Axel Örnulf Tigerstedt (29 September 1900, Helsinki, Finland – 6 November 1962, Strängnäs, Sweden) was a Finnish-Swedish poet, novelist, translator, journalist and a supporter of Nazism before and during the Second World War.
Biography
Tigerstedt was born into the family of the scientist, geologist and dendrologistAxel Fredrik Tigerstedt [fi] and Maria Helena Florence von Schulz. He had a sister Maria and brothers Göran, Karl Gustav Ludwig, Axel Olof and Erik, a brilliant inventor. In his work he used the pseudonyms Axel Fredriksson, as a reference to Scandinavian patronymic naming system, and Eric Falander, his ancestors' former family name until 1691 when they were ennobled with the name Tigerstedt.[1]
In 1918 Tigerstedt began publishing, and since the 1920s he worked with various mass media. For a long time he worked in the propaganda industry; in particular, he took part in the work of the Finnish censorship and propaganda organ State Information Service. In the early 1930s, Tigerstedt joined the Nazi Patriotic People's Party.[2] He was deputy chairman of the Dante Alighieri Society and headed the Finnish PEN-club. In 1942, on the initiative of Goebbels, the European Association of Writers (German: Europäische Schriftsteller-Vereinigung, ESV) was founded. The group had about 40 prominent Finnish authors, including Mika Waltari, Tito Colliander, Jarl Hemmer and Maila Talvio. In the interwar and war years, Tigerstedt was the main ideologue of a group of young right-wing extremists called the Black Guard.[3]
In the early autumn of 1944, Tigerstedt, who risked being prosecuted for his Nazi activities, was forced to emigrate to Sweden.
Works
The experiences of the Civil War in Finland and the strong conservatism of family traditions greatly influenced the formation of Tigerstedt as a writer, and subsequently prompted him to become a supporter of Nazism. With the classical contradiction between culture and nature at the heart of his worldview, the young writer adopted the teachings of such philosophers as Oswald Spengler and Lothrop Stoddard.[4]
In 1918, Tigerstedt published his first collection of poems, Vågor, designated, like the two subsequent books, Noveller and Exercitia, as an apprenticeship to and imitation of Verner von Heidenstam. His real success was brought by two poetry collections, Vid gränsen (1928) and Block och öde (1931) with modernist-colored lyrics, characteristic of aestheticism. In the thirties, Tigerstedt was considered one of the greatest modernists in Sweden and Finland. Subsequently, the collections of essays Skott i överkant (1934) and Utan örnar (1935) were published. Tigerstedt has been described as "the lyrical standard-bearer of fascism and Nazism in Swedish-speaking countries".[4]
In both poetry and prose Tigerstedt had an inherent admiration for power. This is especially noticeable in Heliga vägarna (1933), where the author praises Marcus Aurelius for defeating the Marcomans, and in Sista etappen (1940). The poem "The Prince" from this latest collection contains the following words:
Where there is right, there is truth. Bent necks greet the banners of the victors, And the goddess makes the bed in the tent of the winner.[4]
During World War II, the writer's deeply rooted anti-communism was clearly manifested. In 1942 he published the book The Fight Against Soviet Spies in Finland 1919–1939. In the extremely pro-German Hemliga stämplingar (1944), in a threatening tone, discussions are conducted about the future of Europe, warnings about the consequences of possible victory of the Soviet Union in World War II are set forth.[5]
