Dag Erik Bergman (23 October 1914 – 10 December 1984) was a Swedish

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

Early life

Bergman was the son of

Erik Bergman Erik Valdemar Bergman (24 November 1911 – 24 April 2006) was a composer of european classical music, classical music from Finland. Bergman's style ranged widely, from Romanticism in his early works (many of which he later prohibited from bein ...

, a parish minister, and his wife , née Åkerblom, and the older brother of film director

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...

and novelist Margareta Bergman. According to Karin Lannby, Bergman was employed by the intelligence organization C-byrån and was part of the Swedish Volunteer Corps during the

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 ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and active in the National League of Sweden. Bergman received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in 1938 and a

Candidate of Law Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

degree from

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

in 1944.

Career

Bergman became an attaché at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1945. He served as first secretary in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1963, as embassy counsellor in 1970 (acting in 1965). When Ambassador Gösta Brunnström was called back to Stockholm in 1967 as a protest of the

Greek military junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...

, Bergman took over as head of the Swedish embassy as embassy counsellor and chargé d'affaires for five years until he was appointed ambassador in 1972. He served until 1973 when he was appointed consul general in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Bergman served in this position until 1980 when he retired.

Personal life

On 7 September 1947, at Holy Trinity Church 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 ...

, Bergman married Miss Anna Lönnqvist, daughter of Mrs. Anna Lönnqvist (née Nilsson) from Stockholm. The officiant was the groom's father, court chaplain

. They had two children: Carl-Henrik and Jan-Erik. He later married Elisabeth Adossidou. Bergman was from the 1960s seriously ill, paralyzed by

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

and using a wheelchair.

Death

Bergman died in Athens on 10 December 1984. He was buried in the same city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergman, Dag 1914 births 1984 deaths Ambassadors of Sweden to Greece Consuls-general for Sweden Uppsala University alumni Stockholm University People of the C-byrån Swedish Nazis Swedish volunteers in the Winter War Swedish wheelchair users Dag