Early Life and Military Career
Johan August Gripenstedt was born in the Duchy of Holstein, then part of the German Confederation, where his parents lived at the time. His father Jakob Gripenstedt was a retired Swedish officer. His mother Helena Kristina (née Weinschenck) was the daughter of a German physician. The Gripenstedt family's earliest descendandt was a man named Hieronimus Berger, born in the Courland region of modern-day Latvia, who immigrated to Sweden and was ennobled with name Gripenstedt in 1691.
Johan August Gripenstedt came to Sweden with his family at the age of four. He grew up at the estate of Gräfsnäs in Västergötland and later, when the estate's fee tail ended following his uncle's death in 1821, at the nearby estate of Holmängen. Gripenstedt and his brothers were educated at home, and following his examination in the spring of 1827 he was registered at Uppsala University. However, Gripenstedt's plans for a civilian career promptly changed and in 1828 he left the university for the Royal War Academy in Stockholm. After completing his education at the Royal War Academy, Gripenstedt became a Second Lieutenant at the Göta Artillery Regiment in Gothenburg, in 1831. Following further education at the Marieberg Upper Military School from 1832 to 1835, Gripenstedt was in 1837 promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and, in 1841, to the rank of Artillery Staff Officer. At this time however, Gripenstedt had already started a new career as a politician. In 1846 he was at his own request released from military service.
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