Celebrating the man who defeated Catholicism: 'Gothenburg's King' remembered with cakes and statues

www.thelocal.se ^ | 11/03/2006 | Janelle Larsson

[WesternCulture]

"It would be interesting to speculate what would have happened if Charles had not been wounded at Poltava. They were 30,000 against what? about 90,000, supply lines cut, had almost no powder, attacked and still almost beat the Russians. Another Swedish soldier king!

I can't even imagine what the survivors endured in their years of captivity in Peter the Great's Russia.

"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."

I believe you! The Germans have a word,(you probably know it) "sehnsucht," a deep, almost mystical longing for something, something that is probably in the past, something that you can only enter into with your knowledge and imagination.

I sometimes have a feeling like this when I see pictures of northern forests and lakes, a desire to return to that place, or some place like it. Oh Well."

Personally, I believe that genes have some sort of memory - and I know there are scientists around the globe who share this idea.

Perhaps I'm wrong, maybe it all boils down to vivid imagination.

But, let's forget about geneticts for a while.

Let's honor Western Civilization, Freedom and The achievements of the brave people of which we are children!

From all true Europeans (Yes, We exist!) to the United States of America:

WE SALUTE YOU BROTHERS!

[WesternCulture]

Concerning the cake:

Here's the background (in swedish):

Gustav Adolfsbakelse är en särskild bakelse till minnet av Gustav II Adolfs dödsdag den 6 november 1632. Bakelsen skapades 1880 av konditorn Carl Bräutigam på konditoriet Bräutigams på hörnet Östra Hamngatan/Kungsgatan i Göteborg, Sverige.

Bakelsen känns igen på en silhuett av Gustav II Adolf som pryder den. Bakelsens innehåll kan variera vilket även silhuetten, som ofta är gjord i marsipan eller choklad, kan göra. Modell för silhuetthuvudet av hjältekonungen är en gipsfigur som Curt Arnhult, som öppnade konditori i Göteborg på 1890-talet, köpte av en kringresande försäljare.

Roughly it translates like this:

Step 1: Use a lot of marsipan and chocolate in order to make this wonderful cake.

Step 2: Teach your children that in in other countries people enjoy life

Step 3: Teach your children that in in this country life is built.

One day, The whole of the World will be Swedish.

[norton]

You realize that your riposte disproves your original comment....don't you?

Just for the record, while I like Volvo for their historic utility and value:
the worst piece of junk I have EVER had to deal with was designed & prototyped in Sweden and only worked after we brought the design to the USA and rehashed from top to bottom.
(I tried but could not find a European company to even attempt that task)

Also, the 'businessmen' who ran the Swedish company were the most arrogant (pls note) and the least businesslike bunch I dealt with in thirty years.
I did, however, enjoy the years I dealt with the resulting set of Swedish lawyers; they had the only sense of humor I found that side of Finland.

[the invisib1e hand]

,i>Hmm, I thought Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Who died on a Cross to be a Sacrifice in our place saves humans from an eternity in Hell, when accepted.

and does this Jesus have a Body? And what function does that Body serve? (these are rhetorical questions, I am not interested in a debate).

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Henry Miller was in fact a good person in the true, regretfully, somewhat naive sense of the word."

He was "good" in a Northeastern Liberal way, but he was not a morally good person.

"Stalin was a mentally sick man, but rose to the occasion like a hero when the evil of Nazi Germany threatened to conquer the whole of Russia."

I can't see a meaningful distinction between the evil of Nazi German and Stalinist Russia. Both were repressive statist regimes. The only reason the US supported Stalin is the socialist apologists in the US "intellectual" class that overlooked or justified Soviet atrocities like the forced collectivization of the Ukraine. (9 to 10 million Ukrainian deaths.) It is very likely that Stalin's Russia won because of the aid that was sent to him by the US.

Respective Body Counts. Stalin; About 15 million deaths in the Gulags. Hitler; about 12 million in the Konzentrationsanlags. Including military and civilian deaths as a result of war or it would be 25 million vs. 40 million. Birds of a feather.

"If Hitler would have won WWII, there'd be no America today"

Have to disagree. For the US to cease to exist Hitler and Japan would have to have both invaded and conquered the US. This wasn't going to happen. There didn't exist ships enough in the world to transport the numbers of tanks and German and axis soldiers that it would have taken to conquer the US and Canada. We had more privately owned guns, factories, more natural resources (iron, coal, gas), more know how (in science, engineering and manufacturing) and a greater will. As a nation we were--with perhaps the exception of rubber (and coffee)-- totally self sufficient. Certainly one of the reasons Germany was expansionist was the fact that it was not entirely self sufficient. (How much iron from Mora did the Germans use to build the tanks left rusting at Stalingrad?)

"By the way, Glad to find out University of Gothenburg is helping people. In fact, I once studied there (Theory of Science, Economical History as well as Corporate Management). Great place!"

I have not traveled to Gothenberg, but have seen a lot of photos from around the harbor area (The twisty building!). I like water and harbors. It looks like an interesting place.
We wrote to the Univ. Gothenberg in the early 1990s regarding my daughter's condition (Rett Syndrome). They did not find any direct link to the condition in known Rett populations in Sweden. Thats OK. A negative result still holds scientific value.
Anyway, have a good evening!

[ican'tbelieveit]

Well you are going to get an answer. You specifically said that catholicism saves. Catholicism doesn't save, acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and your Lord and Savior saves.

Where you choose to practice your faith and encourage your spirit and improve your walk with Him after wards isn't salvation.

[the invisib1e hand]

Well you are going to get an answer.

Actually, you did not answer my questions.

I knew you would not, which is why I tried to discourage you.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Your question about who the body of Christ is has nothing to do with your claim that catholicism saves. You were trying to deflect the topic.

[the invisib1e hand]

If you understood the topic as well as you think you do, as demonstrated by your eagnerness to lecture complete strangers about it, you would understand why what I asked has everything to do with your claim.

Again, it's rhetorical. I discourage you from answering again because you won't or cannot.

[ican'tbelieveit]

No, I won't fall into your trap of trying to obfuscate your initial comment to which I am disagreeing.

[ozzymandus]

"The meteor of Europe" was his nickname, if I'm remembering the right Swedish king. My great-grandmother was born in Gothenburg. I have a picture of her parent's house somewhere.

[the invisib1e hand]

No, I won't fall into your trap of trying to obfuscate your initial comment to which I am disagreeing.

Oh, come ON man!

Is what I said such a threat that you see it as a "trap?"

OK. Let me "obfuscate" some more. Perhaps you can secretely ruminate about the questions I've asked.

Eternity: is it future, present, past, or all the above?

[Charles Henrickson]

Today is the 6th of November (at least it still is here in the U.S.), celebrated in Sweden as Gustav Adolfsdagen.

As a Swedish-American Lutheran, I am proud to call Gustavus Adolphus "the Great" (den Store)! He is a hero of both Sweden and Lutheranism!

Gustavus Adolphus was a great man, but he was no perfect saint. As a young man he fathered a child out of wedlock. But as King David was confronted by the prophet Nathan, so the young king of Sweden was admonished by his court chaplain, Johannes Rudbeckius. And Gustavus seemed to take it to heart, in repentance, faith, and amendment of life.

Gustavus Adolphus was a committed Lutheran, a devout and energetic man. He was troubled to see Lutheran and Protestant lands in Europe being retaken by the Catholic emperor, encroaching northward toward Sweden. This is why he intervened in the Thirty Years’ War. And if not for his daring German campaign (1630-32), all might have been lost. On June 25, 1630--100 years to the day after the Augsburg Confession--Gustavus Adolphus set anchor off the coast of northern Germany.

The Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) turned the tide. A monument there today reads, "Gustavus Adolphus, Christian and hero, at Breitenfeld saved religious liberty for the world."

Gustavus Adolphus made sure that his troops had regular religious services. And so, on the morning of November 6, 1632, before heading into the Battle of Luetzen, the king and his men sang two hymns by Luther, "A Mighty Fortress" and "May God Bestow on Us His Grace." Then they sang what has come to be known as, "Gustav Adolf's Battle Hymn," written by the king's chaplain, Johannes Fabricius. In Swedish the hymn is entitled, "Förfäras ej, du lilla hop”; we have it in our English hymnals (in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) as "O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe" (TLH 263/LSB 666) or "Do Not Despair, O Little Flock" (LW 300).

On the campus of Concordia Seminary here in St. Louis, there is a plaque that tells what happened that day: "This Archway is Dedicated to the Memory of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, King of Sweden, who gave his life that the Lutheran Reformation might live. Died at the battle of Luetzen, 1632. 'Förfäras ej, du lilla hop!'"

But would King Gustav II Adolf recognize the Sweden of today? Hardly! How the mighty have fallen! Gustav Adolf’s own battle hymn, "Förfäras ej, du lilla hop," is not even included in the current Swedish hymnbook! Too "militant," I suppose. The three things with which I most associate Gustav Adolf--nationalism, Lutheranism, and militarism--all are definitely out of favor in modern-day Sverige.

However, there are glints of sunlight breaking across the gray Swedish sky. A more conservative government has just come to power. And confessional Lutheranism is not dead yet in Sweden. There are some brave pastors and laymen there--I know many of them--still contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. Gustavus Adolphus would be proud of these developments. If you look for them, there are some exciting things happening in Sweden.

[MinuteGal]

Thanks for the ping, Pastor. My grandparents were from Germany and I grew up in the Missouri Synod which was culturaly German in my part of Illinois.

It's totally interesting to me to read about Gustavus Adolphus because this part of my Lutheran history is quite lacking.

Happy Gustavus Adolphus Day to you and all you beautiful and handsome blond Swedes!

Leni

[G8 Diplomat]

Henrik Lundqvist is from Gothenburg

[Charles Henrickson]

My picture of Gustav Adolf at the Battle of Breitenfeld "x-ed out" on me a couple of posts up. So I found another source; let's see if it stays:

When Gustav Adolf set out in 1630 he said: "The greatness of our fatherland and of God's Church, which therein abideth, are things well worthy that for their sakes we should endure hardships, yea, even death itself. . . . Not lightly nor wantonly am I about to involve myself and you in this dangerous war. God is my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own ambition. The oppressed states of Germany call loudly for aid, which by God's help we will give them."

[MinuteGal]

That last paragraph is certainly applicable today, isn't it. Thanks for the paintings, also. I love every detail of these historical moments in time.

Leni

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thanks for the information! I was only vaguely aware of the role G. Adolphus had in Lutheranism and European history.

(The postcard reads "Gustavus Adolphus in prayer before the battle of Lutzen" and states that this is an illustration from a book, gives the date and publisher. Below it states "Greetings from the Gustavus Adolphus festival!" .)

[GoLightly]

- The United States Declaration of Independence

Others had taken a step in that direction before American's founders...

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1581dutch.html

[redgolum]

Gustav was a fascinating man. Great military leader, but as you say not a saint in his personal life.

The 30 years war was a great example of a "charlie fox". In the end, there were Lutherans and Catholics on both sides, and quite a number who were not on any side but their own.