|
|
 Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish
diplomat
who served as Secretary-General
of the United
Nations from April 1953
until his death in September 1961.
His name was Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarsköld He was born into a family
rich in the tradition of public and military service on July 29, 1905 in Jönköping,
Sweden. The Hammarsköld's were a noble family. The degree of nobility was
numbered by the order of introduction at the Riddarhuset, the House of
Nobles. The Hammarskjölds, from Småland in the South of Sweden,
were number 135. Of the 135, only 30 exist today, and only three are
counts or barons. Unfortunately, the only privilege that exists for a
modern Swedish noble is the honor of being beheaded with a sword rather
than an axe. This is a somewhat modest perk in a country where the death
penalty has been abolished. Dag Hammarskjöld was no ordinary writer.
Except for scholarly works and published speeches he has written only one
book, the posthumously published Vägmärken (Markings, 1964).
Markings has the form of a spiritual diary, with traces and milestones of
the author's negotiations with himself and with God. But the value of the
book reaches far beyond its autobiographic interest.Central themes in the
book includes the feeling of distance to other people, superiority and
loneliness, and the duty to overcome these feelings. Dag Hammarskjöld,
who was the youngest of four sons of the Swedish scholar and noble
statesman Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862-1953), spent his childhood in
Uppsala (where his father was Governor 1907-1930) and in Stockholm (where
his father was Prime Minister February 1914 to March 1917). In Uppsala the
family was close friends with the internationally and ecumenically engaged
archbishop Nathan Söderblom. Agnes Almqvist ( -1940) married Dag's father
in 1890. Agnes hailed from a family of scholars and members of the church.
She provided the warm, humanistic side of Dag's personality, chatting with
shoemakers and archbishops alike, exuding a magnetic charm that filled
whatever room she was in. Dag was born when she was over 40. 
Although she
had hoped for a daughter, their relationship was "an especially
intimate, congenial and mutually appreciative one." (Van Dusen, p 17)
Dag was his mother's gentleman-in-waiting, in constant attendance upon
her. He was called the stay-at-home daughter, which was the practice of
the time for a daughter to remain at home to care for her parents. After
World War II Hammarskjöld began to work as Under-secretary in the Swedish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated, for example, government plans
to alleviate the economic problems of the post-war period.Election as the
UN's Secretary-General came as a complete surprise to Hammarskjöld. On
March 29, 1953 he said, "Nobody would be so crazy as to propose me,
and I wouldn't be so crazy as to accept so impossible a job." (Lash,
p 12) Two days later, after hearing that someone in New York was
suggesting his name as candidate, he cabled back to Sweden "Amused
but not interested." (Lash, p 12) He received the formal offer on
April 1, and arrived in New York as the newly appointed Secretary-General
of the United Nations on April 9, 1953. Hammarskjöld was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize posthumously in 1961, and the main library of the UN was
named for him. Besides his obvious role as a peacekeeper, he left as part
of his legacy a set of guidelines still used today by the UN Peacekeeping
forces. 1958 saw fresh crisis in the Arab world with the United States and
Britain sending troops to help Lebanon and Jordan. He obtained the
withdrawal of these troops and the raising of the blockade of Syria, which
had refused to join Nasser's Arab League. In 1959, Dag went to Laos and
put a UN representative there. DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD left a manuscript
to be published after his death. This became MARKINGS, what he
called a "sort of white book concerning my negotiations with
myself and with God." This is the sixth printing cloth 1964 edition
from Knopf with a foreword by W. H. AUDEN.
|
Dag Hammarskjöld
