Pontus Wikner

1837–1888.

Philosopher, writer.

Pontus Wikner was born in a poor homestead in Valbo-Ryrs parish in Dalsland.

He came to Uppsala in 1856 and took a lasting impression of the neo-evanglism and of Rydberg and Geijer.

As a disciple of philosopher Christopher Jacob Boström, Wikner developed at first Boström's ideas, to later expose them to religious philosophical and epistemological criticism. Against the philosophy of Boström, which was derived from God as the absolute sense, Wikner's conception a God as marked by sacred will and religion as a me-you relationship.

Between 1863–1884, Wikner was Associate Professor in theoretical philosophy in Uppsala and became lecturer in theology and Hebrew at higher general grammar school in Uppsala 1873, and professor of philosophy and aesthetics in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1884.

In the most read work thoughts and questions before the Son of man (1872) Wikner took personal position in the Christologian battles of the present time. He wanted to reconcile a biblically inspired revival of piety with a culture of open humanism and was beheld in Christian circles, mainly within the young ecclesiastical and the Covenant of Christian Humanism.

When Pontus Wikner died in Oslo after a life of sickness and personal crises, his remains was brought to Uppsala through the student union. A large number of students followed the remains to the grave.

More than 80 years (1971) after Wikner's death, his notes were published, in which he describes his homosexual orientation and the suffering it caused him.

Wikner also became an inspiration when the modern gay movement emerged in Sweden in the 1970s; a movement that has evolved and today can be referred to as the LGBTQI movement.

 

Burial site: 0121-1085

Image description: Pontus Wikner , ca 1850-1888. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Greta Gahn

1894–1996.

Textile artist.

After studying at the Higher School of Art and the Scuola di Tessitura in Milan, Greta Gahn was the director and artistic director of the hand-work friends from 1931 to 1951.

During the war years and the time thereafter, it was mainly Gahn in collaboration with Alf Munthe who responded for most of the monumental textile art in churches and public buildings.

She was also together with Munthe co-owner of Lekattgården, a workshop for tissue and embroidery. Greta Gahns Artistic judgement and technical know-how was crucial to Munthe's textile works.

 

Burial site: 0118-0928

Image description: Greta Gahn, unknown year. Photo: Margit Karlson / Leksands Local History archive. Leksands-Culture House [The image is cropped]
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Maj Bring

1880–1971.

Artist.

Maj Bring grew up in Uppsala at Sysslomansgatan 8 and later on the Skolgatan. She studied at the Vilhelmssons painting school in Gothenburg and at the Academy of Arts and for Henri Matisse in Paris from 1908 to 1910.

Bring had her own art school in Stockholm and was chairman of the Association Swedish Women Artists between the years 1949–1951. Bring painted landscapes in modernist style and later worked with collages and sequined paintings.

Her autobiography Counter-Clockwise (1986) is in reissue supplemented with a large amount of pictures from her oeuvre. The book depicts her artistry and her time in Paris. The republication has been done by Maj Bring's fund

Works of art by Maj Bring are represented at Moderna Museet, National Museum, Sahlströmsgården in Torsby, Aguelimuseet in Sala, Per Ekström Museum in Mörbylånga and Borås Museum.

In 2008 several artists were honored to have the streets and parks in Stockholm named after them. Maj Bring is represented among them.

 

Burial site: 0129-2149

Image description: May Bring, 1904. Photo: Retrieved from the book Maj Bring – Motsols. Memoarer och konst. 2007. [The image is cropped]
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Lasse Eriksson

1949–2011.

Artist, author.

Lars "Lasse" Eriksson was born in Piteå, and moved to Uppsala at a young age.

He began his theatre career in the 1970s when he played with the Panic Theatre in Uppsala.

For the TV audience, Eriksson was known at the beginning of the 1980s with his reflections and as a host in various entertainment programs.

Eriksson was also known as comedian and also published several books. In addition to his participation in a number of anthologies, he published humorous books, such as the Norrbottnian Satanic Verses (2006) and In the head of a troubled comedian (2011).

Lasse Eriksson died on stage during a performance at the Regina Theater in Uppsala.

 

Burial site: 0157-0275

Image description : Lasse Eriksson, unknown year. Photo: Anders Tukler. [ The image is cropped ]
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Elin Eriksson

1868–1950.

Merchant, market vendor.

Elin Eriksson and her husband Josef Theodor Eriksson started Stabbylunds haulage and slaughterhouse at Jumkilsgatan in Uppsala.

In the market hall they had sales as well as at S:t Eriks Square where among other things horsemeat was sold.

For thirty-five years, in heat and cold, she stood on the square. Her boots are preserved at Upplandsmuseet (Uppsala county museum).

 

Burial site: 0142-1656

Image description: Elin Eriksson probably 1940's. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Fadime Sahindal

1975–2002.

Front figure against honour-related oppression.

Fadime Sahindal, who was of Turkish-Kurdish origin, came with the family to Sweden at the beginning of the 1980s. As a student she studied social studies in Sundsvall and Östersund.

In her 20s, she began a relationship, which was not accepted by relatives. After harassment and threats from male relatives, Sahindal made a police report and contacted the media. It was in connection with this that she became known to the public.

She became a symbol of other immigrant women in similar situations. At a seminar on integration issues in Parliament in 2001, she criticized the cultural pattern in some immigrant groups and also the inability of society to support women who were in a situation similar to hers.

On a visit to the home 21 January 2002, Fadime Sahindal was murdered. The father was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

Representatives of Kurdish organisations and other immigrant groups in Sweden took a strong distance from the murder of Fadime Sahindal.

After that, several organisations, networks and funds were formed in support of vulnerable immigrant women and the subsequent debate was about honour killings and a lack of support for immigrant women.

Among the large numbers of people attending the funeral service in Uppsala Cathedral on 5 February 2002 there were representatives of the Government and the Royal Family.

 

Burial site: 0313-0861

Image description: Fadime Sahindal, 1998. Photo: Eva Tedesjö / IBL. [The image is cropped]
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Otto von Friesen

1870–1942.

Language researcher, runologist.

Otto von Friesen was born in Kulltorps Parish, Jönköping County and his most important scientific work deals with the runic script.

1897 became von Friesen docent at the Nordic languages at Uppsala University.

He published about the descent of the Runic script (1906) and the Smoke Stone (1920) in which he claimed that the enigmatic stone is about a conflict between Östgötar and Frisian merchants.

During the years 1905–1936 was von Friesen professor of Swedish language, became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1928 and elected to the Swedish Academy in 1929.

 

Burial site: 0106-0332

Image description: Otto von Friesen, Uppsala 1940's. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Ingrid Årfelt

1923–1999.

Artist, printmaker.

After studying at Edwin Ollers Painting School and Art Academy, Ingrid Årfelt came to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1941.

At the academy, she participated in the teaching of graphic arts and in the division of Sculpture from 1946–1948.

In 1956 Årfelt obtained a scholarship from the Italian state and was staying a period in Rome at the Accademia degli Stanieri.

Årfelt has among other things worked with portraits, figure compositions and landscapes. Her work is performed in woodcuts, Drypoint, aquatint, linoleum and pastel. Årfelt gave in 1962 a set version of the Babylonian Gilgamesh, a work that attracted a lot of attention.

Since 2008, Upplandsmuseet has been home to a wrought-iron work by Ingrid Årfelt from 1963, inspired by the folk life around the old "Rullan" restaurant in Uppsala. The artwork depicts and romanticizes an era that was wiped out by demolition and new construction.

Ingrid Årfelt is represented at several museums, for example the National museum and Stockholm City Museum.

 

Burial site: 0157-0262

Image description: Ingrid Årfelt in her studio with one of her "shell-shaped" sculptures. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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Karin Westman Berg

1914–1997.

Literature scholar.

After the master's degree, Karin Westman Berg worked as a grammar school teacher in Luleå and Härnösand from 1943 to 1957.

She received her Ph.D. in Uppsala in 1962 with studies in C.J.L. Almqvist's view on women and edited several anthologies, such as Text analysis from a gender perspective (1976) and Don't cry – research (1979).

Westman Berg was a leading figure in Swedish feminist literary research and was a member of the Fredrika Bremer Association Board from 1945 to 1977.

Westman Berg initiated and led gender roles seminars at the course activities from 1967 to 1977. At that time, women's research seminars were started, which Westman Berg led up to 1979. The seminars became an inspiring meeting place for people interested in women's issues and women's research.

A research post on women's and gender issues gave her the opportunity to start the Women literature project at the Department of Literature in Uppsala in 1978. With women's literature, it referred at the time to fiction which was written by Swedish women authors.

At the retirement in 1982, Karin Westman Berg was awarded the name of professor.

 

Burial site: 0319-1349

Image description: Karin Westman Berg, unknown year. Photo: Inger Harnesk / Centre for Gender Studies, Uppsala University. [The image is cropped]
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Gunilla Bergsten

1933–1988.

Literary scholar.

Gunilla Bergsten was an associate professor in literary studies and mainly devoted to German literature, both in academic and popular science circles.

In 1963 she defended her thesis, Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus , who attracted a great deal of international attention. It came to mean a lot to Thomas Mann research, because it skilfully sorted out the structure of Mann's novel design while presenting a comprehensive, previously unknown source material.

Gunilla was also theater critic for many years in the paper Upsala Nya Tidning.

 

Burial site: 0325-3169

Image description: Gunilla Bergsten, unknown year. Photo: From private collection. [The image is cropped]
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