Svenska normallyceum i Helsingfors (Norsen) was a Swedish-language school in the

Kaartinkaupunki Kaartinkaupunki (, ) is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Helsinki, 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 ...

district of

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 ...

between 1864 and 1977. The school was only for boys until 1974 when it became a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

school.

History

Svenska normallyceum was established on the initiative of

Johan Vilhelm Snellman Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnr ...

in 1864. The school was initially called ''Helsingfors normalskola,'' but the name was changed in 1874. As a normal school, Norsen offered prospective teachers auscultation opportunities, which is why it included both classical and

realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

education. Between 1867 and 1872 the school had a department for Finnish-speaking students. The school was located on Aleksanterinkatu 6 for the first few years and then on Kasarmikatu 48 between 1867 and 1878. Norsen was then temporarily located in a rented facility at Ratakatu 2, while a new school building designed by architect Axel Hampus Dahlström was being built. In 1880 the school moved to the new building on Unioninkatu 2, where it remained. Svenska Normallyceum Helsingfors

Norsen was a boys' school until 1974 when it was merged with the

girls' school Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education, same-sex education, same-gender education, and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in se ...

''Svenska Flicklyceet i Helsingfors'' and formed a

school. In 1977 the school was split into the högstadium ''Högstadieskolan Svenska normallyceum'' and the gymnasium ''Ottelinska Gymnasiet'', now ''Gymnasiet Svenska normallyceum''.

Famous alumni

* Alec Aalto, diplomat * Hans Blomberg, electrical engineer * Bo Carpelan, author *

Adolf Ehrnrooth Adolf Erik Ehrnrooth (9 February 1905 – 26 February 2004) was a Finnish general who served during the Winter War, Winter and Continuation War, Continuation wars. He also competed in Equestrian at the 1948 Summer Olympics, two equestrian events ...

, general 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 *

Einar Englund Sven Einar Englund (June 17, 1916 – June 27, 1999) was a Finnish composer. Life Sven Einar Englund was born at Ljugarn in Gotland, Sweden, on June 17, 1916; he died June 27, 1999, in Visby, Sweden. He married twice: in 1941 to Meri Mirjam ...

, composer *

Jörn Donner Jörn Johan Donner (5 February 1933 – 30 January 2020) was a cinema of Finland, Finnish writer, film director, actor, film producer, producer, politician and founder of Finnish Film Archive. He produced Ingmar Bergman's film ''Fanny and Alexan ...

, author, director, producer, journalist, politician *

Ragnar Granit Ragnar Arthur Granit (30 October 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a Finnish-Swedish scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 along with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning th ...

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

awarded the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

in 1967 * Christian Grönroos, Professor of Service and Relationship Marketing at Hanken * Harry Helenius, diplomat *

Gustav Hägglund Johan Edvin Birger Gustav Hägglund (born 6 September 1938) is a retired Finnish general. He was the Chief of Defence (Finland), Chief of Defence 1994–2001, and Chairman of the European Union Military Committee 2001–2004. Life and caree ...

, Commander in Chief of Finnish Armed Forces * Jan-Magnus Jansson, politician, Professor of general state science * Erik Kruskopf, art critic, art historian, writer * Börje Lampenius, actor, director *

Magnus Lindberg Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg (born 27 June 1958) is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonic's composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and the London Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence from 2014 to 2017. Ear ...

, composer, pianist * Claus Montonen, theoretical physicist *

Leif Segerstam Leif Selim Segerstam ( , 2 March 1944 – 9 October 2024) was a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist, and pianist, especially known for writing over 300 symphonies, along with other works. From 1963 onward Segerstam conducted a vari ...

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, violist,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

* Leif Sevón, lawyer, judge *

Hjalmar Siilasvuo Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo (born Hjalmar Fridolf Strömberg, 18 March 1892 – 11 January 1947) was a Finnish lieutenant general (), a knight of the Mannerheim Cross and a member of the Jäger Movement. He participated in the Eastern Front (World ...

, militar * Mikael Sundman, architect *

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git. He was honored, along with Shinya Yam ...

, creator of the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

Georg Henrik von Wright Georg Henrik von Wright (; 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher. Biography G. H. von Wright was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan. On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenst ...

, philosopher, professor, member of Academy of Finland * Benedict Zilliacus, journalist

Headmasters

* Julius Efraim Bergroth 1864-1870 * Alfred Kihlman 1871-1895 * Carl Johan Lindeqvist 1896-1900 * Vilhelm Theodor Rosenqvist 1900-1918

References

{{coord missing, Finland Schools in Helsinki Educational institutions established in 1864 Educational institutions disestablished in 1977 1864 establishments in Finland Swedish-speaking population of Finland