly-formed UN both internally and externally. He led initiatives to improve morale and organisational efficiency while seeking to make the UN more responsive to global issues. He presided over the creation of the first UN peacekeeping forces in
Egypt (the UNEF) and
the Congo (the ONUC) and personally intervened to defuse or resolve diplomatic crises. Hammarskjöld's second term was cut short when he died in a plane crash while en route to
cease-fire negotiations during the
Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis () was a period of Crisis, political upheaval and war, conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost ...
.
Hammarskjöld was and remains well regarded internationally as a capable diplomat and administrator, and his efforts to resolve various global crises led to him being the only
posthumous recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
. In the Western world, his appointment and tenure were hailed as one of the most notable and successful in UN leadership. U.S. President
John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld "the greatest statesman of our century".
[Catalog record archived]
fro
the original
on 22 July 2019. "This is the translated text of the 2007 Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture given by Sture Linnér and Sverker Åström at Uppsala University on 15 October 2007". In the third world, however, his legacy is extremely controversial, given his erratic performance in the Congo Crisis, with consequences to this day.
Early life and education
Dag Hammarskjöld was born in
Jönköping
Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland.
The city is the seat o ...
to the
noble family Hammarskjöld (also spelled ''Hammarskiöld'' or ''Hammarsköld''). He spent most of his childhood in
Uppsala
Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Loc ...
. His home there, which he considered his childhood home, was
Uppsala Castle. He was the fourth and youngest son of
Hjalmar Hammarskjöld,
Prime Minister of Sweden
The prime minister of Sweden (, "minister of state") is the head of government of the Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subject to th ...
from 1914 to 1917.
Hammarskjöld studied first at
Katedralskolan and then at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () 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 operation.
Initially fou ...
. By 1930, he had obtained
Licentiate of Philosophy and Master of Laws degrees. Before he finished his law degree he had already obtained a job as Assistant Secretary of the Unemployment Committee.
Career
From 1930 to 1934, Hammarskjöld was Secretary of a governmental committee on unemployment. During this time he wrote his economics thesis, ("The Spread of the Business Cycle"), and received a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
from
Stockholm University
Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
. In 1936, he became a secretary in Sweden's central bank, the
Riksbank. From 1941 to 1948, he served as chairman of the Riksbank's General Council.
Hammarskjöld quickly developed a successful career as a Swedish public servant. He was state secretary in the
Ministry of Finance
A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position .
A ministry of finance's portfoli ...
1936–1945, Swedish delegate to the
Organization for European Economic Cooperation 1947–1953, cabinet secretary for the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
1949–1951 and
minister without portfolio
A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...
in
Tage Erlander's government 1951–1953.
[
He helped coordinate government plans to alleviate the economic problems of the post-]World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
period and was a delegate to the Paris conference that established the Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...
. In 1950, he became head of the Swedish delegation to UNISCAN, a forum to promote economic cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. Although Hammarskjöld served in a cabinet dominated by the Social Democrats
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
, he never officially joined any political party.[
In 1951, Hammarskjöld was vice chairman of the Swedish delegation to the ]United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
in Paris. He became the chairman of the Swedish delegation to the General Assembly in New York in 1952. On 20 December 1954, he was elected to take his father's vacated seat in the Swedish Academy.
United Nations Secretary-General
Nomination and election
On 10 November 1952, Trygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie ( , ; 16 July 1896 – 30 December 1968) was a Norwegians, Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Nygaardsvold's Cabinet, N ...
announced his resignation as Secretary-General of the United Nations
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...
. Several months of negotiations ensued between the Western powers and the Soviet Union without reaching an agreement on his successor. On 13 and 19 March 1953, the Security Council voted on four candidates. Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian politician, diplomat, statesman, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as Leader of the Liberal Party of C ...
of Canada was the only candidate to receive the required majority, but he was vetoed by the Soviet Union. At a consultation of the permanent members on 30 March 1953, French permanent representative Henri Hoppenot suggested four candidates, including Hammarskjöld, whom he had met at the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation.
The superpowers hoped to seat a Secretary-General who would focus on administrative issues and refrain from participating in political discussion. Hammarskjöld's reputation at the time was, in the words of biographer Emery Kelèn, "that of a brilliant economist, an unobtrusive technician, and an aristo-bureaucrat". As a result, there was little to no controversy in his selection; the Soviet permanent representative, Valerian Zorin, found Hammarskjöld "harmless". Zorin declared that he would be voting for Hammarskjöld, surprising the Western powers. The announcement set off a flurry of diplomatic activity. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achi ...
was strongly in favor of Hammarskjöld and asked the United States to "take any appropriate action to induce the ationalistChinese to abstain".[: Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of United Nations Political and Security Affairs (Popper), 31 March 1953.] (Sweden recognized the People's Republic of China and faced a potential veto from the Republic of China.) At the U.S. State Department, the nomination "came as a complete surprise to everyone here and we started scrambling around to find out who Mr. Hammarskjold was and what his qualifications were".[: Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Sandifer), 30 April 1953.] The State Department authorized Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the US Ambassador, to vote in favor after he told them that Hammarskjöld "may be as good as we can get".[: The United States Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Department of State, 30 March 1953—1:38 p.m.][: Memorandum for the Files by the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Hickerson), 30 March 1953.]
On 31 March 1953, the Security Council voted 10–0–1 to recommend Hammarskjöld to the General Assembly, with an abstention from Nationalist China. The vote was conducted in secret, and Hammarskjöld was unaware his name had been put forward for the position. Shortly after midnight on 1 April 1953, Hammarskjöld was awakened by a telephone call from a journalist with the news, which he dismissed as an April Fool's Day joke. He finally believed the news after the third phone call. The Swedish mission in New York confirmed the nomination at 03:00 and a communique from the Security Council was soon thereafter delivered to him. After consulting with the Swedish cabinet and his father, Hammarskjöld decided to accept the nomination. He sent a wire to the Security Council:
With strong feeling personal insufficiency I hesitate to accept candidature but I do not feel I could refuse to assume the task imposed on me should the N GeneralAssembly follow the recommendation of the Security Council by which I feel deeply honoured.
Later in the day, Hammarskjöld held a press conference at the Swedish Foreign Ministry. According to diplomat Sverker Åström, he displayed an intense interest and knowledge in the affairs of the UN, which he had never shown any indication of before.
The UN General Assembly voted 57–1–1 on 7 April 1953 to appoint Dag Hammarskjöld as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Hammarskjöld was sworn in as Secretary-General on 10 April 1953. He was unanimously reelected on 26 September 1957 for another term, taking effect on 10 April 1958.
Tenure
Immediately following the assumption of the Secretariat, Hammarskjöld attempted to establish a good rapport with his staff. He made a point of visiting every UN department to shake hands with as many workers as possible, eating in the cafeteria as often as possible, and relinquishing the Secretary-General's private elevator for general use. He began his term by establishing his own secretariat of 4,000 administrators and setting up regulations that defined their responsibilities. He was also actively engaged in smaller projects relating to the UN working environment; for example, he spearheaded the building of a meditation room at the UN headquarters, where people can withdraw into themselves in silence, regardless of their faith, creed, or religion.
During his term, Hammarskjöld tried to improve relations between Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
and the Arab states
The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
, frequently playing the role of a mediator between David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...
and Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...
. Other highlights include a 1955 visit to China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
to negotiate the release of 11 captured US pilots who had served in the Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
, the 1956 establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force, and his intervention in the 1956 Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
. He is given credit by some historians for allowing participation of the Holy See within the UN that year.
In 1960, the newly independent Congo asked for UN aid in defusing the Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis () was a period of Crisis, political upheaval and war, conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost ...
. Hammarskjöld made four trips to Congo, but his efforts toward the decolonisation of Africa
The decolonisation of Africa was a series of political developments in Africa that spanned from the mid-1950s to 1975, during the Cold War. Colony, Colonial governments gave way to sovereign states in a process often marred by violence, politic ...
were considered insufficient by the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
; in September 1960, the Soviet government denounced his decision to send a UN emergency force to keep the peace. They demanded his resignation and the replacement of the office of Secretary-General by a three-man directorate with a built-in veto, the " troika". The objective was, citing the memoirs of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
, to "equally represent interests of three groups of countries: capitalist, socialist and recently independent".
The UN sent a nearly 20,000-strong peacekeeping force to restore order in Congo-Kinshasa
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
. Hammarskjöld's refusal to place peacekeepers in the service of Lumumba's constitutionally elected government provoked a strong reaction of disapproval from the Soviets. The situation would become more scandalous with the assassination of Lumumba by Tshombe's troops. In February 1961, the UN authorized the Peacekeeping Forces to use military force to prevent civil war. The Blue Helmets' attack on Katanga caused Tshombe to flee to Zambia. Hammarskjöld's erratic attitude in not providing support to Lumumba's government, which had been elected by popular vote, drew severe criticism among non-aligned countries and communist and socialist countries. Hammarskjöld knew that the Belgian Government, allegedly supported by the United States, arranged for the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. In the end, his actions were supported only by the United States and Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
.
His final report to the United Nations was some 6,000 words and is considered to be one of his most important. The report was dictated in a single afternoon to his assistant, Hannah Platz.
Death
On 18 September 1961, Hammarskjöld was en route to negotiate a cease-fire between United Nations Operation in the Congo
The United Nations Operation in the Congo (, abbreviated ONUC) was a United Nations United Nations peacekeeping, peacekeeping force which was deployed in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo in 1960 in response to th ...
forces and Katangese troops under Moise Tshombe. His Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...
airliner SE-BDY crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in Southern Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North ...
(now Zambia
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
). Hammarskjöld perished as a result of the crash, as did all of the 15 other passengers. Hammarskjöld's death set off a succession crisis at the United Nations, because there was no line of succession and as a result, the Security Council had to vote on a successor.
The circumstances of the crash are still unclear. A 1962 Rhodesian inquiry concluded that pilot error was to blame, while a later UN investigation could not determine the cause of the crash. There is evidence suggesting the plane was shot down. A CIA report claimed the KGB was responsible.[Jamie Doward]
"Spy messages could finally solve mystery of UN chief’s death crash"
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' 13 December 2014.
The day after the crash, former U.S. President Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
commented that Hammarskjöld "was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said 'when they killed him'."
In 1998, documents were discovered that detailed an alleged plot, named Operation Celeste, to assassinate Hammarskjöld. The alleged plot was backed by the CIA, MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
and a Belgian mining interest and the assassination was to be carried out by the South African Institute for Maritime Research, a South African paramilitary organisation. One of the documents stated that CIA director Allen Dulles agreed that "Dag is becoming troublesome ... and should be removed" and pledged local CIA support for the alleged plot. The information was contained in a file that the South African National Intelligence Agency turned over to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in relation to the 1993 assassination of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...
. The authenticity of the documents could not be substantiated because they were copies instead of originals. More documents related to the alleged plot were discovered by the South African government in 2016.
In 2011, Göran Björkdahl, a Swedish aid worker whose father worked for the UN in Zambia, wrote that in part, he believed that Hammarskjöld's death was a murder that was committed to benefit mining companies like Union Minière, after Hammarskjöld had made the UN intervene in the Katanga crisis. Björkdahl based his assertion on interviews with witnesses of the plane crash near the border of the DRC with Zambia and on archival documents.
In 2013, accident investigator Sven Hammarberg was asked by the International Commission of Jurists
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...
to investigate Hammarskjöld's death.
In 2014, newly declassified documents revealed that the American ambassador to the Congo sent a cable to Washington D.C. and in it, he wrote his suspicion that the plane could have been shot down by Belgian mercenary pilot Jan Van Risseghem, commander of the small Katanga Air Force. Van Risseghem died in 2007.
On 16 March 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...
appointed members to an Independent Panel of Experts that was established for the purpose of examining new information that was related to Hammarskjöld's death. The three-member panel was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, the Chief Justice of Tanzania, and it included Kerryn Macaulay (Australia's representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...
) and Henrik Larsen (a ballistics expert from the Danish National Police). The panel's 99-page report, released 6 July 2015, assigned moderate value to nine new eyewitness accounts and transcripts of radio transmissions. Those accounts suggested that Hammarskjöld's plane was already on fire as it was landing and they also suggested that other jet aircraft and other intelligence agents were nearby.
In 2016, the original documents from the 1998 South African investigation surfaced. Those who were familiar with the investigation cautioned that even if they were authentic, the documents could have initially been authored as part of a disinformation campaign.
In 2019, the documentary film '' Cold Case Hammarskjöld'' by Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger claimed that Jan van Risseghem had told a friend that he shot down Hammarskjöld's aircraft. This went against the official stance maintained by van Risseghem's family that he was not involved in the death of Hammarskjöld. According to an interview with van Risseghem's wife, he was in Rhodesia negotiating the purchase of a plane for the Katanga Air Force, with the logbooks proving that he was not flying for Katanga at the time. The documentary crew interviewed colleagues of van Risseghem's for the film, all of whom supported their theory. In an interview with Swedish historian Leif Hellström, van Risseghem claimed that he was not in southern Africa at the time the crash happened, and dismissed the idea of his involvement.
A document that was found in France amidst the Fonds Foccart (National Archives in Pierrefitte) in November 2021 is a death warrant for Hammarskjöld that contained the acronym OAS, the secret organization that was nestled in the French army at the time of Algeria's war for independence. The document reads: "It is high time to put an end to his harmful intrusion ... this sentence common to justice and fairness to be carried out, as soon as possible". The unsigned document is a facsimile that appeared to be a transcription of an original letter.
Hammarskjöld's 1959 will left his personal archive to the National Library of Sweden.
Personal life
In 1953, soon after his appointment as United Nations Secretary-General, Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In the talk, Hammarskjöld declared:
But the explanation of how a man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics /nowiki>Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek (scholar)">Jan van Ruysbroek">Meister Eckhart">/nowiki>Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek (scholar)">Jan van Ruysbroek/nowiki> for whom 'self-surrender' had been the way to self-realization, and who in 'singleness of mind' and 'inwardness' had found the strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.
Hammarskjöld's only book, '' Vägmärken'' (''Markings'', or more literally ''Waymarks''), was published in 1963. A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends the month before his death in 1961.[Hartman, Thom (3 March 2005).]
''Markings – the spiritual diary of Dag Hammarskjöld''
BuzzFlash. This diary was found in his New York house, after his death, along with an undated letter addressed to then Swedish Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, . In this letter, Hammarskjöld wrote:
These entries provide the only true 'profile' that can be drawn ... If you find them worth publishing, you have my permission to do so.
The foreword is written by the English poet W. H. Auden, a friend of Hammarskjöld.
''Markings'' was described by the late theologian Henry P. Van Dusen as "the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peace
World peace is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would come about.
Various relig ...
and order". Hammarskjöld wrote, for example:
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it – according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed – according to the measure of his purity of heart.
''Markings'' is characterised by Hammarskjöld's intermingling of prose and haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
poetry in a manner exemplified by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho in his '' Narrow Roads to the Deep North''. In his foreword to ''Markings'', W. H. Auden quotes Hammarskjöld as stating:
In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
Hammarskjöld's interest in philosophical and spiritual matters is also proven by the finding of Martin Buber
Martin Buber (; , ; ; 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I and Thou, I–Thou relationship and the I� ...
's main work '' I and Thou'', which he was translating into Swedish, in the wreckage after the plane crash.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...
commemorates the life of Hammarskjöld as a renewer of society on the anniversary of his death, 18 September.
Brian Urquhart's biography of Hammarskjöld addressed what Israel Shenker described in his ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' review as "the oft-discussed question of Hammaskjöld's sexuality". Urquhart reports that Trygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie ( , ; 16 July 1896 – 30 December 1968) was a Norwegians, Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian foreign minister during the critical years of the Nygaardsvold's Cabinet, N ...
spread rumours of Hammarskjöld's homosexuality but, having interviewed Hammarskjöld's close friends, Urquhart concludes that "no one who knew him well or worked closely with him thought he was a homosexual". Shenker infers from Urquhart's work "that Hammarskjöld was an example, not unique in contemporary politics, of an asexual, somewhat narcissistic individual" and quoted private papers where Hammarskjöld had written that "the Secretary General of the UN should have an iron constitution and should not be married". Despite Urquhart concluding the rumours were inaccurate, Larry Kramer included Hammarskjöld in the "I belong to a culture" speech in his 1985 play '' The Normal Heart''.
Legacy
Honors
* Honorary degrees: Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...
in Ottawa (then called Carleton College) awarded its first-ever honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
to Hammarskjöld in 1954, when it presented him with a Legum Doctor Legum is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Colin Legum (1919–2003), British anti-apartheid activist
* Judd Legum (born 1978), American journalist, lawyer, and political staffer
* Margaret Legum (1933–2007), Brit ...
, ''honoris causa''. The university has continued this tradition by conferring an honorary doctorate upon every subsequent Secretary-General of the United Nations. He also held honorary degrees from Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, United Kingdom; in the United States from Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, Yale
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, Amherst, Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for mos ...
, the University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, and Ohio University
Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...
; in Sweden, Uppsala University; and in Canada from McGill University
McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...
as well as Carleton University, in Ottawa.
People's views
* John F. Kennedy: After Hammarskjöld's death, U.S. president John F. Kennedy regretted that he had opposed the UN policy in the Congo and said: "I realise now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century."
* In 2011, ''The Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' wrote that Hammarskjöld has remained the benchmark against which later UN Secretaries-General have been judged.
* His legacy in the third world is extremely controversial, especially due to his statements to the British representative at the UN, Patrick Dean, that Lumumba was "a communist puppet". For the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
, its erratic performance in the crisis of the 1960s has had disastrous consequences for the country to this day.
Structures named in honor of Dag Hammarskjöld
* Buildings and rooms:
**Dag Hammarskjöld Library
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library is a library on the grounds of the headquarters of the United Nations, located in the Turtle Bay/ East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is connected to the Secretariat and Conference buildi ...
: On 16 November 1961, shortly after his death, the newly completed Library building at United Nations Headquarters in New York was named the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
**Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
: Dag Hammarskjöld House, on the Stanford University campus, is a residence cooperative for undergraduate and graduate students with international backgrounds and interests at Stanford.
** Hammarskjold High School: Public high school located in the town of Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...
, Ontario, Canada.
**Hammarskjold Middle School: Public middle school located in the town of East Brunswick, New Jersey.
** Dag Hammarskjold Middle School: Public middle school located in the town of Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The town is part ...
.
**Dag Hammarskjöld Elementary School: Public elementary school located in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, New York.
**Dag Hammarskjöld Memorial Primary School: Government School located in Ndola, Zambia (adjacent to the Dag Hammarskjöld Memorial Crash Site). This School contains the Karl Eriksson Computer Lab (Hammarskjöld and Eriksson knew each other).
**Dag Hammarskjöld "Hammar" Residence: Waterloo Co-operative Residence (WCRI) building located in the town of Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County, Ontario, Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto, but it is n ...
, Canada.
* Streets:
** :de:Hammarskjöldplatz is the wide square to the north entrance of the Messe Berlin
Messe Berlin (') are exhibition grounds in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf precinct of Berlin, Germany, at Masurenallee opposite the Haus des Rundfunks. Since 2011, they have officially been known as "Berlin ExpoCenter City" and operated by th ...
fairgrounds in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Germany.
** Hammarskjöldring is a street in Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, Germany, connecting the boroughs Mertonviertel and Niederursel.
** Dag Hammarskjölds Alle is a street in Copenhagen, Denmark that connects the inner city with the affluent suburb of Østerbro.
** Dag Hammarskjølds Gade is a street in Aalborg, Denmark. Headquarters for the regional police, Nordjyllands Politi, are located here.
** is a traffic route in Gothenburg, Sweden between Linnéplatsen and Västerleden/Söderleden (E6.20). With a length of 5 km, it also connects to Högsboleden .
** Hammarskjöldsingel is a street in Amstelveen
Amstelveen () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, with a population of 95,996 as of 202 ...
, Netherlands.
* Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza is a public park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
near the headquarters of the United Nations
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004 (cropped).jpg
, image_size = 275px
, caption = View of the complex from Long Island City in 2021; from left to right: the Secretariat, Conference, and General Assembly buil ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Other commemorations
* Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation: In 1962, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation was created as Sweden's national memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld.
* Memorial awards:
** Nobel Peace Prize: The Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation () is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
It also holds Nobel Sym ...
posthumously awarded Dag Hammarskjöld the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
for developing the UN according to the UN Charter
The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the United Nations (UN). It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the United Nations System, UN system, including its United Nations System#Six ...
.
** Medal: On 22 July 1997, the UN Security Council Resolution 1121 established the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal in recognition and commemoration of those who have lost their lives as a result of UN peacekeeping
Peacekeeping by the United Nations is a role of the United Nations's Department of Peace Operations and an "instrument developed by the organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace". It is ...
operations.
** Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies: Colgate University
Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...
annually awards a student the Dag Hammarskjöld Prize in Peace and Conflict Studies based on outstanding work in the program.
* Postage stamps
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the ...
: Many countries issued postage stamps commemorating Hammarskjöld.
* On 6 April 2011, Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, announced that Hammarskjöld's image would be used on the 1000- kronor banknote, the highest-denomination banknote in Sweden. The new currency was introduced in 2015.
Depictions in music and popular culture
In 1974, the Australian-British composer Malcolm Williamson, Master of the Queen's Music
Master of the King's Music (or Master of the Queen's Music, or earlier Master of the King's Musick) is a post in the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the Kingdom of England, monarch of England, dire ...
, wrote his ''Hammarskjöld Portrait'' for soprano and string orchestra. The text was taken from '' Vägmärken'', and the work's first performance took place on 30 July 1974, at a Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272.
Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
Proms Concert, with the soprano Elisabeth Söderström, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard.
In 1985, Hammerskjöld was one of the names mentioned in the "I Belong to a Culture" speech in Larry Kramer's play '' The Normal Heart'', where the protagonist includes him in a list of 24 historical gay figures.
In the 2016 film '' The Siege of Jadotville'', depicting the events of the Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis () was a period of Crisis, political upheaval and war, conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost ...
, Hammarskjöld's plane (incorrectly a DC-4) is purposely shot down by a fighter jet only used by American forces at the time (it's likely this was for production reasons, just as a DC-4 stood in for the DC-6). Hammarskjöld is played by fellow Swede, Mikael Persbrandt
Mikael Åke Persbrandt (; born 25 September 1963) is a Swedish actor. In Swedish films, he is perhaps best known for playing Gunvald Larsson in the ''Beck'' series of movies. He is internationally known for his starring role in the Academy Awar ...
.
Also in 2016, the 1961 Ndola Transair Sweden DC-6 crash was featured in Canadian TV series '' Mayday'' (S15, E5), "Deadly Mission" and '' Air Crash Investigation Special Report'' (S3, E3), "VIP on Board". Peter James Howarth portrayed Hammarskjöld.
In 2023, Persbrandt again played the eponymous politician, in the film ''
Hammarskjöld'', directed by Per Fly. The film received negative reviews for glossing over its Congo Crisis controversies.
See also
*List of unsolved deaths
This list of unsolved deaths includes notable cases where:
* The cause of death could not be officially determined following an investigation
* The person's identity could not be established after they were found dead
* The cause is known, but th ...
* List of heads of state and government who died in aviation accidents and incidents
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Durel, Bernard, op, (2002), «Au jardin secret d'un diplomate suédois: ''Jalons'' de Dag Hammarskjöld, un itinéraire spirituel», ''La Vie Spirituelle'' (Paris). T. 82, pp. 901–922.
* .
*
* Kelen, Emery (1966) ''Hammarskjold''. Putnam.
* Lichello, Robert (1972) "Dag Hammarskjöld: A Giant in Diplomacy." Samhar Press, Charlotteville, N.Y. .
*
* Urquhart, Brian, (1972), ''Hammarskjold''. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
* Velocci, Giovanni, cssr, (1998), «Hammarskjold Dag», in Luigi Borriello, ocd – Edmondo Caruana, ocarm – Maria Rosaria Del Genio – N. Suffi (dirs.), ''Dizionario di mistica''. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, pp. 624–626.
Further reading
*
External links
Dag Hammarskjöld papers
at the United Nations Archives
Death of Dag Hammarskjöld
o
UN Archives website
and ttp://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail/416/0416741.html UNSGwith King Carl XVI Gustaf
Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. Having reigned since 1973, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history.
Carl Gustaf was born during the reign of his paternal great-grandfather, K ...
of Sweden
United Nations Secretaries-General
at the official website of the UN
*
Audio of Dag Hammarskjöld's response to Russian pressure
From UPI Audio Archives
Dag Hammarskjöld's FBI files
hosted at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
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