Gunnar Mickwitz, the son of a senior lecturer from Turku, entered the University of Helsinki to study history and classical languages in 1924. After attending courses at the Swedish Institute in Rome in 1927, Mickwitz developed an interest in the economic history of antiquity. 

Mickwitz earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1929 and he spent the next two years studying in Uppsala. While studying there, Mickwitz started work on his dissertation and established international relationships. His dissertation, Geld und Wirtschaft im römischen Reich des vierten Jahrhunderts n. Chr. (‘The money and economy of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century AD’), was completed in 1932. The following year he became a docent teacher in ancient history at the University of Helsinki.

Internationality played a key role in Mickwitz’s research work. His perspective was that good research work in ancient history came via the collaboration of researchers from different fields and different countries. To this end, Mickwitz travelled all around Europe keeping in contact with researchers in other countries. The means that Mickwitz needed for such work, as well as his exceptional language skills, generated a three-year travel grant for him at the University of Helsinki in 1934. Mickwitz published academic articles in seven languages.

Mickwitz’s interest in antiquity and his international relationships were evident in other activities. He was involved in founding the Finnish Institute in Rome at the end of the 1930s. He had planned to supervise students at the Institute in the spring of 1940, but this was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

In addition to his academic research, Mickwitz worked as a history and social studies lecturer at the Hangö Svenska Samlyceum upper secondary school between 1933 and 1937. He was appointed acting professor in General History at the Åbo Akademi in 1938 when he was only 32 years old. He applied for the chair in General History at the University of Helsinki the next year, but the position went to Arvi Korhonen.

However, this promising research career was cut short. The young historian was called up for military service during the Winter War. On February 18, 1940, reserve lieutenant Gunnar Mickwitz fell in battle in the Karelian Isthmus town of Pienpero.  

Sources (in Finnish and Swedish):

• Christer Bruun, ‘Mickwitz, Gunnar’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed May 15, 2015.
• Erik Gren, ‘In Memoriam. Gunnar Mickwitz’, Fornvännen, Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research 1940, 228–230. (PDF)
• ‘Gunnar Mickwitz’, Historiska föreningen online. Accessed May 5, 2015.
• ‘Gunnar Mickwitz’, Wikipedia. Accessed May 15, 2015.