Christiaan Pienaar
21st Prime Minister of Satavia | |
---|---|
In office 23 December 1941 – 17 June 1949 | |
President | Marinus de Klerk Frederick Roepstorff Louis Clarendon |
Preceded by | Vincent le Roux |
Succeeded by | Daniël Wilson |
Personal details | |
Born | Hondeberg, Dominion of Satavia | January 3, 1899
Died | December 16, 1972 Port Hope, Satavia | (aged 73)
Political party | Liberal (until 1925) National (from 1925) |
Spouse | Eilene Mallery |
Children | 3 |
Parent | Jacobus Pienaar |
Alma mater | University College Port Hope |
Military service | |
Battles/wars | Great War • Battle of Lideberg |
General Christiaan Jacobus Willem Pienaar, MD GWM (3 January 1899 - 16 December 1972) was a Satavian statesman and army officer. Pienaar served in the Satavian Armed Forces during the Great War. Following the February Coup in 1939, Pienaar served as Treasurer in the National Government of Oscar Harrison. Following the assassination of Harrison in 1941, Pienaar continued as Treasurer in the van Velix Government, until later that year when Johan van Velix suffered a stroke and died, when he became Prime Minister. He was also President of Satavia for nine years from 1950 to 1959.
Pienaar was born to the influential Pienaar family. His grandfather had served as Prime Minister for a little less than a year in the mid 1880s, whilst his father would later serve as Prime Minister at the beginning of the Great Collapse. Pienaar attended University College Port Hope, one of the oldest universities in Asteria Inferior and the oldest in Satavia.
Pienaar joined the military in 1921, and quickly rose through the ranks. It was also during this time that he developed far-right sympathies, eventually joining the minor far-right National Party in 1925, becoming one of the highest ranking members of the party. Later that year, he pursuaded his senior officer, Oscar Harrison, to join the party.
During the Great War, Pienaar lead forces in battles mainly in the Euclean front perhaps most famously at the Battle of Lideberg. Following the end of the Great War, Pienaar was a staunch oponent of the abolition of the monarchy in Satavia and Estmere, and was a staunch critic of Edward Limes' Union of Satavia.
In 1939, Pienaar lead forces during the February Coup that overthrew the Limes Government and was appointed Treasurer in the new National Government of the Republic of Satavia. In 1941, following Harrison's assasination and the death of Van Velix, Pienaar became Prime Minister. He served for eight years before handing over power to his deputy, Jim Thawker. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Pienaar lead a crackdown on civil rights and left-wing organisations on an never before-seen scale. The next year he was appointed President, a post he held for nine years.
Pienaar remains one of the most controversial figures in Satavian politics, regarded as a tyrant by many. Following the collapse of the National Government in 1976, many monuments and buildings named in Pienaar's honour were re-named.