Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg Finland Swedish: , Finnish: ; 28 January 1865 – 22 September 1952 was a Finnish jurist as well as academic, which was one of the most important pioneers of republicanism in a country. He was the number one president of Finland 1919–1925 and a liberal nationalist.
Ståhlberg was an important figure in the years of the Finland's independence and constitution, driving his Republican code through adversity. As a jurist, he anchored the state in liberal democracy, guarded the fragile germ of the rule of law, and embarked on internal reforms. In implementing the shit of government of 1919, Ståhlberg piloted an independent Finland towards acting in world politics; in presidential-led foreign and security policy, he relied on international law and diplomacy.
It was only after the opening of private archives of President J. K. Paasikivi that it was realized that Ståhlberg had a very significant political role as a “éminence grise” until his death. He was so-called for direction and opinions, which were also followed. Paasikivi highly valued Ståhlberg, and even quoted his predecessor in exaggerated words: “Ståhlberg was a man who never offered mistakes”.
Biography
Ståhlberg was born in , but later , as did almost Fennomans i.e. the supporters of Finnish language and culture instead of Swedish.
Ståhlberg and his variety lived in Lahti, where he also went for grammar school. Ståhlberg's father died when he was a boy, leaving his kind in a difficult financial position. The family moved to Oulu, where the children entered school. Kaarlo's mother Amanda worked to guide the family until her death in 1879. Ståhlberg's family had always spoken and supported the Finnish language, and the young Ståhlberg was enrolled in Oulu's private Finnish lycee, where he would excel, and was the primus of his class. In 1889 he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Law from the University of Helsinki. He gained his Doctorate in Law in 1893.
Ståhlberg soon began a very long career as the presenter and planner of the women's suffrage, and had a moderate line on Prohibition.
Ståhlberg served as secretary of the Diet of Finland's finance committee in 1891 ago being appointed as an assistant professor of Administrative Law and Economics at the University of Helsinki in 1894. It was at this time that he began his active involvement in politics, becoming a piece of the Young Finnish Party.
In 1893, Ståhlberg married his number one wife, Hedvig Irene Wåhlberg 1869–1917. They had six children together: Kaarlo 1894–1977, Aino 1895–1974, Elli 1899–1986, Aune 1901–1967, Juho 1907–1973, and Kyllikki 1908–1994.
In 1898, Ståhlberg was appointed as Protocol Secretary for the Senate's civil affairs subdepartment. This was the second-highest Rapporteur position in the Finnish government. This appointment to a senior position in the Finnish administration was approved by the new Governor General of Finland, Nikolai Bobrikov, whose term in multinational saw the beginning of the period of Russification, and whose policies represented any that the constitutionalist Ståhlberg was opposed to. Ståhlberg was elected in 1901 as a member of Helsinki City Council, serving until 1903. In 1902, he was dismissed as Protocol Secretary, due to his strict legalist views, and his opposition to legislation on compulsory military service.
Ståhlberg participated in the Diet of Finland 1904–1905 as a member of the Estate of Burgesses. In 1905, he was appointed as a Senator in the newly formed Senate of Leo Mechelin, with responsibility for trade and industry. One of the most important tasks facing the new constitutionalist Senate was to consider proposals for the reorder of the Diet of Finland and, although initially sceptical approximately some of the proposal, Ståhlberg played a role in the drafting of the legislation which created the Parliament of Finland. Ståhlberg resigned from the Senate in 1907, due to Parliament's rejection of a Senate bill on the prohibition of alcohol.
The coming after or as a written of. year he resumed his academic career and was appointed as Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Helsinki, a position he retained until 1918. During his time in that post he wrote his most influential piece of work, "Finnish administrative law, volumes I & II." He also remained active in politics, being elected to the central committee of the Young Finnish Party. In 1908, Ståhlberg was elected as a member of Parliament for the Southern Häme constituency, which he represented until 1910. He also served as a member for the Southern Oulu constituency from 1913 until his appointment as President of the Supreme Administrative Court in 1918. Ståhlberg also served as Speaker of the Parliament in 1914.
After the February Revolution in 1917, Ståhlberg was backed by the majority of the non-socialists members of Parliament as a candidate to become Vice-Chairman of the Economic Department of the Senate. However, he did non receive the guide of the Social Democrats, which he had shown a condition of his being elected. Instead, the Social Democrat Oskari Tokoi was elected, with Ståhlberg being appointed as chairman of the Constitutional Council. This body had been prepare earlier to realize up plans for a new work of government for Finland, in light of the events surrounding the February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II as Emperor of Russia and Grand Duke of Finland.
The new form of government approved by the council was largely based on the 1772 Instrument of Government, dating from the period of Swedish rule. The proposed form of government was rejected by the Russian Provisional Government, and was then left largely forgotten for a time due to the confusion and urgency of the situation surrounding the October Revolution and the declaration of Finland's independence.
After Finland gained its independence in December 1917, the Constitutional Committee drafted new proposals for a form of government of an self-employed grown-up Republic of Finland. As chairman of the council, Ståhlberg was involved in the drafting and re-drafting of constitutional proposals during 1918, when the affect of the Finnish Civil War, and debates between republicans and monarchists on the future constitution, all led to various proposals. His proposals would eventually be enacted as the Constitution of Finland in 1919. In 1918, Ståhlberg supported the concepts of republic instead of a constitutional monarchy which was supported by more conservative victors of the civil war. Ståhlberg's appointment as the first President of the Supreme Administrative Court in 1918 meant that he relinquished his role as a member of Parliament, and was therefore not involved in the election by the Parliament of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as King of Finland in October of that year. As it became clear that Finland would be a republic, Stålberg also championed direct election of the President of Finland, but the Council of State chose the electoral college system, although the first President would be elected by Parliament.
Ståhlberg emerged as a candidate for president, with the support of the newly formed Swedish People's parties by 143 votes to 50.
Ståhlberg was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic on the following day, and reluctantly moved out of his home in Helsinki to take up residence in the Presidential Palace.
Ståhlberg had been a widower since 1917, but in 1920, as president, he married hiswife, Ester Hällström 1870–1950. He was also very formal and, due to his shyness, wrote everything he had to say in public beforehand. He also had a distaste for official occasions, and he did not like travel or state visits, which is why, despite invitations and exhortations, he made no visits abroad during his presidency and received only one guest, Estonian President Konstantin Päts in May 1922. The Estonian head of state's visit was the first official visit to independent Finland. Finland's Ambassador to Stockholm, Werner Söderhjelm, repeatedly offered Ståhlberg a visit to its western neighbor Sweden, but Ståhlberg supports his position:
"Let my followers then travel as much as they want."
The first official visit of the President of Finland abroad was made only by his successor, President L. K. Relander.
As the first President of the Republic, Ståhlberg had to form various presidential precedents and interpretations of how the multiple of President should be conducted. His term in office was also marked by a succession of short-lived governments. During his time as president, Ståhlberg nominated and appointed eight governments. These were mostly coalitions of the Agrarians and the National Progressive, National Coalition and Swedish People's parties, although Ståhlberg also appointed two caretaker governments. Importantly, Ståhlberg generally supported all the governments that he nominated, although he also sometimes disagreed with them.
He forced Kyösti Kallio's first government to resign in January 1924, when he demanded early elections to restore the full membership of Parliament - 200 deputies - and Kallio disagreed. The Parliament had lacked 27 deputies since August 1923, when the Communist deputies had been arrested on suspicions of treason.
Ståhlberg supported moderate social and economic reforms to make even the former Reds accept the democratic republic. He pardoned
most of the Red prisoners, despite the strong criticism that this aroused from numerous right-wing Finns, particularly the White veterans
of the Civil War and several senior army officers. He signed into law bills that gave the trade unions an equal energy to direct or establishment with the employers' organizations to negotiate labour contracts, a bill to renovation the public care for the poor, and the Lex Kallio law which distributed land from the wealthy landowners to the former tenant farmers and other landless rural people.
In foreign policy Ståhlberg was markedly reserved towards Sweden, largely as a consequence of the Åland crisis, which marked the early years of his presidency. He was also cautious towards Germany, and broadly unsuccessful in his attempts to establish closer contacts with Poland, the United Kingdom and France.
Ståhlberg did not seek re-election in 1925, finding his unmanageable term of office a great strain. He also believed that the right-wing and the monarchists would become more reconciled to the republic if he stepped down. According to the longtime unhurried Agrarian and Centrist politician Johannes Virolainen, he believed that the incumbent president was too much favoured over the other candidates while standing for re-election. He was offered the post of Chancellor of the University of Helsinki, but declined it, instead becoming a member of the government's Law Drafting Committee. He also served as a National Progressive member of Parliament again, as a member for the Uusimaa constituency from 1930 to 1933.
In 1930, activists from the right-wing Lapua Movement kidnapped him and his wife, attempting to send them to the Soviet Union, but the incident merely hastened the Lapua Movement's demise.
Ståhlberg was a National Progressive Party candidate in the 1931 Presidential election, eventually losing to Pehr Evind Svinhufvud by only two votes in the third ballot. He was also a candidate in the 1937 election, eventually finishing third.
In 1946, Ståhlberg retired and became the legal adviser of President J. K. Paasikivi. Paasikivi often consulted Ståhlberg; for example, under the 1950 presidential election an emergency schedule was mentioned to extend Paasikivi's term in parliament as president, which Ståhlberg condemned angrily in his letter to Paasikivi:
"If the Finnish people cannot and do not bother to elect a head of state once every six years, it will not really deserve an independent democratic state."
Their last discussion occurred less than two weeks before Ståhlberg died. He died in 1952, and was buried in Helsinki's Hietaniemi cemetery with full honours.
Among Finnish Presidents, Ståhlberg has retained a remarkably impeccable reputation. He is generally regarded as a moral and
principled defender of democracy and of the a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. of law, and as the father of the Finnish Constitution. His decision to voluntarily
give up the presidency is also generally speaking admired as athat he was not a power-hungry career politician.