After the Great Fire of 1827 the university moved from Turku to Helsinki (stop 28). For ninety years Turku was a town without a university. Then, in the middle of war and independence, its citizens founded two: first a Swedish-language one, and then, partly in answer to it, a Finnish-language one. Both still stand side by side today.
A university town again
- Why now? The founders of Åbo Akademi had two aims: to make Turku a university town again, and to protect Swedish, which they felt was losing ground at the University of Helsinki Well documented.
- A private gift. On 18 June 1917 a foundation was set up with 3.47 million marks from 35 private people. Its money was to found and run a university in Turku teaching in Swedish Well documented.
- Familiar names. The founders included four members of the Dahlström family, who had already paid for the Art Museum, and the architect Lars Sonck (both stop 33), as well as the Grönblom, Spoof and Heikel families. Two of the 35 were women: Bertha Junnelius and Bertha Spoof Well documented.
Åbo Akademi, 1918
- Statutes in wartime. The statutes were approved on 13 January 1918, two weeks before the Civil War broke out (stop 35). In September the first professors met, and on 16 September the philosopher Edvard Westermarck became the first rector Well documented.
- Three faculties. The university began with arts, mathematics and natural sciences, and political science. It calls its faculty of political science the first of its kind in the Nordic countries Well documented.
- 47 students. Teaching began on 15 January 1919 in the Old Academy Building next to the Cathedral, the same building the old university had used. In 1919 there were 47 students, 13 teachers and six professors. The official opening was on 11 October 1919 Well documented.
- Growing. Chemical engineering was added in 1920, theology in 1924 and a school of economics in 1927. In 1927 Alma Söderhjelm became its first woman professor Well documented.
- Still Swedish. Åbo Akademi is still the only Swedish-language university in Finland with many faculties. It became a state university in 1981, but the foundation still owns many of its buildings Well documented.
The University of Turku, 1920
- A Finnish answer. The University of Turku was founded on 28 February 1920, Kalevala Day. Finnish speakers wanted a university that taught in Finnish, the first of its kind in Finland, partly as an answer to the Swedish-language Åbo Akademi Well documented.
- 22,040 donors. The money came from a nationwide collection: 22,040 people gave money. The motto was “Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle”, “The gift of a free people to free science” Well documented.
- The founders. Behind the collection was the Turku Finnish University Society, and the first name of the university was Turun Suomalainen Yliopisto, the Finnish University of Turku Well documented.
- In an old hotel. Teaching began on 27 June 1922 in the former Hotel Phoenix on the edge of the Market Square, probably the same hotel where the strike committee met in 1905 (stop 34). There were 87 students, two faculties and seven professors, among them the poet V. A. Koskenniemi and the philosopher Eino Kaila. The first rector was Artturi H. Virkkunen Well documented.
- Gifts of art. The sculptor Emil Wikström made a bronze medal for the opening, and artists gave works for an “artists’ room” in the new university Well documented.
How do we know?
Both universities have written their own histories, and the foundation behind Åbo Akademi lists all 35 founders by name. The figures for students and professors come from these histories and from Wikipedia. We did not find the total sum raised for the University of Turku, only the number of people who gave.