Posted on 11/03/2006 3:41:29 PM PST by WesternCulture
On the 6th of November, Sweden – and Gothenburg in particular – remembers perhaps its most famous and successful King: Gustav II Adolf, who reigned from 1611 until his death in 1632.
Monday will be the 374th anniversary of his death (aged just 37) on the battlefield in Lützen in Germany during the Thirty Years War. He is the only Swedish King to have been honoured with the title “The Great” (“Den Stora”) and the anniversary of his death is an official Swedish flag day.
Related Articles 'Swede's body found' in Ireland 3rd November 2006 Viking treasure found on Gotland 30th October 2006 Dynamite found at Gothenburg hospital 17th October 2006 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version Submit to Digg.com
Gustav II Adolf is widely regarded as having laid down much of the apparatus of the modern Swedish state, including the postal service and newspapers as well as founding universities and building key transport links. He was also a much admired strategic general, apparently one of Napolean Bonaparte’s heroes, and led many successful campaigns as part of the anti-Hapsburg alliance.
On the day of his death, he was riding an unfamiliar horse and struggling with his vision – partly because of the mist and smoke from the gunpowder, but also because he needed glasses and could not wear them in battle. During the battle, he and a handful of loyal followers rode deep into the enemy’s midst and became separated from the rest of their troops.
After sustaining a shot to the arm, Gustav II Adolf fell from his horse and was found by a group of Croatian cavalrymen. They tried to take him prisoner but were unable to lift him, so instead they shot him in the head and ran a sword through his breast.
News of his death took a month to reach Stockholm. After his body was returned to the capital, his widow retained his body (and, for a while, just his heart) for over a year. The remains, including the heart, are now kept in Stockholm’s Riddarholmskyrkan, and his armour can be seen at the Livrustkammaren in the Royal Palace.
During his reign Gustav II Adolf founded a number of towns, among them the modern Gothenburg, and he is particularly celebrated in Sweden’s second city. There had been previous attempts to build a strategic settlement in the area, but these had resulted only in losing it to the Danes and watching it go up in smoke.
Legend has it that in 1621 Gustav II Adolf stood on the hill which now looks down over Ullevi and pointed below him, saying, “Där skall staden ligga” (“There shall the city lie”). These words have since become an important part of Gothenburg’s history – the resulting city, built largely by Dutch workers appointed by the King, remained Swedish and grew increasingly important over the following centuries.
Gothenburg leaders began discussing the idea of a monument to commemorate their founder as early as 1832, but efforts to honour the King proved almost as complex and troubled as his life had been. By 1845 the city had raised enough money to commission a statue of Gustav II Adolf, which was built in Italy but only completed two years later than expected. Finally ready to be shipped to Sweden, the monument suffered another setback when the ship carrying it to Gothenburg sank off the coast of Heligoland.
Although the statue was recovered and offered for sale to Gothenburg, the price demanded by the islanders was too high and another statue was commissioned. It was not installed until 1854, when it was placed in Stora Torget (now renamed Gustav Adolfs Torg). The statue depicts the King pointing towards the city and is now one of Gothenburg’s most famous landmarks.
In today’s Gothenburg, most residents remember their heroic founder by eating him in cake form. In the 1880s, a bakery located at what is now the Dubliners pub on the corner of Östrahamngatan and Kungsgatan, created a special form of cake which came to be known as Gustav Adolfsbakelse. The cakes depicted a silhouette of the king, now usually rendered in chocolate or marzipan, and the tradition for Gothenburg bakeries to sell these on the 6th of November continues today.
I've never driven a Volvo, but I really love the bigger Saabs, and I have fond memories of an old squareback VW wagon my dad drove in the 70s.
And I was just kidding about the "defeat of Catholicism" thing. I know what you meant, I was just jagging your wires about the title.
Now maybe they can defeat Islam.
pretty sure...
"I thought Gothenburg now had really bad slums where rescue workers don't go without police escort."
That is Malmo, Sweden's 3rd city. And the problem is Muslims. They rape young women in each location that they invade, along with degradation of everything they contact. Towns, buildings, culture, society, law and order, civility.
You read about the mullah in Australia that justifies the rapes; blames the women. Same for Europe.
I'm waiting to see if Britain, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Australia, eventually even Sweden decides to simply throw them all out.
"I was talking about Muslim immigrants. Is Goteborg not the city where there is a major immigrant crime problem? Or is that Malmo? I lived in Sweden for almost a year as a child and found much to love there. And I have Swedish ancestry. I don't like to hear about it becoming un-Swedish.
Mrs VS"
I am likewise talking about muslim immigrants. Muslim violence is not a problem in Gothenburg. Most of our Muslims are secularized ones (like those sane iranians who've fled the present regime of Iran and have settled in the Gothenburg Area) or have become secularized as they've found out what a blessing the progressive lifestyle of Scandinavia in fact is.
Yes, Gothenburg has crime, like all cities, but it's the competition of a biker crime gang that's in a war with a "balkan" maffia that causes most of the problems.
In Malmö there is a real muslim problem, but it is a very exaggerated one.
Malmö is a city that has overestimated its economic potential. A lot of well of "malmoites" are moving to the affluent suburbs while immigrants (many of them muslims), working class and lower middle class citizens are staying. Many of the native swedes seem to enjoy the different aspects of "multiculturalism" and I don't blame them. There are several fascinating features of Asian, Latin American and African culture. As long as people from these parts of the world behave, they are welcome (and most of them DO behave, even in Malmö). But can these people find work?
The local government of Malmö is very naive and impotent. They seem to feel overly proud over the newly erected Öresund Bridge (Connecting Sweden and - via Denmark - The European Continent) and the Turning Torso skyscraper. These structures are great, but they can't compete with having the money making machines of the Gothenburg industrial plants or the Corporate HQ:s of Stockholm.
Malmö needs to attract major industrial or administrative investments. Geographically speaking, things look very good (as Malmö connects a major part of Scandinavia to the European Continent), but I believe the leadership of the region could be far better.
That's St. Lucy's day, Dec. 6, where the girls wear candles on their heads and serve breakfast to their parents. It's celebrated in Sweden and in Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy
Gustavus Adolphus invented a military code of conduct that is the grandfather of our Uniform Code of Military Justice.
- That is one thing that ought to be remembered by Americans and other inhabitants of the Globe.
Furthermore, if you have the resources of a small, poor country by 17th century standards and manage to defeat the most powerful armies of the world time after time, after time, after time - you've got skill.
Interesting....
I spent a couple of weeks in and around Gothenburg and thought it had a Dutch "flavor". Many of the shop names seemed a strange blend of Dutch and Swedish. I chalked up to my own ignorance, or perhaps Hanseatic influence.
I used to work with a Dutch guy who said that he was at some sort of North Sea confab, and when people spoke in their national languages they couldn't understand one another but when they spoke their local dialects, they found them mutually intelligible. Who knows?
I also spent about 16 months in Swabia and the image of Gustavus Adolfus is not so rosy there, being as he killed about half its inhabitants during the Thirty Years War. It's a near miracle that G. A. didn't kill Kepler in Prague before he discovered Kepler's Laws. Most people don't appreciate that Kepler's greatest discoveries coincide with a period of intense hardship in that part of central Europe.
He had skill and excellent soldiers. My family soldiered for Gustavus and Charles XII, I know this is so! He also had an extremely able and reliable prime minister in Oxenstierna. He was very motivated by his Lutheran faith.
There is a Lutheran College named for him. (In Minnesota, of course!)
"Interesting....
I spent a couple of weeks in and around Gothenburg and thought it had a Dutch "flavor". Many of the shop names seemed a strange blend of Dutch and Swedish. I chalked up to my own ignorance, or perhaps Hanseatic influence.
I used to work with a Dutch guy who said that he was at some sort of North Sea confab, and when people spoke in their national languages they couldn't understand one another but when they spoke their local dialects, they found them mutually intelligible. Who knows?
I also spent about 16 months in Swabia and the image of Gustavus Adolfus is not so rosy there, being as he killed about half its inhabitants during the Thirty Years War. It's a near miracle that G. A. didn't kill Kepler in Prague before he discovered Kepler's Laws. Most people don't appreciate that Kepler's greatest discoveries coincide with a period of intense hardship in that part of central Europe."
There are two ethnic group that has influenced Gothenburg more than any others (including the Muslims):
The Dutch and the Scotch.
The early 17th century city plan is dutch (and in fact more or less the same as that one of Jakarta, Indonesia, - if I'm not mistaken - another city planned by the Dutch).
The Scotch founded some of our earliest industries and also several schools, libraries and other public institutions.
Concerning Kepler, please read these words concerning his colleague Brahe, one of the greatest minds in the world of astronomy ever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe
As a European, I fully understand that several parts of Europe do not wish to celebrate the memory of Gustavus Adolphus.
War is war.
Wounds can heal, although they leave scars.
Cheers to you, Friend!
Interesting post. I know you've been a Freeper since July, but welcome to FR.
Yes, there were several great military leaders in the Thirty Years War, both Protestant and Catholic, and he was certainly one of them.
On the other hand, it turned out to be one of the most destructive and useless wars in history. First one side got the advantage, then the other, and in the end nobody won. The horrors of the war have been frequently portrayed, perhaps most notably in a contemporary work of fiction, "Simplicissimus."
The upshot of the whole war was to settle on the rule, "Cuius regius, eius religio," or, let the king decide the country's religion. So, they all stayed whatever they were before the whole thing started. Nothing was accomplished on either side. The only practical effect of the war was to give religion a bad name, as intolerant and destructive, and therefore to bring on the French Revolution and the triumph of secularism in Europe. It still resonates today in secularist charges that Christians are intolerant.
"I also spent about 16 months in Swabia and the image of Gustavus Adolfus is not so rosy there."
I suppose that my family from northern Germany is lucky not to have been wiped out by my family from Sweden.
I understand that Frisian comes very close to being understood by English and Dutch speakers. Its not widely spoken any longer.
"Nothing was accomplished on either side"
What was accomplished was the survival of protestant Christianity. Would Northern Europe have been protestant if they had done nothing?
You might have posted a better photo ... c'mon, love requires some effort...
If you probe more than a few generations in anyone's family tree, it would be surprising not to find one set of ancestors who were mortal enemies of another set. This is what Henry Ford was talking about when he said "history is bunk." We're Americans and it's time to leave Old World animosities behind. (The Old World seems to have even given up on the very notion of animosity, except towards Americans. Le plus ca change...)
"I'm in love with Tina Nordström!"
Ah, you like pictures. I don't have any of her, but you might like these.
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/cat/272
For full disclosure we, my wife (the First lady), and I are Catholic. So I guess some of us are still around. ;^)
Having said that, the Volvo engineers working on the Penta project in Tampa are some pretty cool guys, even though half of them are atheist. No matter, they developed a revolutionary boat engine that's awesome. Methinks maybe, just maybe Europe will be able to compete with the U.S. in the future...
...then again, not if Europe becomes EUrabia...
5.56mm
"He had skill and excellent soldiers. My family soldiered for Gustavus and Charles XII, I know this is so! He also had an extremely able and reliable prime minister in Oxenstierna. He was very motivated by his Lutheran faith.
There is a Lutheran College named for him. (In Minnesota, of course!)"
That is a wonderful thing to be aware of!
My maternal grandfather had a surname that "proves" an ancestor of his was a soldier at that time.
I'm not into different myths of the "blood" like a certain 19th century Austrian.
However,
When I occasionally have found myself in situations when I've had to perform very hard work or walk over long distances in extreme winter temperatures, I've been surprised over the fact that my body, my concentrational skills and my musculature gears up to a kind of almost "Hulk" level - I'm not joking. Every time this happens, I get the sense in my mind of wishing to survive a very, very long march back home - in resemblance to the survivors of Charles the XII:s crusade against Russia.
If that is just in my imagination, I don't mind. Whatever type of soldier my unknown ancestor was, I'm sure that from his heaven, he can look down on offsprings honoring his fate, honoring Sweden and honoring Western Civilization.
Today, both Russia and Germany are free countries and educated people of these great nations today understand why Swedes of the 17th and 18th century, as well as Americans of the 19th century, attacked them with all of their might.
One day, The Western World will be one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.