Edwin Linkomies
| Edwin Linkomies | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 25th Prime Minister of Finland | |
|
In office 5 March 1943 – 8 August 1944 |
|
| President |
Risto Ryti Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim |
| Preceded by | Johan Wilhelm Rangell |
| Succeeded by | Antti Hackzell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 December 1894 Viipuri, Finland |
| Died | 9 September 1963 (aged 68) Helsinki, Finland |
| Political party | National Coalition Party |
| Alma mater | University of Helsinki |
| Profession | Professor of Latin literature, University chancellor |
Edwin Johannes Hildegard Linkomies (22 December 1894 – 9 September 1963, until 1928 Edwin Flinck) was Prime Minister of Finland from March 1943 to August 1944, and one of the seven politicians sentenced to five and a half years in prison as responsible for the Continuation War, on the demand of the Soviet Union. Linkomies was a prominent fennoman academic, pro-rector (administrative head) of the University of Helsinki 1932 to 1943, rector 1956 to 1962, and the government's Chancellor of the University from 1962 until his death.
Linkomies was born as Edwin Flinck in southeastern Finland's Viipuri, the son of a Swedish-Finnish officer who died soon after Edwin's birth, but Edwin grew up in western Finland at Rauma, north of Turku, in a purely Finnish-speaking region of Finland. He had a quick and splendid career in academia: He graduated at age nineteen, wrote his dissertation at 22 at the University of Helsinki, where seven years later he was appointed professor and head of the department of Latin literature. Meanwhile, he had continued his research in Germany, at Leipzig and the Halle. He would keep in close contact with German universities for the rest of his life; as a teacher and scientific leader he was known for his "Anglo-Saxon style" — clear and simplistic in his presentations, emphasizing the grand lines rather than intriguing details and exceptions — but also as demanding, authoritarian, keen of the dignity of his office, and maybe too self-confident.
Linkomies was in many respects the last of his kind. Most of all, he was the last in a long line of prominent Finnish academics who were recruited from academia to important political tasks. But he was also the last to give lectures in formal academic dress, and the last to expect students and university employees to bow deeply for their rector.
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