In addition to his academic career, Johan Jakob Tengström was also a significant educator of the nationalistic intelligentsia. He was an early member of the Fennoman movement, and as early as 1817, while living abroad, he published a Fennoman manifesto in the magazine Aura. In the statement, titled Några hinder för Finlands litteratur och kultur (‘Some obstacles to Finnish literature and culture’), Tengström emphasised the importance of improving the status of the Finnish language as well as developing its written form. He felt that the academic intelligentsia should make it their business to preserve Finnish culture, for instance by compiling folk poetry. According to him, Finnish folk poetry had already largely vanished from the coastal regions and was in imminent danger of meeting the same fate inland as well.

After the Great Fire of Turku made it necessary to move the University to Helsinki, Tengström played a central role as one of the senior members of Lauantaiseura, or ‘the Saturday Society’, and members of the society often gathered at his home. He was a proponent of Hegelian nationalistic philosophy, and was instrumental in its gaining a foothold in Finland. To complement his teaching, Tengström also shared his Fennoman philosophy at Lauantaiseura with such future Finnish nationalists as Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Elias Lönnrot and Johan Vilhelm Snellman. The latter of these he hoped would succeed him as professor of Philosophy.

Tengström believed that all peoples had their own distinctive features, which were partly the result of the natural environment and climate in which they lived. He considered the Finnish soil favourable, with its many streams, lakes and forests. The climate, in turn, he considered unfavourable, as it necessitated ceaseless toil, thus limiting the opportunities for the cultivation of culture. When it came to foreign influences, he considered French culture, in particular, to have had an adverse effect on Finns. Tengström felt that the French way of life made Finns indolent and workshy.

The high esteem in which Tengström was held among the generation of Fennomans he helped to educate is evident in a certain poem written for him. Students of Tengström sang the poem, written by Zacharias Topelius, at the grave of the professor on April 15, 1858:

Än öfver tidens mörka vågor
Som klippor Auras
Dess tempel grusades i lågor,
Dess gamle kämpar hädan gå.
Den gamla tiden är förgången,
Dess sista höstlöf falla af;
Men våren, kärleken och sången
Strö friska blommor på dess graf.

Välsignad vare du, som troget
Arbetat för ditt fosterland
Och helgat ädelt, redoboget
Åt ljusets verk din varma hand;
Välsignad ock för hvad du mistat!
Med djupt begråtne söners namn
O fader, du ditt minne ristat
I fosterlandets trogna famn.

Sources

• Tarja-Liisa Luukkanen, Tengström, Johan Jakob, Kansallisbiografia-verkkojulkaisu (‘National biography, online publication’). Accessed September 4th, 2015.Available for free on Nelliportaali.fi.
• Yrjö Kotivuori, Ylioppilasmatrikkeli 1640–1852: Johan Jakob Tengström (’University register 1640-1852’) Online publication 2005. Accessed on September 4th, 2015
• Zacharias Topelius, “Johan Jacob Tengström. Studentsång vid grafven den 15 april 1858” (‘Student song at the grave on April 15, 1858’), from Sånger 1. Ljungblommor. Retrieved from Zacharias Topelius Skrifter 1. Ljungblommor, an online publication by Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Accessed on September 4th, 2015.
• Joachim Mickwitz, Tengström, Johan Jakob, Filosofia.fi-online publication. Accessed on September 4th, 2015.
• Johan Jakob Tengström, Wikipedia article. Accessed on September 4th, 2015.