Gustav Möller

Not to be confused with Swedish athlete Gösta Möller, or American painter Gustave Moeller, or Danish-Swedish film director Gustav Möller.

Gustav Möller (6 June 1884 – 15 August 1970) was a prominent Swedish politician from the Social Democratic Party, credited as the father of the social security system and the welfare state, also called folkhemmet. He was a member of parliament in 1918–1954 and member of the government in 1924–26, 1932–36 and 1936–51.

Gustav Möller
Minister of Health and Social Affairs
In office 13 December 1939 – 1 October 1951
Prime Minister	Per Albin Hansson Tage Erlander
Preceded by	Albert Forslund
Succeeded by	Gunnar Sträng
In office 28 September 1936 – 16 December 1938
Prime Minister	Per Albin Hansson
Preceded by	Gerhard Strindlund
Succeeded by	Albert Forslund
In office 24 September 1932 – 19 June 1936
Prime Minister	Per Albin Hansson
Preceded by	Sam Larsson
Succeeded by	Gerhard Strindlund
In office 18 October 1924 – 7 June 1926
Prime Minister	Hjalmar Branting Rickard Sandler
Preceded by	Gösta Malm
Succeeded by	Jakob Pettersson
Minister of Commerce and Industry
In office 16 December 1938 – 13 December 1939
Prime Minister	Per Albin Hansson
Preceded by	Per Edvin Sköld
Succeeded by	Fritiof Domö
Personal details
Born	(1884-06-06)6 June 1884 Malmö, Sweden
Died	15 August 1970(1970-08-15) (aged 86) Stockholm, Sweden
Political party	Social Democratic
Spouse(s)	Gerda Andersson (1917–1924) Elsa Kleen (1926–1968, her death)

Gustav Möller delivering a speech.

Life and career

Gustav Möller was born in 1884 to a poor family in Malmö, Sweden, but was discovered by his employer and given an education as an office accountant; however, he instead used it in the service of the labor movement, initially as a leader of its publishing house.

As party secretary and organizer of the Social Democratic base organization in 1916–1940, he oversaw the trebling of membership and local branches.

During his terms as the Minister of Social Affairs in 1936–38 and 1939–51, he is credited as the creator of the Swedish social security system and the welfare state called folkhemmet. He was partly influenced by Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal's ideas about policies that could help families, but more by the Danish Social Democrats C. V. Bramsnæs and Karl Kristian Steincke.

He was named honorary senior lecturer at the universities of Uppsala and Lund in 1945 and 1947, respectively.

There were two specific details of Möller's welfare policy that were colored by his childhood experiences:

1. There should be no stigmatization of the poor, no sorting out of those in need. Rich families as well as poor should have their children's allowance, old age pension and free medical treatment.

2. There should be as little bureaucratic paternalism and arbitrariness as possible. Eligibility should be governed by law. Preferably, the welfare assignments should be administered by the recipients themselves, as when unemployment allowances were administered by the trade unions. And allowances should always be cash.

Möller considered the welfare state a temporary stopgap rather than a goal in itself. A dedicated socialist, he resigned from government in 1951 rather than following his party into postwar compromises with private business.

He lived in Stockholm at the time of his death in 1970, his wife Else having died in 1968.

Further reading

• Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 332–39.
• Per Gunnar Edebalk. 2021. Gustav Möller: En legendarisk socialpolitiker.Lund: Arkiv förlag.