Unlike the eminent Nordic composers Edward Grieg, Jean Sibelius, and Carl Nielsen, Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) and his compositions have been long forgotten. However, the composer and his works are gradually being recognized through an increase in performances, recordings, and research. This paper discusses Stenhammar's three early chamber works for piano and strings, Allegro brillante for Piano Quartet in E-flat Major (1891), Allegro non tanto for Piano Trio in A Major (1895), and Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Minor, op. 19 (1899-1990) in search of the elements of German Classicism, German Romanticism, and Swedish Nationalism, that define his mature style. Although these works might be considered to be juvenilia lacking any of Stenhammar's distinguishing color, these three early chamber works are stepping stones to the musical traits that characterize his later mature works.

This study aims to investigate and describe the direction of the ideological development of the Swedish gymnastics association Gymniska Förbundet. Between 1928 and 1932, this organization transformed from a purely gymnastic and cultural association into an influential platform for the production of Swedish nationalist ideology. Based on theories of National Socialism’s formation within modern society, the analysis focus on the conditions regulating Gymniska Förbundets relation to modernity. Thus the study examines the association’s ideas in relationship to the concept of modernity. The analysis shows that the ideological fusion between ideas regarding gymnastics and culture on one hand, and of Swedish racial biologyon the other, provided the conditions needed for an alternative vision of modernity, similar to that which international research has characterized as the blut und boden-ideology. By presenting how and in what ways the Swedish blut und boden-ideology emerged and took shape, the study contributes to the research on the party-politically independent National Socialist ideology in Sweden. Furthermore, the analysis reveals networking strategies and idea transfer within the ideological movement based on wider applications of ideas concerning racial biology.

In the pre-globalized era, when many nations were comparatively ethnically homogenous, sentiments about national identity and national membership were less contentious. Today, an increasingly open and inter-connected world is changing the demographic composition of countries across the globe. This growing diversity has unavoidably fueled debates about who really counts as belonging to the national community, and what qualifications need to, or should, be met to become a member of it. Does your cultural or ethnic heritage need to come from the historic ethnic majority, or is ethnicity irrelevant? Is it about adhering to a certain value base? If it is about values, what are they? This essay set out to answer these questions in the context of local expressions of nationalism in Sweden. Correlations of these expressions with ethnic nationalism were virtually non-existent. Multicultural nationalism enjoyed a bit more support, however not to any substantial degree. The ideal type of nationalism with the by far strongest presence in the data was civic nationalism, with clear references in the material to a national identity based on ethnic blindness, equality, and the rights and obligations that come with citizenship.