''The Branting Monument'' is a monument in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, with a statue of the Swedish Social Democratic leader

Hjalmar Branting Karl Hjalmar Branting (; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician who was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1907 until his death in 1925, and three times Prime Minister of Sweden. When Branting c ...

(1860 – 1925). The monument is 5 meters tall and 6 meters wide. The

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

monument, by artist

Carl Eldh Carl Johan Eldh (10 May 1873 – 26 January 1954) was a Sweden, Swedish artist and sculptor. Biography Eldh was born in Östhammar Municipality, Uppland, the son of Jan Petter Eldh, a blacksmith, and his wife Maria (née Wickman). His younge ...

, is located in a small park at

Norra Bantorget Norra Bantorget ("Northern Railway Square") is an area in central Stockholm, named after the location where the first Stockholm Norra Station was built. It is the traditional Social Democratic grounds of the Swedish capital. It is the location ...

in Stockholm, which is the traditional Social Democratic grounds of the city. Eldh started working on the monument in 1926, one year after Branting had died, but it was erected only in 1952. The monument shows a prominent looking Branting addressing a group of workers on a

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

demonstration. Several of the worker movement's pioneers are found in the otherwise anonymous crowd of workers surrounding Branting, including

Axel Danielsson Axel Danielsson (15 December 1863, Värmland – 30 December 1899, Elsterberg, Germany) was a Swedish socialist agitator, journalist and writer. He was a prominent leader of the early Swedish Social Democratic Party. Danielsson retranslated Karl ...

and

August Palm August Teodor Palm (5 February 1849 – 14 March 1922) was a Swedish socialist activist and a key person in introducing the then revolutionary social democratic labour movement in Sweden. Life Early activism The son of a school teacher ...

. On 17 May 1992, the monument was partly damaged when a small

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

exploded and blew up a hole in the belly of the Hjalmar Branting figure. This was the fourth in a series of five statue bombings in Stockholm that had begun on 25 February and ended on 8 June. A group of seven teenagers, six boys and one girl, were arrested a week later and confessed to the acts of

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...

. (The other statues were not political monuments, and no political motives were mentioned in the news reports.) The monument was restored two years later by the local company Herman Bergmans konstgjuteri AB, the foundry that had originally made it in the early 1950s. The restoration cost, 320,000

Swedish krona The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it but, espec ...

, was shared by the

City of Stockholm Stockholm Municipality () or the City of Stockholm () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, making it the second most ...

and the Stockholm section of the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...

References

Notes

''On the bombings:'' *Barbro Dillworth & Fredrik Nejman, "Vem är trött på statyerna?", ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'', 18 May 1992. *Anon., "Sprängde staty 'mest på skoj'" ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'', 17 July 1992. *"Åter till brottsplatsen. Sju unga statysprängare riskerar långa straff", ''Dagens Nyheter'', 18 July 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Branting Monument 1952 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Sweden Monuments and memorials in Sweden Outdoor sculptures in Stockholm Swedish Social Democratic Party Vandalized works of art in Sweden Hjalmar Branting 1950s establishments in Stockholm 1952 establishments in Sweden