Jacob Adriaan Patijn

Jacob Adriaan Nicolaas Patijn (9 February 1873 in Rotterdam – 13 July 1961 in The Hague) was an unaffiliated liberal Dutch politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from October 1, 1937, until August 12, 1939.

He was a son of Jacob Gerard Patijn, lawyer and politician, and Adriana Jacoba Clasina Veeren.

In 1903 he married Rudolphine van Doorn (1880–1923) and, after her death at a relatively young age, remarried Elisabeth Wilhelmina Malwina de Brauw (1881–1954).

He replaced him in 1937 as Minister of Foreign Affairs, three months after the formation of Cabinet Colijn IV, and remained in the same position in Cabinet Colijn V. So he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from October 1, 1937, until August 12, 1939.

He was a pragmatist who strived to find workable solutions to the day's problems, be it at the expense of old principles.