Harald Torsten Leonard Nilsson (1 April 1905 – 14 December 1997) was a Swedish

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

politician. He served as minister for defence from 1951 to 1957, and as

minister for 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 re ...

from 1962 to 1971. Nilsson also served as minister for social affairs and minister of communications.

Early life

Nilsson was born on 1 April 1905, in ,

Malmöhus County Malmöhus County () was a county of Sweden from 1719 to 1996. On 1 January 1997 it was merged with Kristianstad County to form Skåne County. It had been named after Malmöhus, a castle in Malmö, which was also where the governor originally li ...

, Sweden, the son of Lars Nilsson, a bricklayer, and his wife Hilda (née Persson). He completed his secondary education ('' realexamen'') and went on to attend vocational school and a

folk high school Folk high schools (also ''adult education center'') are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal. They are most commonly found in Nordic countries and i ...

in Germany. From 1922 to 1929, he worked as a bricklayer. He served as secretary of the Social Democratic Youth District of Scania from 1927 to 1930, and as its chairman from 1930 to 1934. That same year, he joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Youth League The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League ( ; SSU) is a branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Sweden. The president has been Lisa Nåbo, since August 2021. Organization The members form loc ...

(SSU). Between 1930 and 1934, he also worked as a journalist for the newspaper '' Arbetet'' in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, and from 1937 to 1940, he was the editor of the SSU magazine ''Frihet''. In 1939, Nilsson was appointed chairman of the

International Union of Socialist Youth The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) is an international youth labour organization, whose activities include publications, supporting member organizations and organization of meetings. Originally named the Socialist Youth Internatio ...

Career

Nilsson served as party secretary from 1940 to 1948 and was chairman of the from 1945 to 1975. He was a member of parliament from 1941 to 1976 (in the Second Chamber until 1970) and held continuous cabinet positions from 1945 to 1971. From 1945 to 1951, he served as minister of communications, then as minister for defence from 1951 to 1957, and as minister for social affairs from 1957 to 1962. His final ministerial role was as

from 1962 to 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s, he published several memoirs reflecting on his years in politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote several

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

s about his years in politics.

Personal life

From 1935, Nilsson was married to Vera Månsson (1906–2002). They had two children: Lars (born 1941) and Kristina (born 1948).

Death

Nilsson died on 14 December 1997 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden. He was interred on 30 January 1998 at Skogskyrkogården in southern Stockholm.

In popular culture

Swedish multimedia artist

Öyvind Fahlström Öyvind Axel Christian Fahlström (December 28, 1928 – November 9, 1976) was a Swedish multimedia artist. Biography Fahlström was born in São Paulo, Brazil, as the only child to Frithjof Fahlström and Karin Fahlström. In July 1939 he was ...

wrote a radio play called ''Den helige Torsten Nilsson'' ("The holy Torsten Nilsson"), first broadcast by

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

in 1966 and published as a book by Bonniers in 1968. The play, which combines the technique of

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

with

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

, intervenes in the contemporary political landscape in Sweden at the time, and names of real people are part of the story.

Awards and honours

For Zealous and Devoted Service of the Realm ribbon

Illis quorum ''Illis quorum'' (''Illis quorum meruere labores'') (English: "For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It") is a gold medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish culture, science or society. The award was introduced in 1784 by King Gusta ...

'', 18th size (1984) *Honorary member of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences, 1956

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Torsten 1905 births 1997 deaths Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats Members of the Andra kammaren Ministers for foreign affairs of Sweden Ministers for social affairs of Sweden Ministers for communications of Sweden Nuclear weapons programme of Sweden Ministers for defence of Sweden Recipients of the Illis quorum Members of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences People from Staffanstorp Municipality Burials at Skogskyrkogården