Peter Wieselgren

Peter (Per) Wieselgren, born Jonasson (1 October 1800 – 10 October 1877) was a Lutheran priest, librarian, archivist, literary historian, and leader of the Swedish temperance movement who formed the first organised temperance society in Sweden.

Biography

Upbringing and education Peter Wieselgren was born 1 October 1800 in Vislanda Parish in Småland. The name Peter is said to have arisen after the priest Peter Hyltenius misheard; he should have been named Pehr. The latter name was also the one he preferred to use.

When Wieselgren was to receive his first school certificate, at Växjö public school, Hyltenius wanted to give him the name Wieselman, because "we have branches and twigs before, but you will become a man". But his father and the headmaster preferred Wieselgren to be considered a family name after "...birth parish and older relatives", and on 5 September 1811 that name was entered in the books.

By the age of ten, he had read through the entire Bible. He also wrote a sermon at this time, as well as a small booklet of hymns. In 1819, Wieselgren went through a spiritual change of heart, and after a time of worry and sorrow over what he felt was sinful, he asked God for light and peace. Some like-minded comrades joined, and they thus formed a small society. On 24 April 24 1819, they all signed an agreement which stated, among other things, "We also renounce, though separately and without burdening the conscience of others, all use of spirituous beverages which are not beneficial to health and which may become corrupting through habit." This association, which was probably the first temperance society in Sweden,

Work as a priest and in the temperance movement Wieselgren was ordained a priest in 1833 and became the vicar of Västerstad parish in Scania the same year, where he took up his post in 1834 and became provost the same year. He founded the Västerstad temperance society there, which, after a year's work, held a celebration at which 100 farmers took a vow of sobriety. After three years, membership had reached 1,600, and by then 200 farmers had stopped distilling spirits. When Wieselgren moved from Västerstad after 15 years to take up the post of vicar in Helsingborg, it was said of him that "he had received the parish neglected like a wilderness, but left it like a well-tended herb garden". Wieselgren married Matilda Catharina Rosenquist (1816–1894), daughter of Magnus Rosenquist, the inspector at Löberöd, and Hedvig Maria née Gullander, a priest's daughter, on 14 March 1833 at Mariannetorp in Gudmuntorp.

During the first decades of the 19th century, the consumption of spirits increased considerably in Sweden as a result of domestic distilling. According to a widespread but dubious estimate, in 1829 it amounted to 45 litres per inhabitant per year – compared to about five litres in 1990. Peter Wieselgren drawn by in 1847.In the late 1820s, the priest had formed one of Sweden's first temperance societies in Rydaholm, Småland, and subsequently several others. Wieselgren and Bexell would later collaborate in spreading the cause of sobriety. The steamship builder Samuel Owen also started a temperance society, following the English model, and in connection with the millennium celebrations of Ansgar's missionary journey to Sweden, several temperance societies were founded in 1832. The movement developed into two branches – one absolutist and one temperance.

Wieselgren became a prominent traveling speaker for the Svenska nykterhetssällskapet (the Swedish Temperance Society). His son, Sigfrid, would become a key figure in the organization. He began to publish material on the temperance issue, including the 1837 work ('What shall we say of this sobriety activity, if we believe the word of God?') Wieselgren worked with American temperance activist Robert Baird during Baird's trip to Sweden in 1840.

Wieselgren was not an absolutist, although he has been interpreted as such. In the statutes of an association, he wrote that members could "consume fermented beverages in moderation". On the occasion of the inauguration of the Western Main Line on 4–5 November 1862 in Gothenburg, Charles XV once wanted to toast with him, but even then he would not pour wine into his goblet. When the king remarked, "The glass is empty," Wieselgren replied, "Yes, Your Majesty, but my heart is full." Inspired by Gothicism and , Wieselgren subscribed to the notion that Homer's Troy should be set in the fortress in Urshults parish in Småland.

Later life He stayed in contact with Pietist priest Peter Lorenz Sellergren toward the end of Sellergren's life. Wieselgren became vicar of Helsingborg in 1847 and was appointed dean of Gothenburg on 31 March 1857. He worked together there with Peter Fjellstedt for several years.

Wieselgren died 10 October 1877 in Gothenburg and was buried by Fjellstedt at Stampen Cemetery.