Hjärne, Harald Gabriel

Born May 2, 1848, in Klastorp, in the län (county) of Skaraborg; died Jan. 6, 1922, in Uppsala. Swedish historian and public figure. Member of the Swedish Academy (1903).

In 1871, Hjärne graduated from the University of Uppsala; he was a member of the university’s teaching staff from 1871 to 1913, initially as a docent and from 1885 as a professor of history. In 1889 and 1890 he established a history seminar at the university and reformed the teaching of history along German lines. From 1884 to 1914 he was chairman of the Historical Society in Uppsala. Hjärne had an idealist world view, similar to that of the German followers of L. von Ranke. His fields of interest were the political history of Sweden in the 17th and 18th centuries, world history, and the history of European culture. He was one of the founders of the revisionist school of historians of the Northern War of 1700–21, who attempted to rehabilitate Charles XII’s reputation as a state figure and general. Hjärne was a Conservative deputy to the Riksdag from 1902 to 1918.