The Life and Legacy of Dag Hammarskjold

Article Title: The Life and Legacy of Dag Hammarskjold
Submitted by: Craig Lock
Key words: Dag Hammarskjold, autobiography/biography, United Nations, leadership
Web Site:
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html

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The submitter's blog (with extracts from his various writings: articles, books and new manuscripts) is at http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=%22craig+lock%22&t=post and http://craiglock.wordpress.com
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(Personal growth, self help, writing, internet marketing, spiritual, 'spiritual writings' (how 'airey-fairey'), words of inspiration and money management, how boring now, craig!)

This piece is a "summary" of the full biography of Dag Hammarskjold from the following web site:
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1961

I was so inspired by the life of this amazing man, that I'm sharing on the www. If published, please acknowledge the writer and source. All my other articles and extracts from my various writings may be freely published, electronically or in print.

"We share what we know, so that we all may grow."

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"I work for human rights for ALL!"

DAG HAMMARSKJOLD: A BIOGRAPHY

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

"Those who stand up for justice will always be on the right side of history."
- Dr Martin Luther King Junior

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series 'Les Prix Nobel''. It was later edited and republished
in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1961

Dag Hammarskjöld (July 29, 1905-September 18, 1961) was a remarkable man, who won (posthumously) the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961.

He spoke of the influence of his parents: "From generations of soldiers and government officials on my father's side I inherited a belief that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your country - or humanity. This service required a sacrifice of all personal interests, but likewise the courage to stand up unflinchingly for your convictions. From scholars and clergymen on my mother's side, I inherited a belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men were equals as children of God, and should be met and treated by us as our masters in God."

In short, Hammarskjöld was a Renaissance man. His main intellectual and professional interest for some years, however, was political economy. Hammarskjöld has been credited with having coined the term "planned economy". Along with his eldest brother, Bo, who was then undersecretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare, he drafted the legislation which opened the way to the creation of the present, so-called "welfare state. " In the latter part of this period, he drew attention as an international financial negotiator for his part in the discussions with Great Britain on the postwar economic reconstruction of Europe, in his reshaping of the twelve-year-old United States-Swedish trade agreement, in his participation in the talks which organized the Marshall Plan, and in his leadership on the Executive Committee of the Organization for
European Economic Cooperation.

Hammarskjöld represented Sweden as a delegate to the United Nations in 1949 and again from 1951 to 1953. Receiving fifty-seven votes out of sixty, Hammarskjöld
was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1953 for a five-year term and reelected in 1957. Before turning to the world problems awaiting him, he established a firm base of operations. For his Secretariat of 4,000 people, he drew up a set of regulations defining their responsibilities to the international organization of which they were a part and affirming their independence from narrowly conceived national interests.

In the six years after his first major victory of 1954-1955, when he personally negotiated the release of American soldiers captured by the Chinese in the Korean War, he was involved in struggles on three of the world's continents. He approached them through what he liked to call "preventive diplomacy" and while doing so sought to establish more independence and effectiveness in the post of Secretary-General itself.

In the Middle East his efforts to ease the situation in Palestine and to resolve its problems continued throughout his stay in office. During the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, he exercised his own personal diplomacy with the nations involved; worked with many others in the UN to get the UN to nullify the use of force by Israel, France, and Great Britain following Nasser's commandeering of the Canal; and under the UN's mandate, commissioned the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) - the first ever mobilized by an international organization. Out of these world crises of the time (in the Middle East and South-East Asia, especially), came procedures and tactics new to the UN - the use of the UNEF, employment of a UN "presence" in world trouble spots and a steadily growing tendency to make the Secretary-General the executive for operations for peace.

After his death, the publication in 1963 of his "journal" entitled 'Markings' revealed the inner man as few documents ever have. The entries in this manuscript, Hammarskjöld wrote in a covering letter to his literary executor, constitute " a sort of White Book concerning my negotiations with myself - and with God. The entries themselves are spiritual truths given artistic form. 'Markings 'contains many references to death, perhaps none more explicit or significant than this portion from the opening entries, written when he was a young man:

"Tomorrow we shall meet,
Death and I -.
And he shall thrust his sword
Into one who is wide awake"
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished
in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1961

This summary extracted from
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1961/hammarskjold-bio.html

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"I work for human rights for ALL!"

UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is a great example of how worldly power can be driven by spiritual conviction:
“The most noble aspects of the human spirit, unrelenting and unquenchable in its search for freedom and justice”

Dag Hammarskjold had a great spirit and lived an extraordinary life...

and so CAN YOU!

Shared by Craig Lock ("Information and Inspiration Distributer, Incorrigible Encourager and People-builder")

"I am being driven forward Into an unknown land. ..... who struggled with making his every day life fit with his spiritual beliefs."

"Success - for the glory of God - or for your own, for the peace of mankind or for your own? Upon the answer to this question depends on the result of your
actions."

"Become grateful as your deeds become less and less associated with your name, as your feet ever more lightly tread the earth."

"Life only demands from you the strength you possess.
Only one feat is possible - not to have run away."

"Only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road."

- Dag Hammarskjold (from 'Markings')

"Use every letter you write, every conversation you have, every meeting you attend, to express your fundamental beliefs and dreams.
Affirm to others the vision of the world you want.
You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness.
Affirm it. Spread it. Radiate it. Think day and night about it and you will see a miracle happen: the greatness of your own life. "

-- Dr. Robert Muller, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations

"Each one of us can enrich the spiritual experience of others. Because humanity has a common soul, each one of us can reach into ourselves and provide similar inspirational energy for those around us. And doing this will produce positive change... in some small way to help make a better world.

Life does have meaning. We just need to trust the journey... through finding our own inspiration that resides within each person, each soul. Then this individual
spirit will ripple, radiating out to others... and so enhance the common good of all human beings on earth. "

- craig as inspired by the words of Pat Lynch (Chief executive of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office)

"Together, one mind, one soul at a time, let's see how many people we can impact, empower, encourage and perhaps even inspire to reach their fullest potentials. Change YOUR world and you help change THE world...for the better"

"Only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road."

- Dag Hammarskjold (from 'Markings')