Axel Olof Freudenthal
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Axel Olof Freudenthal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 12 December 1836 |
| Died | 2 June 1911 (aged 74) |
| Occupations | Philologist, politician, professor |
| Employer | University of Helsinki |
| Known for | Founder of the Swedish nationality movement in Finland |
Axel Olof Freudenthal (12 December 1836 – 2 June 1911) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish philologist, politician and the first Professor of Swedish language and literature at the University of Helsinki.[1] He is considered the founder of the Swedish nationality movement in Finland, which arose in the late 1850s as a reaction against the growing Fennoman movement.[1]
Freudenthal was born in Siuntio (Sjundeå), Grand Duchy of Finland, to Swedish parents who had moved from Sweden to Finland.[2] He was of German-Swedish descent[3] and grew up at Pickala manor in Sjundeå. His father Gabriel Freudenthal had previously worked as a pharmacist in Åbo, and after his death in 1845 the family moved to Helsinki, where Freudenthal attended the Helsingfors lyceum and passed his matriculation examination in 1854.[1] He then enrolled at the University of Helsinki, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1859 and a master's degree in 1860.[1]
Swedish nationality movement
After completing his studies at the University of Helsinki, where the struggle between the Fennomans and the Svecomans was intensifying, Freudenthal became a strong proponent of the use of Swedish in Finland. He was a strong proponent of the use of Swedish in Finland, and subsequently established the theory that the Swedish-speaking population constituted a separate nationality. This theory strongly opposed any form of Finnicization, which it regarded as turning away from Western civilization, and even as a form of Russification. In its more extreme aspects, his theory connected language, nationality and race in a way that claimed supremacy of Swedes over Finns in a way that parallelled other contemporary theories of Aryan supremacy.[4][5]
Career
Freudenthal defended his doctoral dissertation on the Old Norse poem Vellekla by Einar Skålaglam in 1865, and was appointed docent in Old Norse language and antiquities in 1866.[1] His professorship appointment in 1878 was based on his study Über den Närpesdialect, published the same year.[1] He was a Professor of Swedish language and literature from 1878 to 1904.
