Jelle Zijlstra

Vocation

Notable

Dutch politician, economist, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and Prime Minister. Zijlstra was born in a small Frisian village in a Reformed family as the only child of the farmer and grain dealer Anne Jelle Zijlstra (b. 14 Nov 1879) and Pietje Postuma (b. 6 March 1897). He followed MULO and HBS secondary education in Harlingen and then went to study economics in Rotterdam from 5 October 1937 to 29 November 1945. He dissertaded 8 July 1948 cum laude in Rotterdam and became lector in economy at the Dutch Economic Hogeschool (later Erasmus University) at Rotterdam from 1947 to October 1948. From 28 October 1948 to 1 January 1961 he was professor in economics at the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam, but it was interrupted by a career in Dutch politics. From 2 September 1952 till 19 May 1959 he was Minister of Economic Affairs. From 14 June 1956 till 3 October 1956 he was the leader of the ARP in the 2nd house of parliament. He was minister of Finance from 22 December 1958 till 26 May 1959 and again from 26 May 1959 till 24 July 1963. From 25 juni 1963 to 22 November 1966 he was senator in the Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal. He combined this with a professor post at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. From 22 November 1966 till 5 April 1967 he was the Dutch Prime Minister en from 22 November 1966 till 5 April 1967 he was Finance Minister again. He ended his career by being President of the De Nederlandsche Bank from 1 May 1967 till 1 January 1982. Personal Zijlstra married on 11 March 1946 Heintje ("Hetty") Bloksma (b. 30 Jan 1921, Sexbierum, 19 Nov 2013, Wassenaar). They got three daughters and two sons between 1947 and 1961. Zijlstra was more an academic intellectual and pragmatic homo economicus than an ideological homo politicus. He and his wife Hetty came from the down-to-earth and sober Frisian countryside and could laugh about intrigues in The Haque. He died in Wassenaar on 23 December 2001. Link to Wikipidia biography