Anker Henrik Jørgensen (13 July 1922 – 20 March 2016) was a Danish politician who served at various times as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Denmark. Between 1972 and 1982 he led five cabinets as Prime Minister. Jørgensen was President of the Nordic Council in 1986 and 1991. He led or represented the Social Democratic Party for well over 30 years. His legacy is ambivalent. Politically, he is considered by many right wing followers to have been largely unsuccessful, having failed to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Nonetheless, he is generally respected and even loved throughout Denmark for his personal integrity and down-to-earth personality, often exemplified by his refusal to move into the official Prime Minister residence Marienborg, preferring to stay with his wife in their small apartment in a working class area of Copenhagen. While he has been described as not having the image of a strong or visionary leader, during his terms as Prime Minister he managed to maintain wide support for the Danish welfare state. In 1990, he was chosen to travel to Iraq to negotiate the release of a group of Danish hostages with Saddam Hussein. Background Anker Henrik Jørgensen was born on 13 July 1922 to Johannes Albert Jørgensen and Maria Jørgensen, who both died of tuberculosis while he was a child. He was brought up by close members of his family. He studied at the , but left after the 7th grade to work at a warehouse. Through his job as a warehouse worker he became active in the Special Workers' Union, from January 2005 merged into Fagligt Fælles Forbund, and in the Social Democratic party. He served his conscription period in 1943, at the Guard Hussar Regiment Mounted Squadron in Næstved. He was part of the fighting when the barracks was attacked by the Germans during Operation Safari. After being repatriated, Anker Jørgensen then joined the resistance in Copenhagen. Political career Early politics He began his political career early, and in 1950 he became a member of a trade union. He led the Danish General Workers' Union between 1968 and 1972. Whilst he was chairman of the union, he was elected to the Parliament of Denmark for the first of many times in 1964. As a representative of unskilled workers, a rivalry developed with the leadership of the skilled workers' unions, such as the Danish