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Abstract
During the First World War, intellectuals in both combatant and neutral nations engaged in debates on the justification for the bloodshed and in envisioning solutions for a sustainable peace. In the latter regard, the issues of democracy and future forms of government were focal. This article examines two public intellectuals from Sweden, Ellen Key and Rudolf Kjellén, and their conflicting views. A comparative and transnational perspective on their thinking about war and peace sheds light on their political backgrounds and wider worldviews. The article further reveals the international contexts in which their ideas were embedded. Using the concept of ‘the ideas of 1914 versus those of 1789’, the conservative geopolitician Kjellén spoke for the justification of German expansion and Swedish military intervention, whereas the Left-liberal pacifist Key condemned all parties involved, defending the legacy of the French Revolution and Sweden’s neutrality. Based on his geopolitical tenets, Kjellén could not envision a future with peaceful cooperation between nation states, while, for Key, the solution lay in the development of democratic decision-making. In this respect, the granting of political citizenship to women, to whom she accorded a special competence for peace-keeping, based on their maternalism, was crucial.
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No potential conflict of interest.
Notes
1 Leonhard, Büchse, 236–50, 415–23; Nordin, Filosofernas. See also e.g. Llanque, ‘First’, 69–80.
2 See e.g. Thébaud, ‘Great War’, 57–62; Andersson, Kvinnor, 57–142; Wilmers, Pazifismus; Sharp, ‘Anti-Pacifist’, 195–213. An overall picture of Scandinavia as part of war-waging Europe is provided by Hobson et al., ‘Introduction’.
3 Key, ‘Ellen Keys’.
4 Key, Djupare syn, passim.
5 In my research, transnational approach refers to an empirical analysis of transfers, entanglements, and circulations across borders. Consequently, transnational approach is a way to deconstruct methodological nationalism, which conveys the idea of nations as unique and closed entities. See e.g. Saunier, Transnational.
6 Nordin, Filosofernas, 236–7.
7 The ‘ideas of 1914’ and ‘ideas of 1789’ were used in the contemporary intellectual debate to stand for the values of order (1914: the organization of the German state at the beginning of the war) and freedom (1789: the French Revolution). See e.g. Llanque, ‘First’, 9–80; Bruendel, Volksgemeinschaft, 111–33; Bruendel, ‘Ideologien’, 285–314.
8 See e.g. the classical work by Higonnet and Jenson, Behind; Grayzel, Women. On Swedish research, Ahlund, ‘Krig’, 97–150; Qvarnström, Motståndets.
9 See e.g. Andersson, Kvinnor; Wilmers, Pazifismus.
10 See e.g. Key, War, Peace; Key, Allsegraren.
11 See e.g. Söderholm and Rosenblad, ‘Han tvivlade’, 117.
12 Östling, Frisinnets, passim.
13 Lagengren, På andra, 61–117. See also Edström, ‘Inledning’, 33–8.
14 Lehnert, ‘Zur Geschichte’, 21. See also Henze, ‘Ellen Key’, 105–31.
15 The standard work on Ellen Key is Ambjörnsson, Ellen Key, wartime is discussed on 352–9.
16 On Key’s reception in Germany, see e.g. Kinnunen, „Eine der Unseren”.
17 Bianchi, ‘New Internationalism’, 179–81.
18 E.g. Key, Djupare syn, passim.
19 Wierling, Eine Familie, 202–3.
20 Sharp, ‘Anti-Pacifist’, 206.
21 See e.g. Lundén, ‘Geopolitik’, 82–99. See also e.g. Kjellén, Der Staat.
22 See e.g. Lähteenmäki, Voionmaa.
23 See e.g. Edström, ‘Inledning’, 27–9.
24 Kjellén, Groβmächte, 199. See also Falkemark, ‘Kjellén’, 149. On the nationalistic role of German historians, particularly Treitschke and Lamprecht, see e.g. Krumeich, ‘Ernest Lavisse’, 151.
25 Wallace, Image, 67.
26 Falkemark, ‘Kjellén’, 160.
27 E.g. Kjellén, Världspolitiken, 99–123. See also Falkemark, ‘Kjellén’, 155–62.
28 Kjellén, Ideen. See also Kjellén-Björqvist, Rudolf Kjellén II, passim; Björk, ‘Kjellén’, 278–312.
29 Demm, ‘Propaganda’. On Steffen, see Stråth, Sveriges, 69, 548–9.
30 See e.g. Key, Skönhet för alla (1899). See also Ambjörnsson, Ellen Key, 361–459.
31 Rosenblad and Söderholm, ‘Nationalisten’, 244–77, on Key, 252.
32 E.g. Henze, ‘Ellen Key’, 105–31.
33 Key, Djupare syn, passim, particularly 56, 58.
34 Key, War, Peace, 50.
35 Key, Letter from.
36 Key, War, Peace, 87–8.
37 Key, Djupare syn, 6–7.
38 Key, Djupare syn, 34–5; Key, War, Peace, 37.
39 Wilmers, Pazifismus, 38–9.
40 Key, War, Peace, 37.
41 E.g. Leonhard, Büchse, 241–2. About Belgium at the Hague conference, see Wilmers, Pazifismus, 42–7.
42 Key, Själarnas, preface; Key, War, Peace, 19.
43 Key’s book Själarnas neutralitet (1916) was based on lectures which she gave to collect money for Polish and Belgian people.
44 Kjllen, Studien, 12.
45 Maury, Svenska nationalismen, 423.
46 See e.g. Wallace, Image, 141–90; Nordin, Filosofernas, passim.
47 Ambjörnsson, Ellen Key, passim.
48 Key, Djupare syn, preface.
49 E.g. Key, Djupare syn, 153–72.
50 Kjellén, Ideen; Kjellén, Warum.
51 E.g. Kjellén, Studien, 63.
52 Sveriges utrikespolitik, 119–21.
53 Key, War, Peace, 26.
54 Key, Djupare syn, 198.
55 Stråth, Sveriges, 105–20. Ellen Key’s father Emil Key (1822–1892) was one of the founders of the National Liberal Party. When he worked in the parliament, Ellen Key worked as his secretary.
56 Kjellén, Studien, passim; Key, Kriget, 21–3. Concerning Key’s articles in Forum, see also Östling, Frisinnets, 36.
57 See e.g. Nordin, Filosofernas, 187–8, 191–2, 217–19; Östling, Frisinnets, 37.
58 On the Finnish Civil War from the Swedish perspective, see e.g. Berglund and Sennerteg, Finska.
59 Nerman, Allt var, 222–4.
60 E.g. Key, Djupare syn, 103.
61 Qvarnström, Motståndets, 123. See also Andersson, Kvinnor, 122.
62 Falkemark, ‘Kjellén’, 172–4.
63 Kjellén, Världspolitiken, 226–65.
64 Key, War, Peace, 27–8.
65 Key, War, Peace, 121. On Key’s Europeanism in her Forum articles, see Östling, Frisinnets, 38.
66 Key, War, Peace, 13.
67 Key, War, Peace, 77.
68 Key, War, Peace, 100. See also Bianchi, ‘New Internationalism’, 179–81.
69 Ahlund, ‘Krig’, 117–23; Qvarnström, Motståndets, passim. The book was titled Den kinesiska muren – Rosika Schwimmers kamp för rätten och hennes krig mot krig (The chinese wall – Rosika Schwimmer’s fight for justice and her war against war).
70 ‘Rösträtt och representation’, 77.
Additional information
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Tiina Kinnunen
Dr Tiina Kinnunen works as a Professor in Finnish and Northern European history at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her research focuses on nineteenth and twentieth-century women's and gender history, biographical writing, memory cultures of the Second World War and history of historiography. Latest publications include the co-edited volume Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives (2016). One of her on-going projects deal with the feminist lives of Ellen Key and Alexandra Gripenberg, analysed from comparative and transnational perspectives.
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