Foreign the Swedish track and field athlete, see Gustav Möller; for the American painter, see Gustave Moeller.
Background
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 accountants However he used it in the service of the labour movement, initially as a leader of its publishing house.
Career
Gustav Möller (1884–1970) was a prominent Swedish Social democratic politician, credited as the father of the social security system and the Welfare state, called Folkhemmet. Minister of Social Affairs 1936-1938 and 1939-1951 he is credited as the creator of the Swedish social security system and the Welfare state called Folkhemmet. He was influenced by Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal"s ideas about policies which could help families.
There were two specifics about Möller"s welfare policy, coloured by his experiences in childhood:
1.
There should be no stigmatization of the poor, no sorting out of those in need. 2. There should be as little bureaucratic paternalism and arbitrariness as possible.
Preferably, the welfare assignments should be administered by the recipients themselves, as when unemployment allowances were administered by the trade unions. Möller considered the welfare state a temporary stopgap rather than a goal in itself.
He lived in Stockholm at the time of his death in 1970.
Politics
A dedicated Socialist, he resigned from government in 1951 rather than following his party into post-war compromises with private business.
Membership
He was a Member of Parliament in 1918-1954 and Member of the Government in 1924-1926, 1932-1936 and 1936-1951.