31 Facts About Sicco Mansholt

Sicco Mansholt was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1946, taking office on 4 June 1946.

Sicco Mansholt continued as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Supplies in the Cabinet Beel I, taking office on 3 July 1946, then served as acting Minister of Economic Affairs from 14 January 1948 until 20 January 1948 following the resignation of Gerardus Huysmans.

Sicco Mansholt served continuously as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Supplies in the Drees Cabinets I, II and III, and served as a Member of the House of Representatives after the elections of 1952 and 1956, serving from 15 July 1952 until 7 September 1952 and from 3 July 1956 until 3 October 1956.

In December 1957, Sicco Mansholt was nominated as the first European Commissioner from the Netherlands in the First Hallstein Commission.

Sicco Mansholt resigned as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Supplies on 1 January 1958 and the First Hallstein Commission was installed on 7 January 1958.

Sicco Mansholt continued to serve as European Commissioner for Agriculture and vice-president in the Second Hallstein Commission, the Rey Commission and the Malfatti Commission.

In February 1972 Sicco Mansholt was nominated as the next President of the European Commission.

The Sicco Mansholt Commission was installed on 1 March 1972 and oversaw the creation of the European Monetary System on 24 April 1972 and the first enlargement on 1 January 1973.

The Sicco Mansholt Commission was succeeded by the Ortoli Commission on 5 January 1973.

Sicco Mansholt was known for his abilities as a negotiator and manager.

Sicco Mansholt continued to comment on political affairs as an elder statesman until his death.

Sicco Mansholt holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Minister of Agriculture, the longest-serving European Commissioner from the Netherlands, the longest-serving European Commissioner for Agriculture and the only Dutchman to have served as President of the European Commission.

Sicco Mansholt is recognized as one of the Founding fathers of the European Union.

Sicco Leendert Mansholt was born on 13 September 1908 in Ulrum, in the province of Groningen, Netherlands.

Sicco Mansholt came from a socialist farmer's family in the province of Groningen.

Sicco Mansholt's father, Lambertus H Mansholt, was a delegate for the socialist SDAP party in the Groningen provincial chamber.

Sicco Mansholt organised political meetings for other women, usually in their own homes.

Together with two brothers and two sisters, Sicco Mansholt was raised at "Huis ter Aa", a grand villa in Glimmen.

Sicco Mansholt 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.

Sicco Mansholt moved to Java in the Dutch East Indies, and started work on a tea plantation.

Sicco Mansholt returned to the Netherlands in 1936, unhappy with the colonial system.

Sicco Mansholt wanted to become a farmer and moved to the Wieringermeer, a polder, reclaimed in 1937.

Sicco Mansholt helped people who were in acute danger to hide in the Wieringermeerpolder; he organised clandestine food distributions for the western provinces.

Sicco Mansholt became a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party in 1937, as a secretary of the local party.

Sicco Mansholt was the youngest member of a cabinet, aged only 36.

Sicco Mansholt was a member of six cabinets in total: Schermerhorn-Drees in 1945; Beel in 1946; Drees-Van Schaik in 1948, and the three Drees administrations: 1951,1952 and 1956.

In 1958, Sicco Mansholt became one of the Commissioners of the new European Commission.

Sicco Mansholt was Commissioner for Agriculture and vice-president of the institution.

Sicco Mansholt became President of the European Commission on 22 March 1972 and continued in that position until 5 January 1973.

Sicco Mansholt published his autobiography De Crisis in 1974.

Sicco Mansholt lived his last years in an old historic farm in the quiet village of Wapserveen, where he died on 29 June 1995.