Søren Jaabæk

Søren Pedersen Jaabæk (1 April 1814 – 7 January 1894)[1] was a Norwegian politician and farmer. Jaabæk is the longest-serving member of the Norwegian Parliament in the history of Norway, and was one of the founders of the Liberal Party of Norway.[2]

Søren Jaabæk
Member of the Norwegian Parliament
In office
1845–1891
ConstituencyLister og Mandals amt
Personal details
Born
Søren Pedersen Jaabæk

(1814-04-01)1 April 1814
Holum
Died7 January 1894(1894-01-07) (aged 79)
Political partyLiberal Party
Moderate Liberal Party
ResidenceHolmesland in Holum
Jåbekk in Halse
OccupationFarmer, teacher, church official

Early life

Jaabæk was born in Holum, Lister og Mandals amt, Norway in 1814. After living in Halse og Harkmark for some years, he returned to Holum following his father's death in 1849. He began his professional life working in schools and churches. He served several terms as mayor of Holum and Halse og Harkmark between 1840 and 1890.[3] In 1845, he was elected to the Norwegian Parliament, where he served until 1891.[2]

Political career

In 1865, Jaabæk founded Bondevennerne (lit. "The Friends of the Peasants", inspired by a Danish society of the same name), a political society of Norwegian farmers which evolved from a local group in Mandal to a national movement, composed of more than 300 local bodies with approximately 30,000 members in total. Through Bondevennerne, Jaabæk introduced the open popular meeting to Norwegian politics, and the first Norwegian cooperatives emerged as offshoots of the Bondevennerne movement.[4] Bondevennerne's main newspaper, Folketidende, was also founded by Jaabæk in Mandal in 1865. Jaabæk was elected chairman of Bondevennerne in 1868.[2]

In parliamentary politics, Jaabæk eventually emerged as the leader of the oppositional alliance of farmers. He often sided with Johan Sverdrup, a major representative of the urban liberal opposition.[2] In 1869, Jaabæk and Sverdrup became political allies, thus establishing an alliance between the urban and the rural opposition, which would lead to the foundation of the Liberal Party of Norway (led by Sverdrup) in 1884.[5] By 1884, little remained of Bondevennerne. Some of the remaining bodies gradually became local Liberal bodies.[6] Jaabæk never became one of the leading figures of the new party, but he remained a supporter of Sverdrup for the remainder of his political career. For his last parliamentary term, Jaabæk represented the Moderate Liberal Party. He left the Norwegian Parliament in 1891.[1] In 1884 he was a co-founder of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights.[7]

Jaabæk supported economic liberalism and was widely known for his opposition to high governmental spending. His alleged stubbornness in economic matters earned him the nickname "Neibæk" ("No-bæk").[2] Due to his rationalistic approach to Christianity, as well as his view of positions in the church as ordinary professions, he became at odds with the Norwegian clergy in the 1870s.[3] Jaabæk supported many democratic reforms, and spoke up for universal suffrage and equal marriage rights for men and women.[8]

Jaabæk died in 1894.[2]

gollark: I'm debating abandoning this ice.
gollark: Someone had better develop octagonal lineages.
gollark: Might be, then.
gollark: Well, yes, I know.
gollark: Is 2^n exponential, though?

References
  1. "Søren Pedersen Jaabæk" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD). Retrieved 9 January 2009.
  2. Henriksen, Petter, ed. (2005). "Søren Pedersen Jaabæk". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). 8 (4th ed.). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. pp. 236–237. ISBN 978-82-573-1543-6.
  3. "Søren Jaabæk (1814-1894)". National Archival Services of Norway (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  4. Nerbøvik, Jostein (1999). Norsk historie 1860–1914: Eit bondesamfunn i oppbrot. Volume five of Norsk historie (in Norwegian). Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. p. 110. ISBN 978-82-521-5186-2.
  5. "Johan Sverdrup". Stortinget.no (in Norwegian). 22 January 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  6. Nerbøvik 1999: p. 130
  7. "Indbydelse til at indtræde i Norsk Kvindesags-Forening stiftet den 28de Juni 1884," Bergens Tidende, 18 November 1884
  8. Blom, Ida; Sogner, Sølvi, eds. (2006). Med kjønnsperspektiv på norsk historie (in Norwegian). Oslo: Cappelen. p. 219. ISBN 978-82-02-24103-2.
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