Jens Otto Krag

Jens Otto Krag (; 15 September 1914 – 22 June 1978) was a Danish politician who served as prime minister of Denmark from 1962 to 1968 and from 1971 to 1972, and as leader of the Social Democrats from 1962 to 1972. He was president of the Nordic Council in 1971. Early life and career Krag was born in Randers, Jutland, on 15 September 1914, into the impoverished family of a tobacconist. He attended the local gymnasium, and as a teenager joined the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark, the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party. In 1933, Krag began studying economics at the University of Copenhagen. During this period he emerged as an active journalist and teacher in the labour movement, and became acquainted with the leadership of the Social Democrats and the trade unions. He received his degree in 1940, the same year that Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany. During the German occupation, Krag worked as a civil servant in a Danish government agency and became a leading economic advisor to the labour movement, as well as a protégé of prominent social democrat and future prime minister Hans Hedtoft. Political career