Swedish geography and the time spirit 1933-45 : Resistance, subordination or tergiversation?

• Nordic and Baltic geographers in the years 1933–1945 were surrounded by, and eventually under the rule of dictatorial regimes while Sweden remained peaceful and only partially subject to censorship. To what extent is this visible in the academic work of Swedish geographers, in their publications and in their reviews of publications of the surrounding world? The paper will address these issues of Swedish academic geography of the time. Most dissertations for licentiates and PhDs in human geography were chosen within the sub-discipline of historical regional geography of Sweden. In general, very few publications reflected the geopolitical situation surrounding Sweden. In the reviews sections, works of a Nazi character are criticized, and the number of German works reviewed declines rather abruptly after 1933. Soviet geography is only mentioned a few times. In 1938–40 the annual SGÅ published a geopolitical survey of Europe in a pro-Nazi (and pro-Soviet) spirit. The concept of race is used to differentiate Swedes, Finns, and ‘Lapps’. Beginning in 1942, there is a critique on the lack of social and geopolitical aspects in education and research. The history of Swedish geography 1933-45 thus shows a resistance to Nazi German geography, a few examples of accepting of Nazi geopolitics, but in general an almost total lack of addressing the geopolitical realities of the surrounding neighbourhood.  

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

publishing

geography

geopolitics

Sweden

Nazi Germany

racism

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)