Gustaf Petri

This article is about the Swedish officer Gustaf Petri. For the German colonel, see Gustav Petri .

Gustaf Wilhelm Petri (born January 5, 1885 in Linköping , † September 2, 1964 in Täbi församling near Stockholm ) was a Swedish officer (most recently major general ) and military historian .

Petri began his military career in the first body grenadier regiment ( lieutenant from 1908). From 1910 he attended the war college in Karlberg for the first time , where he taught from 1915. In 1919 he became captain 2nd class in the first body grenadier regiment and from 1919 worked in the history department of the general staff . There they had just completed the major investigation into the campaigns of Charles XII. completed (which was also Petri's main area of ​​interest) and he dealt with the war with Russia of 1808/09 and Gustav Adolf . In 1922 he was given an exemption to write the history of his regiment, the first two volumes of which were published by 1928 (the remaining two he was only able to complete in retirement). He also demonstrated intellectual independence from the official representation of the Northern War at the General Staff under Bennedich . He taught at the War College and was appointed to the Defense Commission in 1931. From 1931 he was a major in the Bohuslän Regiment and from 1933 in the General Staff and from 1934 he was head of the historical department in the General Staff. In 1936 he became a colonel and headed the Karlberg War School from 1937 to 1940 before he was called in to organize homeland security and headed it until 1947. In 1946 he became major general.

As a military historian, he dealt particularly with Charles XII. and received attention through the reinterpretation of the Battle of Poltava (lecture in front of the Karolinska förbundet 1956 and its history of the Östgöta regiment, which was recruited from Östergötland and was absorbed into the first body grenadier regiment in 1791).

A Medal of Merit from the Swedish Homeland Security is named after him.

From 1927 he had a management position in Karolinska promoted .

Fonts

• Armfeldt's karoliner 1718-1719, 1919
• Kungl. Första livgrenadjärregementets historia, Volume 1–4 (of 6):
  • Östgötafänikorna till och med år 1618, 1926
  • Östgöta regemente till fot 1619-1679, 1928
  • Östgöta infanteriregemente under Karl XI och Karl XII, 1958
  • Regementets öden från Stora nordiska krigets slut fram till år 1928, 1962

Web links

• Arvid Cronenberg, article in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon

References and comments

1. ↑ Due to Petri's new point of view, among other things, Otto Haintz revised the first volume of his biography of Karl XII in the 1950s, as Haintz himself wrote in the foreword.