Carl Albert Lindhagen (17 December 1860 – 11 March 1946) was a Swedish lawyer, politician, and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. Carl Lindhagen was the chief

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

(''borgmästare'') of

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 ...

1903–1930 (i.e. a legal position, not mayor).

Life

Lindhagen was born in Stockholm. He was the son of Albert Lindhagen and the brother of Anna Lindhagen and Arthur Lindhagen. He studied law in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. As a lawyer, Lindhagen participated as adviser for the executives of the testament of

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( ; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...

. He was the secretary of the

Nobel Committee A Nobel Committee is a working body responsible for most of the work involved in selecting Nobel Prize laureates. There are six awarding committees from four institutions, one for each Nobel Prize. Five of these committees are working bodies ...

in 1899, and at times he was suggested as a nominee to receive the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

, for his anti-militarism commitments. He started his political career in the Liberal party, which in the time before democracy was considered a radical movement. He joined the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

in 1909, when he was already almost 50 years old. He soon joined the leftist opposition against the party 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 ...

. The left-wing was headed by the young

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Zeth Höglund, and in 1917 the group broke away from the mother party and formed the Social Democratic Left Party of Sweden (SSV). Lindhagen fought for democracy, women's rights and better conditions for the working class and working farmers. He was also an advocate for better conditions for the indigenous

Sami people Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

in mid- and northern

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. Carl Lindhagen is known for his work for women's rights, and put forward a number of suggestions for the improvement of women's rights in the Swedish parliament, the most noted being that of women suffrage. In 1902, two motions regarding women suffrage reform were presented to the Swedish Parliament. One was from the Minister of Justice Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who suggested that married men be given two votes, as they could be regarded to vote in place of their wives as well. The other motion was presented by Carl Lindhagen, who suggested women suffrage. The Hammarskjöld suggestion aroused anger among women's rights activists, who formed a support group for the Lindhagen motion. On 4 June 1902, National Association for Women's Suffrage (FKPR) was founded, which became the start point of the organized women suffrage movement in Sweden.Barbro Hedwall (2011). Susanna Eriksson Lundqvist. red.. Vår rättmätiga plats. Om kvinnornas kamp för rösträtt.. (Our Rightful Place. About women's struggle for suffrage) Förlag Bonnier. (Swedish) As the chief magistrate of Stockholm, Carl Lindhagen, together with Ture Nerman and Fredrik Ström, was part of a small delegation that greeted

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

during his short visit in Stockholm in April 1917. The Swedish Socialists took Lenin to the

PUB A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

department store where they bought him a brand new suit so he would look good and clean coming back home to revolutionary

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Carl Lindhagen originally supported Lenin and the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

revolution in Russia, but he was also a pacifist and disagreed with some aspects of Communism. In 1921, he opposed the adoption of the

Twenty-one Conditions The Twenty-one Conditions, officially the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, are the conditions, most of which were suggested by Vladimir Lenin, to the adhesion of the socialist parties to the Third International (Comintern) cr ...

of the

ComIntern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

, and was thus expelled from SSV. He and fellow expellees formed a rump SSV. In 1923 he, along with the rest of his party, rejoined the Social Democratic Party.

Lindhagen and Esperanto

Lindhagen was a longtime supporter of the international language

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

. From 1911, he addressed the Swedish parliament almost every year about the idea of an international language. In 1928 he clearly proposed Esperanto. As a result, in 1929, 1930 and 1931 the Swedish parliament voted a sum of 2900 kronas for instructional Esperanto courses. He also participated in presenting the Esperanto course of Andreo Cseh for Swedish parliamentarians. He gave the opening speech during the 1927

World Congress of Esperanto The World Esperanto Congress (, UK) is an annual Esperanto convention. It has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run for 119 years. The congresses have been held since August 5, 1905, every ye ...

in Danzig, and also spoke during an instructional session during the 1934 Congress.

Personal life

He married the first time in 1883 and his wife died after long sickness in 1902. He remarried in 1904 and had two children with his new wife, Jenny Lindhagen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindhagen, Carl 1860 births 1946 deaths Georgist politicians Members of the Första kammaren Nobel Prize Politicians from Stockholm Swedish Esperantists Swedish pacifists Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians Swedish suffragists