Ellen Hagen

1873–1967.

Figure in the women's rights movement, publisher and politician.

Ellen Hagen initiated the formation of uppsala women's suffrage association in 1902 and was its president until 1923. Hagen was one of the foremost in the work for voting rights for women in Sweden. She was married to Robert Hagen, governor of Gävleborg County from 1918 to 1922.

She was also one of the initiators of the country Association for the woman's political suffrage, as well as one of the founders of Liberal women 1914. Hagen was chairman of the Liberal Party Women's Association 1938 – 1946 and for the Swedish Women's Union of Citizens 1936–1963.

Ellen Hagen also participated in international peace and voice-law work and was a Swedish delegate at the Disarmament Conference in Paris in 1931.

 

Burial site: 0103-1967

Image description: Ellen Hagen, unknown year. Photo: Gävleborg County Museum. [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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Helena Nyblom

1843–1926.

Author.

Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and appreciated fairytale poems at the turn of the century.

She was born in Copenhagen in 1843 and was the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. The father was a painter and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterised by intellectuality and aesthetics.

She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala where their home soon became a focal point for artistically oriented people from all over the Nordic region.

He published a series of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough was at the end of the 1890th century with her fairy tales.

Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noted and criticized in the media.

Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer in magazines, such as Nordic Magazine, new Swedish magazine, Word and image and Idun.

In 1922 the autobiographical work My Memories of life was published.

John Bauer's illustration from 1913, to Helena Nybloms "Bortbytingarna" in "among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The verse house at Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons.

Burial site: 0112-0574

Image description: Helena Nyblom, Stockholm ca 1870-ca 1880. Waldemar Dahllöf / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Hildur Ottelin

1866–1927.

Acommodation inspector, municipal politician, gymnastics teacher.

After graduating from the Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm in 1893 Hildur Ottelin moved to Skolgatan 10 in Uppsala and lived there for some time with her brother. For several years she worked as a gymnastics teacher and physiotherapist at the Lindska School and Anna Wikström's Business School for blind women.

In 1903, Ottelin invested in two farms at Stamgatan (today's Geijersgatan) 7 and 10 with the intention of renting out housing and settled himself in number 10. A year later, she bought land from vicar Otto Myrberg in Rickomberga, which was later sold cheaply to working families and together with them a single-family association, Rickomberga Egna Hem, was formed, where she was CEO from 1904 to 1923.

Later, Ottelin became a acommodation inspector for the Health Care Board and in 1912, as the first woman, was elected to the Social Democratic Party. Likewise, Ottelin was also the first woman in the City board.

As a politician, she became known for her many controversial proposals and dedications in housing issues and in issues regarding the elderly. Hildur Ottelin continued to engage in municipal affairs until her death.

Since 1950 a street in Uppsala, in the area Rickomberga carries her name.

 

Burial site: 0148-1933

Image description: Hildur Ottelin, ca 1916-ca 1927. Photo: Klara Hacksell / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Hans Järta

1774–1847.

Official, politician, author.

Hans Järta (originally Baron Hans Hierta) became a student in Uppsala at the age of 13, an official in the Cabinet of foreign correspondence as an 18-year-old and secretary at the Justice department four years later.

As eighteen, Järta socialized with the men in the conspiracy against king Gustavus III. Järta was present in 1792 when the shot against Gustavus III was fired. Afterward, Järta gave partial misleading information about the shooting but whether or not he was involved in the murder plan itself, there is only circumstantial evidence. He was never accused of involvement in the assassination.

Järta recalled both nobility and his member of parliament at the Riksdag in 1800 in protest against king Gustav IV Adolf and the monarchical autocracy and took the name Järta (the family name was Hierta).

Järta was one of the men behind the coup d'état of 1809 and belonged, after the king's abdication, on of the leaders at the Riksdag the same year. He was secretary of the Constitutional Committee in the drafting of 1809 years of government.

Järta was also governor of Kopparbergs County 1812 – 1822, member of the Swedish Academy 1819 and moved to Uppsala 1825 where he served as a writer. In Uppsala, Järta held a literary salon, which competed with the Malla Silfverstolpes salon.

Later, Järta became head of the Swedish National Archives from 1837–1844.

The high gravestone that adorns the burial ground refers to his son with the same name, which as a young student died in 1825.

 

Burial site: 0112-0588

Image description: Hans Järta. Photo: From Emil Hildebrand,  Sveriges historia intill tjugonde seklet, vol 9 (1910) / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Ann Margret Holmgren

1850–1940.

Author, figure in the women's rights movement.

Ann Margret Holmgren was one of the leaders in the women's rights movement for suffrage and peace. In the early 1900s, she was increasingly involved in women's issues through Ellen Kay and Lydia Wahlström.

Holmgren participated in 1902 in the formation of the Association for the woman's political suffrage and traveled around the country, agitated and gave lectures in the suffrage issue until the universal suffrage was decided in the Parliament in 1919.

Holmgren was Vice-chairman of the Swedish Women's Peace Association and one of the founders of the Swedish Men's Association 1921.

She published brochures related to the vocal rights work and also gave life-time drawings in the books Pioneers (1928 – 1930) and memories and Times Pictures (1926).

 

Burial site: 0125-1141

Image description: Ann Margret Holmgren, unknown year. Photo: Unknown photographer / Stockholm City Museum. [The image is cropped]
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Dag Hammarskjöld

1905–1961.

Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Dag Hammarskjöld grew up in Uppsala where the father, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, was governor. During the years 1936–1945, Hammarskjöld was secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance and transferred 1946 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 1947 to 1948 he was a Swedish delegate to the OEEC negotiations, cabinet secretary from 1949 to 1951 and consultative government minister from 1951 to 1953. Hammarskjöld was elected unsecretary-general in 1953 and the following year, he succeeded his father as a member of the Swedish Academy.

Hammarskjölds leadership skills were necessary to streamline the complex UN organization and with his personal integrity, diplomatic prowess and striving to realize the UN idea, he was given authority to the mission as Secretary-general.

Dag Hammarskjöld died in 1961 in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.

His diary entries entitled Road Signs were published in 1963. In the chapel of peace in Uppsala Cathedral there is a memorial stone with the inscription:

 

Not me without God in Me Dag Hammarskjöld 1905–1961.

 

Burial site: 0116-0834C

Image description: Dag Hammarskjöld, 1959 New York, USA. Photo: United Nations [The image is cropped]
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