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.

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. He attended the HBS-school in Groningen and after that went to Deventer, to the School of Tropical Agriculture, 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.

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, 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.

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.

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

External links

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

Government offices
Preceded by Hans Gispen (Trade, Industry, and Agriculture) Jim de Booy (Shipping and Fishing)	Minister of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Supply of the Netherlands 1945–1958	Succeeded by Kees Staf
Preceded by Gerardus Huysmans	Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands 1948	Succeeded by Jan van den Brink
Political offices
Preceded by Aris Saal	Acting Mayor of Wieringermeer 1945	Succeeded by Gerrit Gesenius Loggers
Preceded by Office created	Dutch European Commissioner 1958–1973 With: Maan Sassen (1967–1971)	Succeeded by Pierre Lardinois
Preceded by Office created	European Commissioner for Agriculture 1958–1972	Succeeded by Carlo Scarascia-Mugnozza
Preceded by Franco Maria Malfatti	President of the European Commission 1972–1973	Succeeded by François-Xavier Ortoli