150 years of the birth of Emil Nestor Setälä, researcher of the Finnish language
Emil Nestor Setälä was a multiply skilled person, he worked a professor of Finnish Language, as a minister of education and as an ambassador.
As a professor at the University of Helsinki, E.N. Setälä (1864 - 1935) long determined the orientation of research on the Finnish language and its literature. As a member of parliament and a minister, he was among those who created cultural policies and constitutional laws for a Finland striving towards independence.
Photo: National Board of Antiquities and Historical Monuments
Like other pupils at the Finnish-language grammar school, Setälä was irritated by the fact that Finnish had to be taught using the rules of Swedish grammar. Encouraged by his teacher Arvid Genetz, at the age of 16 Setälä on his own initiative wrote the first grammar of the Finnish language based on German-language sources.
Kalevala Society
The year 1911 was the year the Kalevala Society was founded, even though the rules of the foundation were approved by the National Board of Patents and Registration in 1919. The founding members were artists Gallen-Kallela, Sailo, folklore researcher Salminen and professors Setälä and Äyräpää.
The Society’s mission was to promote the collection, publishing, research and use for artistic purposes of Finnish folklore. Currently, the Society focuses on transmitting, researching and publishing information relating to the Kalevala and the Finnish cultural heritage, as well as the promotion of Kalevala-related art. The Society is engaged in international co-operation with Kalevala translators, illustrators and researchers.
Politician
As the first minister of education in post-independence Finland, Setälä proved to be an especially able cultural organiser. He also played a significant role in the furtherance of a reform concerning religious freedom.
Freedom of religion was important for the image of a country that had just gained independence; but the reform was problematical because of the system whereby the Lutheran Church was the State Church. Setälä aimed at recognition of the equal status of the various churches by means of a loosely framed preliminary law. Acting energetically, he made the Finnish Orthodox Church a state church, free from the tutelage of the Russian Orthodox Church, visiting Constantinople in 1923 for negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarch.
As a member of parliament and a minister, he was among those who created cultural policies and constitutional laws for a Finland striving towards independence. Setälä was a minister of education in 1925 and a minister of foreign affairs in 1925-26. Between the years 1927 and 1930 he was the Finnish ambassador in Copenhagen and Budapest.