Karl Gustaf Idman (1 December 1885 in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

– 13 April 1961 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 ...

) was a Finnish diplomat and a non-partisan

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

in Antti Tulenheimo's cabinet in 1925. Idman completed a law doctorate in 1914 and worked in

Helsinki University The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Tsar Al ...

as a professor of international law from 1915 to 1917. Idman became an official in the Finnish Foreign Office in January 1918 after Finland gained independence. Idman belonged to the delegation which visited St. Petersburg in 1917 and acquired Lenin's approval for

Finnish Declaration of Independence The Finnish Declaration of Independence (; ) was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on . It declared Finland to be independent from Russia, with reference to a bill (law), bill simultaneously delivered to the Parliament to make Finland an ...

. Idman hold several foreign service positions during his career. He was special envoy in Copenhagen 1919–1927, in Budapest 1922–1927, in Riga and Kaunas 1927–1928, in Prague from 1927 to 1935, in Warsaw 1928-1938 and in Bucharest 1928–1938. During World War II, Idman hold a similar position of a special envoy since October 1939 in Tokyo and also since August 1941 in Mukden (Manchukuo). Idman resigned from the ministry in 1947. Idman owned Hatanpää Manor in

region. He left in his will money for a foundation that distributes annually grants for approximate million

euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

to students in Tampere.

References

1885 births 1961 deaths Politicians from Tampere People from Häme Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Ministers for foreign affairs of Finland 20th-century Finnish diplomats University of Helsinki alumni Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Independent politicians {{Finland-politician-stub