I guess we all have that one politician at the helm who nobody remembers. I think if you’d ask random people in the street to name all German chancellors names like Adenauer, Schröder, Merkel, Kohl, Schmidt would fly easily.
I didn’t find a statistic about it, but I’m convinced the one most people would forget was Kurt Georg Kiesinger – he had the shortest tenure (except Walter Scheel who was just acting chancellor for a week). He was the only one who didn’t win an election directly, succeeded during his predecessor’s tenure without new elections and lost the next election. He got a lot of things done in his three years, but he was the chancellor after Adenauer, Erhardt and succeeded by Willy Brandt – all three much bigger names in German politics.
Who is the politician at the helm everyone likely forgot in your country’s recent history?
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Cyprus didn’t have many, so for the average adult they are all recent history.
I speculate that if we ask only under-25s, they might forget [Spyros Kyprianou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyros_Kyprianou) – he followed the first, most historically-significant *and* longest-serving president, and his two immediate successors outlived him and had more staying political relevance, while he was just a continuity candidate.
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I’m not sure if he’s entirely “forgotten” about, but in anything focusing on the American Revolution, the focus is always either on the redcoat soldiers or on King George III himself. People seem to me to overlook Lord North, who was the Prime Minister at the time.
In general, we’ve had so many PMs over history (since the 1730s) that many people – British and otherwise – overlook the illustrious careers of those who aren’t the “big” names: Walpole, the Pitts, Wellington, Grey (himself largely famous because of the tea), Peel, Disraeli, Gladstone, Balfour, Lloyd George, Chamberlain (infamous rather than famous per se), Churchill, Attlee, Thatcher, Blair … and then the more recent ones who stand out more, such as Johnson.
Ola Ullsten is probably the name people will think of last when trying to remember the prime ministers in the last 80 years. He was the result of a failed centre right government in the late 70’s and headed a weak one party minority government that only lasted a year.
I would nominate Jan Stráský. He was the last prime minister of Czechoslovakia, who only took office in July 1992, when the dissolution was already agreed upon in broad strokes and well on its way to take effect on New Year’s 1993 and thus the federal government was basically a lame duck for his whole term.
Hartwig Löger (ÖVP) was chancellor for about 6 days in 2019 after the government fell apart and before the president appointed an interimistic technocratic government. I guess he won’t be forgotten as a funny side note of the shortest reign of a chancellor in Austrian history though, until that record is taken
The Catalan president that I feel is most forgotten is José Montilla (2006-2010), he is shadowed by his predecessor Maragall and is a generally boring character without a great deal of charisma, you add to that that his tenure was quite shadowed by the economic and national crisis that led to the independence movement and you have a forgotten president.
From before him we’ve only had three presidents (well, we’ve had more, but I think it is sensible to start counting after Franco, since before is already almost a century ago):
-Pujol: extremely known, ruled for decades.
-Maragall: very influential, he only ruled for a term but was very known for what he did as mayor of Barcelona.
-Tarradellas: president of the Generalitat in exile during the dictatorship, first president after it.
In the future, I think Quim Torra, who is the predecessor of our current president, will be the least known president. He did very little, ruled not much time and was incredibly shadowed by the exile of Puigdemont and the imprisonment of Junqueras.
For Presidents under the Fifth Republic (current regime), discounting Alain Poher who was only president by interim (twice, though), it’s probably Georges Pompidou. The name sounding kinda funny and the museum in Paris are really mostly what’s keeping him vaguely in the public consciousness.
For Prime Ministers, well, there’s been a lot. Maurice Couve de Murville strikes me as particularly unknown, probably Pierre Messmer too, but really most people wouldn’t be able to name that many.
For Hungary this is really easy: Péter Boross. He was the second prime minister since the first free elections, and he got the post after his predecessor, József Antall, died in office, a couple months before elections. Generally seen as more-or-less a “lame duck” PM, as his government was generally not popular (in the election afterwards the parties of his government coalition combined for around 25%), and he barely had time before elections.
I mean, since 1946 (the Republican age) we’ve had 31 different [Prime Ministers](https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidenti_del_Consiglio_dei_ministri_della_Repubblica_Italiana) it’s quite easy to forget about many of them, especially the older ones.
Personally, people I *only knew the name* before reading the list:
* Giuseppe Pella (53-54)
* Antonio Segni (55-57, 59-60)
* Fernando Tambroni (March-July 60)
* Arnaldo Forlani (80-81)
* Giovanni Spadolini (81-82)
While of these I can confidently say I **never** heard their names:
* Adone Zoli (57-58)
* Emilio Colombo (70-72)
* Giovanni Goria (87-88)
I’ve just voted as my personal favourite Adone Zoli, for his funny name and for [his very Fist-Republic face](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Adone_Zoli.jpg)
I’m not an expert on German politics but I’d say after the War it’s either Ludwig Erhard or Kurt Georg Kiesinger, the second and third chancellors (not counting Walter Scheel who only served interim). For all the later ones I could tell you something about their political legacy but these two occupy a mostly blank space in my mind. Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor after the war, is rather well known since he is still well known.
Henry McLeish. Everyone remembers Donald Dewar, who was the first to hold the post but died in office. He was succeeded by McLeish, who lasted only a year before the Officegate scandal forced him to resign.
All the FMs following him have lasted 6, 7, 8 years in office, so probably McLeish because his tenure was so short.
We’ve had over a hundred Federal Councillors since the office was created and they don’t have too much power and are often not elected for their charisma but their ability to play with a team and lead and represent their department.
John A. Costello. Not a particularly charismatic leader, and not a revolutionary veteran like other Irish politicians of that time. He wasn’t even the Fine Gael party leader when his party came to power, but a compromise candidate in a country still racked by personal vendettas from the Civil War.
He’s mostly forgotten largely because he was overshadowed by Eamon de Valera, who was much more of an icon in modern Irish history. But a lot of the key policy decisions that shaped the country’s profile in modern times were taken by Costello’s govt. Ireland upheld its neutrality in the late 1940s and joined the United Nations in 1955. And crucially the country left the Commonwealth and declared itself a republic in 1948. Ignoring partition, it was basically the culmination of 150+ years of Irish republican history. And the end of British “rule” in one form or another over 5/6th of the country.
Internally too a lot of progress was made fighting TB (which ravaged the country in the first half of the 20th century) and in electrifying the Irish countryside (which for people of that generation was a really landmark event).
I think a lot of the reasons for him being forgotten have to do with the economic stagnation of the time, and the influence of the Catholic Church over every aspect of politics and everyday life in Ireland. Costello himself famously identified as “a Catholic first and an Irishman second”. Essentially proving the point unionists had been making decades earlier about “Home Rule being Rome Rule”. From the point of view of secular 21st century Ireland, most people don’t look back on the 40s/50s very fondly for that reason.
pretty much most of the PMs. There’s no culture of remembering them in Poland.
I would imagine people would know the presidents (perhaps not in order, but could recognize the names), but for PMs not so much outside the most recent ones
For presidents, the one who is most forgotten today is probably our second president, Lauri Kristian Relander, who was in office 1925-31. It’s a little unfortunate because he did some good things… He was something of a diplomat president. He helped with healing the nation after our civil war and mediated in the burgeoning language conflicts of his era. He also travelled a lot and improved relations with our neighbours.
As for prime ministers, they are a much more anonymous and forgettable bunch… Most people don’t know much about prime ministers who were in office before they were born.
Viorica Dancila. We forgot her for the sake of our collective mental well-being. She was illiterate, she couldn’t even read the speeches that were written for her by her master (she was the puppet of an extremly corrupt guy who was legally banned from politics, her entire premiership was a front for stealing and laundring public funds)
Jan P Syse. He died in office before he could get much done. Honorable mention to Jan Petersen who despite being the leader of the largest party didn’t opt for the prime minister position in Kjell Magne Bondevik’s government.
Edit: He didn’t die in office, but he still died quite young. The government only lasted a year because of internal disagreements about the EU.
Pretty much any PM from before Lloyd George who wasn’t called William Pitt, Robert Walpole or Gladstone.
There’s also the Duke of Wellington (but no-one remembers he was PM) and Earl Grey (who everyone remembers for his tea, not being PM).
Almost every short-lived prime minister which their reigns lasted only for months/a year (we have many of them)
From whose who lasted longer, Emmanouil Tsouderos (1941 – 1944) is perhaps the most forgotten, he was prime minister in exile during the Axis occupation of Greece and compared to other Greek prime ministers he
didn’t left a legacy and therefore he’s largely forgotten by the general population.
I’d say Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. They were both General Secretaries of USSR that served between Brezhnev and Gorbachev who are completely forgotten about because they both ran the country the same way Brezhnev did and both died in office due to failing health after one year of service and so both of their terms were short and unremarkable.
Quite a few are. I can’t name even 10 I think. Kok, den Uijl, Lubbers, Balkenende, Rutte, Van Agt, and that’s it. To be fair to me, those are the only PM’s we’ve had since 1973. Yes, we only had 6 prime ministers in 50 years.
>the one most people would forget was Kurt Georg Kiesinger
People should definitely not forget that he was a Nazi. Not in a euphemistic “he had some right-wing ideas” kind of way, but a literal card carrying member of the Nazi party from 1933 to 45.
Strange that he wasn’t particularly popular in the student protests in the late 60s…