Sicco Mansholt

Sicco Leendert Mansholt (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsɪkoː ˈleːndərt ˈmɑnsɦɔlt]; 13 September 1908 – 29 June 1995) was a Dutch politician, recognised as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), Mansholt was a farmer who entered politics in the late 1930s. During World War II, when the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany, he was involved in the Dutch Resistance and witnessed the Dutch famine of 1944. After the war, he was offered a ministerial portfolio as Minister of Agriculture, Fishing, and Food Supply (1945–1958). He later became European Commissioner for Agriculture (1958–1972), and fourth President of the European Commission (1972–1973). He was one of the architects of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union.

Early life and studies

Sicco Leendert Mansholt was born on 13 September 1908 in Ulrum, Groningen, Netherlands.^[1]

Mansholt came from a socialist farmer's family in the Dutch province of Groningen. Both his father and grandfather were supporters of early socialist leaders such as Multatuli, Domela Nieuwenhuis and Troelstra. His father, Lambertus H. Mansholt, was a delegate for the socialist SDAP party in the Groningen provincial chamber. His mother, Wabien Andreae, daughter of a judge in Heerenveen, was one of the first women to have studied Political Science. She organised political meetings for other women, usually in their own homes.

Together with two brothers and two sisters, Mansholt was raised at "Huis ter Aa," a grand villa in Glimmen.^[2] He attended the HBS-school in Groningen and after that went to Deventer, to the School of Tropical Agriculture,^[1] where he studied to become a tobacco farmer.

Agriculture

He moved to Java in the Dutch East Indies, nowadays Indonesia, and started work on a tea plantation.

He returned to the Netherlands in 1936, unhappy with the colonial system. He wanted to become a farmer and moved to the Wieringermeer, a polder, reclaimed in 1937. There he started his own farm.

He married Henny J. Postel in 1938, and they had two sons and two daughters.^[1]

In the years of the Second World War he was an active member of the Resistance. He helped people who were in acute danger to hide in the Wieringermeerpolder; he organised clandestine food distributions for the western provinces.

Politics

Local politics

Mansholt became a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) in 1937,^[1] as a secretary of the local party. He had several public functions for the SDAP in Wieringermeer, including that of acting mayor of the Wieringermeer community.

Minister of Agriculture

Immediately after the war, in June 1945, socialist Labour Party (PvdA) Prime Minister Schermerhorn asked him to take a seat in his cabinet as minister of Agriculture, Fishery and Food Distribution. He was the youngest member of a cabinet, aged only 36.

He was a member of 6 cabinets in total: Schermerhorn-Drees in 1945; Beel in 1946; Drees-Van Schaik in 1948, and another three Drees administrations: 1951, 1952 and 1956. As Minister of Agriculture during this time, he was one of the key architects of the EC's Common Agricultural Policy. In 1954 the parliamentary debate about the budget for the Department of Agriculture was postponed: the Minister was ice-skating the 200 kilometer long Elfstedentocht in the Dutch province of Friesland, which he skated twice in his life.

European Commission

In 1958, he became one of the Commissioners of the new European Commission. He was Commissioner for Agriculture and vice-president of the institution. He modernized European agriculture.

He became President of the European Commission on 22 March 1972 (Mansholt Commission) and continued in that position until 5 January 1973. It was around that time he was heavily under the influence of Club of Rome.

Life after politics

Mansholt published his autobiography De Crisis (The Crisis) in 1974.^[1]

He lived his last years in on an old historic farm in the quiet village of Wapserveen in the province of Drenthe (north-east Netherlands), where he died on 29 June 1995.^[1]

His daughter Lideke also died in 1995, aged 53.

Decorations

National honours
Ribbon bar	Honour	Date & Comment
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion	18 December 1972

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sicco Mansholt.

• (Dutch) Dr. S.L. (Sicco) Mansholt Parlement & Politiek

Presidents of the European Commission
High Authority of the Coal and Steel Community (1952–1967)	Jean Monnet (1952–55) René Mayer (1955–58) Paul Finet (1958–59) Piero Malvestiti (1959–63) Rinaldo Del Bo (1963–67) Acting: Albert Coppé (1967)
Commission of the Atomic Energy Community (1958–1967)	Louis Armand (1958–59) Étienne Hirsch (1959–62) Pierre Chatenet (1962–67)
Commission of the Economic Community (1958–1967)	Walter Hallstein (1958–67)
Commission of the Communities (1967–2009)	Jean Rey (1967–70) Franco Maria Malfatti (1970–72) Sicco Mansholt (1972–73) François-Xavier Ortoli (1973–77) Roy Jenkins (1977–81) Gaston Thorn (1981–85) Jacques Delors (1985–95) Jacques Santer (1995–99) Acting: Manuel Marín (1999) Romano Prodi (1999–2004) José Manuel Barroso (2004–9)
Commission (2009–present)	José Manuel Barroso (2009–14) Jean-Claude Juncker (2014–present)
Commission President President of the European Council Council Presidency President of the European Parliament

Ministers of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Tak van Poortvliet Klerck Van den Bergh Tromp Bastert Havelaar Lely Van der Sleijden De Marez Oyens Kraus Veegens Talma Treub Posthuma Van IJsselsteyn Ruijs de Beerenbrouck Aalberse Koolen Slotemaker de Bruïne Verschuur Colijn Steenberghe Gelissen Steenberghe Colijn Steenberghe Van den Tempel Kerstens Van den Broek Gispen Vos Huysmans Mansholt Van den Brink Zijlstra De Pous Andriessen Den Uyl Bakker De Block De Jong Nelissen Langman Lubbers Van Aardenne Terlouw Van Aardenne De Korte Andriessen Wijers Jorritsma Heinsbroek Hoogervorst Brinkhorst Zalm Wijn Van der Hoeven Verhagen Kamp

Ministers of Agriculture of the Netherlands
Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Mansholt Staf Vondeling Staf Marijnen Biesheuvel Lardinois Boersma Brouwer Van der Stee Braks De Koning Braks De Vries Bukman Van Aartsen Apotheker Brinkhorst Veerman Verburg Verhagen

European Commission (1958–1962: First Hallstein Commission)
Walter Hallstein (West Germany) Piero Malvestiti (Italy)* Giuseppe Caron† (Italy) Sicco Mansholt (Netherlands) Robert Marjolin (France) Hans von der Groeben (West Germany) Robert Lemaignen (France) Giuseppe Petrilli (Italy) Lionello Levi Sandri (Italy) Jean Rey (Belgium) Michel Rasquin** (Luxembourg) Lambert Schaus† (Luxembourg)
*resigned – **died – †replacement