Adolf Erik Ehrnrooth (9 February 1905 – 26 February 2004) was a Finnish

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

who served during the

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

and

Continuation In computer science, a continuation is an abstract representation of the control state of a computer program. A continuation implements ( reifies) the program control state, i.e. the continuation is a data structure that represents the computat ...

wars. He also competed in two equestrian events at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

Early life

Born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Ehrnrooth first went to

Svenska normallyceum i Helsingfors Svenska normallyceum i Helsingfors (Norsen) was a Swedish-language school in the Kaartinkaupunki district of Helsinki between 1864 and 1977. The school was only for boys until 1974 when it became a co-educational school. History Svenska normal ...

and then entered cadet school in 1922 and served in the Uusimaa Dragoon Regiment (''Uudenmaan Rakuunarykmentti''). In 1958 he married a Danish countess Karin-Birgitte Schack who was a lady-in-waiting and a close friend of Queen Ingrid of Denmark. They had three children: Karin, Hans and Eva.

Military career

During the brief

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, he served on the staffs of the 7th Division and the Cavalry Brigade. When the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 ...

, also against the Soviet Union, broke out in June 1941, he served as the chief of staff of the 2nd Division until he was seriously wounded. After he recovered he was appointed to lead the 7th Infantry Regiment (JR 7) of the 2nd Division. During the battles on the

Karelian Isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (; ; ) is the approximately stretch of land situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva. Its northwestern boundary is a line from the Bay of Vyborg to the we ...

, he was awarded the

Mannerheim cross The Mannerheim Cross (, ), officially Mannerheim Cross of the Cross of Liberty (, ) is the most distinguished Finnish military honour. A total of 191 people received the cross between 22 July 1941 and 7 May 1945, with six of the recipients receiv ...

. He also received the Grand Cross of the Royal Swedish

Order of the Sword The Royal Order of the Sword (officially: ''Royal Order of the Sword''; Swedish: ''Kungliga Svärdsorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry and military decoration created by King Frederick I of Sweden on 23 February 1748, together with the Or ...

. After the war, he led an active military career until he retired in 1965. Historiajr7

Later life

Adolf Ehrnrooth was the face and voice most associated with rehabilitation of the soldiers who secured Finland her independence. The long post-war era during which it simply was not progressive to value the military ended in the early 1990s, at which time his charismatic persona was at its height. Ehrnrooth grave helsinki

In his last statement he gave support to

ProKarelia ProKarelia is a Finnish marginal irredentist group that works for the return to Finland of Finnish Karelia, Petsamo, Salla and some islands in Gulf of Finland ceded to the Soviet Union in past treaties in Moscow and Paris (See Karelian question i ...

(Finnish NGO) and its plan for the Return of Ceded Territories. He said that he defended the borders of Finland declared in the Treaty of Tartu and considered them the only proper borders of Finland and that it was great injustice that the Soviet Union had taken these territories. General Ehrnrooth died on 26 February 2004, and is buried in

Hietaniemi cemetery The Hietaniemi cemetery (, ) is located mainly in the Lapinlahti quarter and partly in the Etu-Töölö district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is the location for Finnish state funeral services and is owned by the Evangelical Luthe ...

, Helsinki. He was voted as the 4th greatest Finn of all time by the Finnish public during the

Suuret suomalaiset ''Suuret suomalaiset'' (''Great Finns'') was a 2004 television show broadcast in Finland by Yle (the Finnish Broadcasting Company), which determined the ''100 greatest Finns of all time'' according to the opinions of its viewers. The viewers we ...

(Great Finns) competition in 2004.

References

Bibliography

* Karin Ehrnrooth: Isäni oli nuori sotilas / Min fader var en ung soldat – Adolf Ehrnrooth, Ajatus Kirjat 2008, * Adolf Ehrnrooth − Marja-Liisa Lehtonen: Kenraalin testamentti, WSOY 1995. * Ulla Appelsin: Adolf Ehrnrooth, Kenraalin vuosisata, Ajatus Kirjat 2001.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrnrooth, Adolf 1905 births 2004 deaths Military personnel from Helsinki Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish military personnel of World War II Finnish generals Knights of the Mannerheim Cross Continuation War Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class Finnish male equestrians Finnish nationalists Olympic equestrians for Finland Equestrians at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Adolf Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins. The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', mean ...