Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat and UN Secretary-General, born this day

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. As of 2026, he remains the youngest person to have held the post, having been only 47 years old when he was elected. He was a son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917.

Hammarskjöld's tenure was characterized by efforts to strengthen the newly formed UN both internally and externally. He led initiatives to improve morale and organizational efficiency while seeking to make the UN more responsive to global issues. He presided over the creation of the first UN peacekeeping forces in Egypt (the UNEF) and the Congo (the ONUC) and personally intervened to defuse or resolve diplomatic crises. Hammarskjöld's second term was cut short when he died in a plane crash while enroute to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis.

Hammarskjöld was and remains well regarded internationally as a capable diplomat and administrator, and his efforts to resolve various global crises led to him being the only posthumous recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In the Western world, his appointment and tenure were hailed as one of the most notable and successful in UN leadership. President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld "the greatest statesman of our century". In the Third World, however, his legacy is extremely controversial, given his erratic performance in the Congo Crisis, with consequences to this day.

In 1953, soon after his appointment as United Nations Secretary-General, Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In the talk, Hammarskjöld declared:

“But the explanation of how a man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom 'self-surrender' had been the way to self-realization, and who in 'singleness of mind' and 'inwardness' had found the strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbors made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it.” (Henry P Van Dusen. Dag Hammarskjöld: A Biographical Interpretation of Markings Faber and Faber London 1967 p. 47.)

Markings was described by the late theologian Henry P. Van Dusen as "the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peace and order". (Henry P Van Dusen. Dag Hammarskjöld: A Biographical Interpretation of Markings Faber and Faber London 1967 p. 5) Hammarskjöld wrote, for example:

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it – according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed – according to the measure of his purity of heart”. (Dag Hammarskjöld: Markings Leif Sjoberg and WH Auden (trans) Faber and Faber London 1964 p. 63.)

Markings is characterized by Hammarskjöld's intermingling of prose and haiku poetry in a manner exemplified by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho in his Narrow Roads to the Deep North. In his foreword to Markings, W. H. Auden quotes Hammarskjöld as stating:

“In our age, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action”. (WH Auden Foreword to Dag Hammarskjöld: Markings Leif Sjoberg and WH Auden (trans) Faber and Faber London 1964 p. 23.)

To purchase a copy of Markings, follow the link: www.amazon.com/s?k=markings+dag+hammarskjold