Gudrun Marie Elisabeth Bjørner (29 October 1898 – 19 August 1959) was a Danish teacher and politician who served in the

Folketing The Folketing ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark — Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands and Greenland. E ...

from 1958 until 1959. A member of the Justice Party, she was also a member of the

Copenhagen City Council The Copenhagen City Council (Danish: ) is the municipal government of Copenhagen, Denmark, and has its seat at Copenhagen City Hall. The city council is Copenhagen's highest political authority and sets the framework for the committees' tasks. ...

and was a prominent

Georgist Georgism, in modern times also called Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that people should own the value that they produce themselves, while the economic rent derived from land—includ ...

activist.

Biography

Gudrun Marie Elisabeth Bjørner was born on 29 October 1898 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark. Her father was Johannes Lauritz Bjørner, a wholesaler and prominent

activist, and her mother was the editor Signe Bjørner. She completed her teacher's examination from the in 1922, and became a municipal teacher in Copenhagen in 1927. She would eventually become a head teacher (') in 1952. Like her father, Bjørner became a prominent member of the Georgist movement in Denmark. She became a member of the Justice Party's board of directors in 1929, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the

in 1926, 1939, and 1943. From May until June 1948, Bjørner was a substitute member of parliament for . She was also a public speaker and writer, and was an editor for the Georgist magazine ''Grundskyld''. Her brother Bue Bjørner was a Justice Party MP from 1947 until 1950. In 1950, Bjørner was elected to the

. Georgist writer Peder C. Pedersen considers this to have been her most influential position, stating that her outspokenness against the status quo was a testament to her "firm conviction". During her tenure on the city council, Bjørner was an advocate for the creation of a

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

particularly for the elderly. Bjørner became a substitute MP again in October 1957 when Tholstrup took a leave of absence. She was a substitute member until 20 March 1958, when Tholstrup resigned from parliament citing increased difficultly sitting in parliament while running his business. The following day, Bjørner became a full member of parliament, representing the as a member of the Justice Party. Due to poor health, she went on sick leave beginning on 22 October 1958. She resigned her seat on the city council sometime in 1959 due to illness, but retained her seat in parliament. Bjørner died on 19 August 1959. She was succeeded in parliament by Robert Sandau. Though the Justice Party won nine seats in parliament in the 1957 election, the party was devastated by the deaths and resignations of several of its veteran MPs and it failed to recover in the years after.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjørner, Gudrun 1898 births 1959 deaths Politicians from Copenhagen 20th-century Copenhagen City Council members 20th-century Danish politicians 20th-century Danish women politicians Members of the Folketing Women members of the Folketing Georgist politicians 20th-century Danish educators 20th-century Danish women educators Danish schoolteachers Danish headmistresses