Hannes Hafstein – Wikipedia

Grave in the Hólavallagarður cemetery in Reykjavík

Hannes Þórður Pétursson Hafstein (Born December 4, 1861 at the Möðruvellir farm in Hörgárdalur, † December 13, 1922 in Reykjavík) was an Icelandic politician and poet. He was the first Icelandic Prime Minister.

Hannes Hafstein’s parents were Pétur Havstein (born February 17, 1812, † June 24, 1875) and Kristjana Gunnarsdóttir Havstein (born September 20, 1836, † February 24, 1927). He closed the higher school ( Learned the school , The forerunner of the Menntaskólininn í Reykjavík) in 1880 and completed a degree in law at the University of Copenhagen, which he ended in 1886.

After completing his training in Copenhagen, which he completed in 1886 at the age of 25, Hannes Hafstein initially worked in various state offices, not least in the Westfjords.

As a highly positioned civil servant ( Register ) In ísafjörður he got into a forerunner of the cod war in 1899. A British trawler in Dýrafjörður had been caught in the illegal fishing. Hannes Hafstein had 6 people row in the open boat, but the British quickly sank the boat. Some people came around, only he and two others were able to save themselves.

Hannes Hafstein was a member of the Icelandic Parliament Aliting from 1900 to 1901, 1903 and 1905 and once again from 1916 to 1922.

In 1904 he became the first Icelandic Prime Minister and the first Icelander to represent Iceland in the Danish cabinet as Iceland Minister in the Deuntzer government and-in contrast to his predecessor in this office, Peter Adler Alberti, was responsible for the Althing.

He was also the first Minister of Iceland to have his official residence in Iceland himself and not in Copenhagen. The fact that he chose Reykjavík as his official residence, ^[2] contributed a lot to the upswing of the then very small city (approx. 3,500 inhabitants).

He led his office as a premier from February 1, 1904 to March 31, 1909; Björn Jónsson followed him. After this first term in office, he became CEO of the bank of Iceland.

In 1912 he was elected President of the Althing and was prime minister for the second time on July 25, 1912, with which he succeeded Kristján Jónsson. On July 21, 1914, Sigurður Eggerz replaced him in this office, and Hannes Hafstein again became CEO of the bank of Iceland.

He was a member and party leader of the The Home Party (Self -management party) as well as a member of the The federal party (such as “Union Party”).

In 1917 his state of health forced him to withdraw from his public tasks. He had lost his beloved Ms. Ragnheiður Thordersen four years earlier and died in 1922.

Like many Icelandic politicians since Snorri Sturluson, Hannes Hafstein also emerged as a writer, in his case primarily as a poet. As a teenager, he began to write poems and published it for the first time in the magazine he published himself Budding .

Some of his poems are still very popular today and can be found in numerous school books. Among others in Iceland, he represents the literature flow of realism, including Theodor Storm comparable. Translated into German z. B. his poem.

Another of his poems about a ride has become a well -known folk song: I fight on Fáki from (The actual title of the song is Run ^[4] ).

As a publisher, he also worked in addition to the demanding political work. For example, he published the works of the Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson and Bólu-Hjálmar and also wrote the foreword to the volumes.

1. ↑ Arni D. Júlíusson, u. a.: Iceland history in language and pictures. Reykjavik, Language and Culture, 2005.
2. ↑ S. Aðalsteinsdóttir, u. a. (HrSg.): Icelandic poetry. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-458-35754-4, p. 58.
3. ↑ I fight on Fáki from – Run , sung by the men’s choir “Karlakorin Home”.

Annotation: Icelanders are referred to with the first name or with first and last names, but not only with the last name. Additional information can be found at Icelandic name.