Aina Erlander (née Andersson; 28 September 1902 – 24 February 1990) was a Swedish lecturer and the wife of Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander[1] from 1930[2] until his death in June 1985.

Aina Erlander
Erlander in 1966
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Sweden
In role
11 October 1946 – 14 October 1969
Prime MinisterTage Erlander
Preceded byElisabeth Hansson
Succeeded byLisbeth Palme
Personal details
Born
Aina Andersson

(1902-09-28)28 September 1902
Lund, Sweden
Died24 February 1990(1990-02-24) (aged 87)
Stockholm, Sweden
Political partySocial Democrats
Spouse
(m. 1930; died 1985)
ChildrenSven Erlander
Bo Erlander

Biography

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Aina Erlander's father was a mill and factory owner active in right wing politics. Erlander attended a girls school and gymnasium, and then continued her studies in Lund. In 1923, she met Tage Erlander, a fellow student in Lund.[3] They worked together in the chemistry department.[4] They married in 1930 and had two sons.[5] Aina worked as a teacher at Södra flickläroverket in Stockholm when Tage Erlander became Prime Minister of Sweden in October 1946.

 
The Erlander family graves in 2011, including Aina and Tage Erlander's headstone (right)

Aina Erlander was a member of the board of Save the Children and in 1949 travelled to the then West Germany, suffering the effects of World War II. In 1954 she visited the Netherlands, which had been flooded in 1953. In 1957 Erlander became chairperson of Unga Örnar (sv) ('Young Eagles', a children's and youth rights organisation affiliated to the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International), a position she retained for nine years.

After her husband resigned from the premiership in 1969,, the couple lived in a house constructed at Bommersvik by the Social Democrats to honor Tage, which was owned by the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League.[6]

Following the death of her husband in 1985, she sorted and edited his papers. She died in 1990, and is buried beside him.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Hench, Philip S. (6 November 2001). "Reminiscences of the Nobel Festival, 1950". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on 21 July 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  2. ^ Peter Nilsson (10 June 2016). "Under Erlanders tid byggdes välfärdssamhället upp" (in Swedish). Nya Wermlandstidningen. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  3. ^ Ruin 1989, p. 23
  4. ^ a b Lundberg, Björn. "Aina Erlander". Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Tage F. Erlander Dies At 84; Swedish Leader For 2 Decades". The New York Times. 22 June 1985. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  6. ^ Ruin 1989, p. ix

Bibliography

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Further reading

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