Kulturprosten. Torsten Fogelqvist som DN-publicist och folkbildare

Sammanfattning: The dissertation outlines the ideas behind Torsten Fogelqvist's (1880-1941) ambitions as a publicist for Dagens Nyheter and as a public educator. The study also seeks to do justice to a forgotten, or at least not exhaustively analysed, discussion, during the first four decades of the last century, and deals with education, humanism, modernity, cultural heritage, the role of the press and anti-Nazism. The explanation of Fogelqvist's nickname "the cultural dean" was that his journalism was considered to have an educational element to it, and that he preached a kind of cultural gospel. It was also widely known that he was the son of a priest. Fogelqvist worked to transform the publicist tradition of Dagens Nyheter by giving culture a much more prominent position than before. Their cultural department was improved by his initiative. Fogelqvist left behind around 3,000 articles, of which 2,500 for Dagens Nyheter from 1919 to 1940. Figures which showed sensitivity to the winds of time, as well as idealistic values with a hint of universality, were favoured. He had a preference for words such as "culture", "humanism", "freedom", "personality", "tradition" and "native country". Fogelqvist's cultural involvement in Dagens Nyheter had its prerequisite in his former work as a public educator: publicists and journalists are part of the political and cultural elite who shall act as adversaries against mass suggestion, thereby benefiting the democratic knowledge culture. At the same time, each citizen has the responsibility to participate, for example through the support of self-education which every exemplary newspaper provides. Fogelqvist had a liberal outlook throughout his entire life. However, there was always tension between liberal reformism and conservative traditionalism. His view of freedom was primarily "freedom of the spirit", not material freedom. Development in quantitative utilitarian, economic and technological direction was not a guarantee for the consolidation of spiritual, civilisatory values. The humanistic outlook on life contained a respect for the human and organic growth, which focuses on the link between past, present and future. Fogelqvist admitted that there were risks in an undeveloped democracy, but the intention was not to abolish but to enhance and intensify democracy. The individual's aim of cultivating his/her personality and acquiring a living cultural heritage was thought to be linked with common goals for a better society.