Axel Lille

Lille's parents were Bengt Olof Lille [fi] och Ida Gustava Waenerberg. Lille graduated from the Helsingfors privatlyceum in 1866, and in the same year he joined the illegal Nyländska nationen, which was legalized two years later as the Nyländska avdelningen. He contributed to the branch's newspaper, Nylands Dragon, and also published the humor magazine Myggan. In 1879, Lille succeeded Professor A. O. Freudenthal as curator of Nyländska avdelningen, a position he held until 1888.^[1] He began his career as a journalist in 1870 as one of the founders and publishers of the newspaper Wikingen. In 1873 he was the responsible publisher of Wiborgsbladet.^[2]

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1872, a Master of Arts degree in 1873, and a Candidate of Laws degree in 1879, majoring in economic law. He was then enrolled as a student teacher at the Turku Court of Appeal (Turun hovioikeus). He received his doctorate in 1882 after defending his thesis Försäkringsväsendet, dess historiska utveckling och nationalekonomiska betydelse.^[2]

He entered the publishing industry in 1882, when he helped found Nya Pressen [fi], which was founded to be a main organ for Swedish educational interests in Finland. In 1883 he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper. Lille was member of the Diet of Finland as a representative for the Estate of Burghers in 1885 and 1888 for Kokkola and in 1891, 1894, 1897, 1899 and 1900 for Helsinki.

After Nikolay Bobrikov became Governor-General, Lille fought vigorously in Nya Pressen for the defense of the constitution, until the newspaper was closed down in 1900. He was then editor-in-chief of the newspaper Dagligt allehanda, which was founded instead, until it was also closed down in 1901. In 1902, he moved to Stockholm, where he worked as a publicist at Stockholms-Tidningen, and became a Swedish citizen in 1903. In 1905, after the general strike and the November Manifesto [fi], he returned to Finland where he again became editor of Nya Pressen, which was re-established in early 1906.^[2][3]

Before the revival of Nya Pressen, Axel Lille drew up a program for the newspaper, which was also a program for the political unification of the Swedishness movement, which was published in December 1905. In 1906, Lille actively advocated for a new party formation, a progressive and liberal party with an extensive reform program. Lille had already been working for a long time for the creation of a new party and in 1896 had convened a general party meeting in the capital, where 741 party members participated. In May 1906, another meeting was held in the Nyländska nation's house on Kasarmirkatu in Helsinki. As a result of the meeting, it was agreed to create a new Swedish party, the Swedish People's Party (Svenska Folkpartiet, SFP). The name was Lille's suggestion, but had been officially suggested by bank director Emil Schybergson at the meeting.^[2]

During this meeting, a party program was also agreed upon, and at Lille's suggestion, social issues were also removed from the program, and thus the different factions were able to agree on the program, despite differences of opinion. Lille became the party's first chairman.^[2]

In 1907, Lille was elected chairman of the Finlands svenska publicistförbund, of which he was also the initiator. He held this position for ten years.^[2]

Lille remained as editor-in-chief of Nya Pressen (which in the meantime had merged with Dagens tidning) until 1917. He resigned from the presidency of the Swedish People's Party that same year, as he was disappointed in the direction the party's politics had gone. That same year he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Finland. After the end of the Civil War in 1918, he was appointed Finland's press representative in Stockholm and managed to win sympathy in wide circles for the Finnish points of view, but was soon recalled by the Finnish authorities.

Lille was also a member of the Städernas i Finland brandstodsbolag, whose board he had been on since 1886, as chairman 1886–1902 and 1906–1916.^[4] In 1917, he was elected secretary of the Fennia Insurance Company and in 1918 he served for a short time as its managing director.^[2]

In the years 1918–1921, Lille made contributions both as a historian and a national opinion-former. In June 1918, he published the work Till den svenska arbetaren, in which he summarized the causes of the civil war that had struck the country. The following year, he published a collection of essays in which he described his contributions as a Finnish press representative in Sweden. His greatest work is considered to be Den svenska nationalitetens i Finland samlingsrörelse, a monograph of over a thousand pages that he published in 1921. During his last years, Lille also made his debut as a playwright with the play Lyckans galoscher (1920), which was performed both at the Åbo Svenska Teater and at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in 1920–1921. Despite falling ill, he also worked as a correspondent in the capital for Åbo Underrättelser.^[2]

Private life

Lille married Maria Charlotta Waenerberg in 1882 and Sigrid Aina Wilhelmina Cronstedt in 1890.^[2] In his second marriage he had a daughter, journalist Martha Lille [sv].

• Rätt är rätt: Folkskådespel i fyra akter och en tablå (1877)
• Tvenne dramatiska teckningar ur folklifvet (1878)
• Anders Chydenius i förhållande till samtida nationalekonomer (1882)
• Försäkringsväsendet, dess historiska utveckling och nationalekonomiska betydelse (1882)
• Nationalitetsprincipen och dess tillämpning på förhållandena i Finland (1882)
• On the validity of the fundamental laws of Finland (1892)
• Nannas dosa (1897)
• Björnsons ryska bref bedömda i Finland (1903)
• Framtidsuppgifter (1918)
• Ett halvt år såsom Finlands pressrepresentant i Sverige (1919)
• Språkstriden i Finland (1920)
• Den svenska nationalitetens i Finland samlingsrörelse : Anteckningar (1921)
• Lyckans galoscher: Lustspel i tre akter (1921)^[5]