Toivo Kivimäki

Toivo Kivimäki, 1950

Toivo Mikael Kivimäki (born June 5, 1886 in Tarvasjoki , † May 6, 1968 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish politician, legal scholar, diplomat and prime minister.

Studies and professional career

After studying law, he worked as a professor of civil law at the University of Helsinki . There he was from 1931 to 1936 Dean of the Faculty Department for Civil Law. From 1948 to 1956 he was again professor of civil law at the University of Helsinki.

Political career

MP and Minister

Kivimäki began his political career when he was elected member of the Finnish Parliament . There he represented the interests of the National Progressive Party (KED).

From December 1928 to August 1929 he was Minister of the Interior in Oskari Mantere's cabinet . He was later Minister of Justice in Juho Sunila's second cabinet from March 1931 to December 1932 .

Prime Minister 1932 to 1936

As his successor, he was Prime Minister of a coalition government of ministers from the KED, the National Collection Party ( KOK) and the Swedish People's Party (SFP) from December 14, 1932 to October 7, 1936 . With this almost four-year term in office, he was the longest serving Prime Minister of Finland until 1985. During his tenure, he geared foreign policy mainly to cooperation with the other Scandinavian countries .

Ambassador to Berlin and candidate for the presidency

Two weeks after the signing of the peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union to end the Winter War on March 13, 1940, Prime Minister Risto Ryti appointed him ambassador to Berlin . He worked there until the break in diplomatic relations on September 2, 1944. In this office he was responsible for improving relations between Finland and the German Empire . While the German Reich was still anti-Finnish until 1941, Kivimäki's influential diplomatic relations resulted in the German Wehrmacht fighting on the side of the Finnish Army in the Continuation War between June 1941 and September 1944 against the Red Army . However, in the last months of his tenure in Berlin, he was increasingly less likely to follow the instructions of then President Ryti, which meant that no official contract was concluded with the German Reich. For this reason, the controversial Ryti-Ribbentrop Treaty was signed on June 26, 1944 in Helsinki without the participation of Ambassador Kivimäki. After Ryti was voted out of office on July 31, 1944, the new Finnish President, Marshal Mannerheim , saw himself not bound by the treaty, as the Finnish government saw it as a personal undertaking for Ryti.

In December 1940 he ran against Ryti for the office of President . However, he received only one of the 300 electoral votes.

Post-war period and conviction for the continuation war

Toivo Kivimäki's grave in Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki

After the armistice of Moscow to end the Continuation War on July 19, 1944, Kivimäki had to answer in a trial with seven other persons responsible for the Continuation War at the urging of the Soviet leadership under Josef Stalin . On February 21, 1945, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

After the Paris Peace Conference in 1946 and a friendship treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1948, then President Juho Kusti Paasikivi issued an amnesty on the basis of which Kivimäki was released from prison. After his release from prison, he withdrew from political life and resumed his professorship at the University of Helsinki.

literature

• Klaus Reichel: At Hitler's side. How Finland became Germany's ally in 1941 - and how many of its leading politicians had to answer to a war crimes tribunal in 1946 . In: Die Zeit , No. 10/2006

Web links

• Biographical notes on the Finnish Government website
• Cabinet Ministerial List 1932–1936
• Finnish History in Postage Stamps: Between the Wars (1919–1939)
• Finnish History in Postage Stamps: Second World War (1939-1945)