Thorvald Stauning

Prime Minister of Denmark

26 October 1873 Copenhagen

3 May 1942(1942-05-03) (68) Copenhagen

24 April 1924 – 14 December 1926

Thorvald August Marinus Stauning (Danish:  ; 26 October 1873 in Copenhagen – 3 May 1942) was the first social democratic Prime Minister of Denmark. He served as Prime Minister from 1924 to 1926 and again from 1929 until his death in 1942. Under Stauning's leadership, Denmark, like the other Western European countries, developed a social welfare state, and though many of his ambitions for Social Democracy were ultimately thwarted in his lifetime by events beyond his control, his leadership through grave times places Stauning among the most admired of twentieth-century Danish statesmen. The Stauning Alps, a large mountain range in Greenland, were named after him.