Axel Olof Freudenthal

Axel Olof Freudenthal (12 December 1836 – 2 June 1911) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish philologist and politician.

[2] He studied at the University of Helsinki where the nationalistic movement struggle between the Fennomans and the Svecomans was raging.

He was a strong proponent of the use of Swedish in Finland, and subsequently established the theory that the Swedish-speaking population constituted a separate nationality.

[3][4] Freudenthal was appointed a docent in 1866 in Old Norse language and wrote his doctoral thesis on the dialect of Närpes in 1878.

His life's work was documented by Arvid Mörne in the book Axel Olof Freudenthal och den finlandssvenska nationalitetstanken (1927).