Sophie Mannerheim Jr. - Ancestry and Early Life

Ancestry and Early Life

The Mannerheim family descends from a German businessman and mill owner from Hamburg, Hinrich Marhein (1618–1667), who emigrated to Gävle in Sweden and adopted the Swedish spelling of his first name, Henrik. His son Augustin Marhein changed his surname to Mannerheim and was raised to the nobility by King Charles XI in 1693. Augustin Mannerheim's son, Johan Augusin Mannerheim, an artillery colonel and mill manager, was raised to the status of Baron at the same time as his brother in 1768. The Mannerheim family came to Finland, then an integral part of Sweden, in the latter part of the 18th century. It was long believed that Hinrich Marhein had emigrated to Sweden from the Netherlands, but recent studies have shown this belief to be erroneous. Baron Mannerheim was also of Scottish ancestry on his paternal side, his ancestor George Wright (the founder of the Von Wright line of Finnish nobility) having emigrated from Dundee to Sweden in the 17th century.

Mannerheim's great-grandfather, Count Carl Erik Mannerheim (1759–1837), had held a number of offices in Finland's civil service during the early years of the autonomous Russian Grand Principality of Finland, including membership in the Senate, and served as the first Prime Minister of Finland (formally the Vice Chairman of the Economic Department of the Senate—the Senate consisted of the Economic Department, later the cabinet, and the Justice Department, later the Supreme Court; the formal chairman of both was the Governor General as the acting head of state). In 1825, Carl Erik Mannerheim was promoted to the rank of Count (in Finnish Kreivi, in Swedish Greve). Mannerheim's grandfather, Count Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (1797–1854), was a renowned entomologist and served as President of the Viipuri Court of Appeals. Mannerheim's grandmother Countess Eva Wilhelmina Mannerheim, née von Schantz, was one of the leading figures in Finnish high society.

Baron Mannerheim's father, Carl Robert, Count Mannerheim (1835–1914), was a playwright who held liberal and radical political ideas, but he was also a businessman and industrialist whose success varied. Count Robert Mannerheim was president of Kuusankoski Ltd, the first producer of rotation paper in Northern Europe, and he began the import of modern business machinery with his company Systema. His children sold Systema to a management buyout in 1914. Mannerheim's mother, Hedvig Charlotta Helena (Hélène) von Julin (1842–1881), was the daughter of the wealthy industrialist Johan Jacob von Julin, who owned the Fiskars ironworks and village.

Gustaf Mannerheim was born in the family home, the Villnäs Manor in Askainen. As the third child of the family he inherited the title of Baron (in Finnish Vapaaherra, in Swedish Friherre; only the eldest son would inherit the title of Count). Despite his businesses, Gustaf Mannerheim's father ran into difficulties in the late 1870s. He suffered from hypomania personality disorder, which manifested itself in his being overly optimistic in financial dealings. His addiction to gambling worsened the situation, and he went bankrupt in 1880. To cover his debts, Mannerheim's father was forced to sell Villnäs and his other landed estates to his sister, as well as his large art collection. Mannerheim's father left his wife (Mannerheim's mother) and moved to Paris with his mistress, becoming a bohemian. He returned to Helsinki and founded the Systema company 1887, and was its manager until his death.

Mannerheim's mother, Countess Hélène, shaken by the bankruptcy and her husband's desertion, took their seven children to live with her aunt Louise at the aunt's estate in Sällvik. Hélène died the following year from a heart attack, caused by her shame and depression. Her death left the children to be brought up by relatives, making Gustaf Mannerheim's maternal uncle, Albert von Julin, his legal guardian.

Because of the worsened family finances and Gustaf Mannerheim's serious discipline problems in school, Albert von Julin decided to send him to the school of the Finnish Cadet Corps in Hamina in 1882 to learn self-discipline (something he excelled in as an adult) and a profession.

Besides his mother tongue, Swedish, Mannerheim would learn to speak Finnish, Russian, French, German and English. However, due to his service in the Russian armed forces from 1887 to 1917, Mannerheim forgot most of the Finnish he had learned as a child, and would have to learn the language again in later life. In fact, he would speak Finnish with a strong accent and, in the Civil War, depended on a translator. He also spoke Polish and Portuguese and understood some Mandarin Chinese.

In his youth, Gustaf Mannerheim also had to learn how to budget and economize, due to his family's worsened financial status. He was humiliated by having to ask his Uncle Albert for money for every small purchase. He was also forced to read his uncle's and other relatives' numerous exhortations to frugality and good conduct. The disciplinary problems continued. Mannerheim heartily disliked the school and the narrow social circles in Hamina. In the end, he rebelled by going on leave without permission in 1886, for which he was expelled from the Finnish Cadet Corps.

As a military career in the Finnish army was closed to Gustaf Mannerheim, the only choice left was a career in the Russian armed forces. Young Gustaf was not averse to this idea. His first choice, while still in the Finnish Cadet Corps, had been to enter the Imperial Page School in St Petersburg. But his report from the Finnish Cadet Corps, with his bad conduct at school, made this impossible.

After spending some time with Albert von Julin's brother-in-law, Edvard Bergenheim, at Kharkov, in modern Ukraine - where he received lessons in Russian - Mannerheim attended the Helsinki Private Lyceum, passing his university entrance examinations in June 1887. Now he had a better school report to show than the one from the Finnish Cadet Corps. He wrote to his godmother, Baroness Alfhild Scalon de Coligny, who had connections at the Russian court, to help him enter the Nicholas Cavalry School. His real wish was to join the Chevalier Guard, but his relatives balked at the costs, so he dropped it. Mannerheim's godmother invited him to her husband's country house, Lukianovka, in the summer of 1887. There Gustaf worked to improve his Russian. While in Russia, he spent some time at a military camp at Chuguyev, which strengthened his decision to choose a career in the military.