Jonathan Motzfeldt

Jonathan Jakob Jørgen Otto Motzfeldt (25 September 1938 – 28 October 2010) was a Greenlandic priest and politician. He is considered one of the leading figures in the establishment of Greenland Home Rule. Jonathan Motzfeldt was the first and third Prime Minister of Greenland.

Personal life

Jonathan "Junnuk" Motzfeldt was born in 1938 in the settlement of Qassimiut in southern Greenland as son to the hunter Søren Motzfeldt (1902-1984) and his wife Kirsten Klemmensen (1904-1979).

After his teacher's exam at Illinniarfissuaq (Greenland College) in Nuuk in 1960, he studied theology at the University of Copenhagen until 1966, subsequently working as a pastor in Qaqortoq, Greenland until 1979.

In 1992, Jonathan Motzfeldt married Kristjana Gudrun Gudmonsdóttir (born 1951) from Iceland. They had no children. However, from a previous partnership with Margit Kock Petersen, he had two children: Karen Motzfeldt (born 1966) and Claus Motzfeldt (born 1969). Greenlandic handball player Hans Peter Motzfeldt-Kyed is Motzfeldt's nephew.