German reacts to Why Didn't the Nazis Invade Sweden?
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- In this video I react to Why Didn't the Nazis Invade Sweden? And I am getting emotional
On my channel I make Sweden Reation Videos, some people also call them Reaction to Sweden Videos or Swedish Reaction Videos. I cover especially Sweden Music Reaction Videos and Swedish Music Reaction Videos as well as Sweden Comedy Reaction Videos. I just love Swedish Comedy Reaction Videos. My favourite Sweden Comedy Reaction Videos are Robert Gustafsson Reaction Videos as well as Björn Gustafsson Reaction Videos. I also like Henrik Dorsin Reaction Videos and Grotesco Reaction Videos. A really warm place in my heart has the Nazisterna Reaction and the Parlamentet Reaction.
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Original Video: • Why Didn't the Nazis I...
0:00 Intro
0:25 Reaction
23:09 Analysis
Norwegian here. First: Our oil wasn't discovered before the late 1960's. When it comes to the trains with the German troops through to the Narvik Front, is an issue that still today is a hurtful wound in our soul. Never mind that, our love for the swedes is strong, and growing.
A Swede here! Sweden has received so much criticism over the years just because we did not choose a side.
But we were surrounded, instead of throwing away lives, we chose another side.
And in the end, it saved lives instead.
How many lives were destroyed with the help of your iron ore? We Finns at least can say "we were surrounded" for real (by Stalin's and Hitler's power game and hundred thousands Soviet troops in the East and a punch of cowards in the West) and we didn't co-operate with nazis for money...
In every other country people that were "surrounded" by Nazis there was resistance, Norwegian, French did well in that... And you? Made business and chilled, smoking cigars and drinking cognac while letting Finns to fight and die as your buffer as always before (Finnish Hakkapeliitta cavalry was the reason you ever got big in Europe).
And nowadays the same, you scream how Finland should hate Russia and poke the bear, while you crouch behind us and continue making money in peace and play your anti-racism theatre (while still thinking Finnish people and especially Finn minority in your country as lower race).
Yea Norwegians and finns and danes had a free haven in Sweden even neighbour countries trained with resistens groups here,and traveled thru borders with swedish people and armys help..
Well this is obviously a convenient rewrite of actual history. The basis for Nazis rhetoric was the basis of Swedish "rasbiology". Studies which outdate the Nazi parties in Germany, especially Uppsala Rasbiologiska institut. So to somehow say "we where surrounded" - the only real enemy Sweden actually had during ww2 was actually Soviet. Germany was not seen as necessarily an enemy, but the Soviet was.
Second, Sweden did choose side but changed side when the nazis where clearly loosing the war. But during this period Sweden sold out both Norway and Denmark by allowing direct collaboration with Nazi germany. This was even seen as necessary as a counterweight to Soviet, especially after the finnish war started.
Finland for instance actively supported the nazis during the war - as they shared a common enemy.
@@sean85ster was commenting about this, to this same spot but channel owner REMOVED my comment... no telling truths about Swedes here... -Finn
@@sean85ster Who is doing the re-write ? If we were such big fans of nazis , why help UK sink the german battleship as early as 1940 when germany had not yet failed anywhere. Again only 200 joined the SS , unlike both Norway and Denmark where several thousands joined them from each.
The biggest problem for Sweden was it had a small military and could not defend itself against the Soviets or Germany. Therefore the only option was diplomatic and giving in to pressure from all sides. Also even if Sweden did not send any troops to Finland so gave Sweden everything they had in material and weapons to Finland. With every military storage was more or less empty, it was not easy to stand up for this or that side with no ammunition or weapons. Say no to the Soviets and you get invaded by the Soviets, Say no to Germany you get invaded by Germany, Say no to US and GB and get invaded by them. It was a lose lose situation and probably a lot of luck Sweden did not get invaded.
It's incredible how well you managed that and its a bit of a shame, that only Switzerland is known for being neutral. But Americans confuse Sweden and Switzerland anyways 😂
Sweden actually did send military to Finland, around 10'000 and even pilots.
But they were not sent by the government but approved and supported by them. So the government could say that no military was sent.
Sweden also smuggled a ship gun that's design was used to stop Germany. It was placed on many US and British ships.
Shared Intel with US and Britain and saved ten of thousands jew from Europe and almost all Jews in Denmark.
This is so true.
For an example Ericsson manufactured and gave the drawings of the m39A automatic weapon to the Germans
Sverige skickade till Finland via transportled med lastbilar över den tillfrusna Bottenviken förde över 25 flygplan, 800 sjöminor och sjunkbomber, 144 artilleripjäser, 100 luftvärnskanoner, 92 pansarvärns-pjäser, 600 stridsvagnsminor, 34 granatkastare, 347 kulsprutor, 450 kulsprutegevär, 135 402 gevär, 301 849 granater och över 51 miljoner gevärspatroner.
dom skickade även svenska tekniker till luftvärn som skjutit ner plan enligt min far
10:40 Norway haven't found the oil field outside their shores back in the 40s. It took many decades after the war until they found their oil fields.
Ah okay, this makes much more sense :) Thank you
It's very cool to see a German speak about how he feels about Germanys past :) Keep it up!
Thank you :)
My great grandfather was one of the swedish volunteers, he died at the age of 108
Great reaction! At the beginning of World War II, Sweden saw the Soviet Union as the greatest threat to the country, but gradually it was replaced by Germany. One reason why the Nazis did not invade Sweden was because they needed the iron ore from Sweden for their weapons production and as long as Sweden agreed to export, it was easier. Because if war broke out, Sweden might blow up the mines or in some other way that caused interruptions in exports.
In Finland they learn Swedish at school and Swedish is Finland's second language.
That makes sense! :)
In Sweden there is a saying thats very powerful. Younger Swedes may not know this. Especially these days it may become important again. Saying goes. "Finlands sak är vår" meaning Finlands cause is our cause. Sweden will allways protect and help our brother country Finland. If you are looking for more reaction videos about this look up Gustaf Mannerheim and how Sweden helped Finland at war times. Cheers from a Swede. @@ChrisSweden
@@evopeter No "Finlands sak" has anything to do with Swedes. Finns have suffered every time you've put your (racist) nose to our lives.
Alot of finns however dont take that very seriously. my finnish side that is from north of Finland is some of them. None of them understand Swedish, except for simple words like "Hej " "Godmorgon" and stuff like that
The Riksdag is the political body, the building is called Riksdagshuset (the house of the Riksdag).
Fun fact when germany marched troops through sweden via rail there was a swedish gun fortress called Boden's fästning that had all her cannons aimed towards the german troops ready to fire in case the germans broke the agreement and ignited a war
Wow okay
Norway had no oil at that time.
Oh I didn't know this😅
I am Schwedisch. And i think Germany been suffering too much. Germany is supporting so many humanity projects thru the time after WWII. It is better to focus of this time. And whole Europe need each other in these times. I been to Germany many times and it is a very nice country, with many lovely people. 😊
I feel like Germany have made up with it's past. Just look on how you are taught about your role in your school system. That could not be said about Japan. There many people think the Japan entered the war after the atomic bombs were dropped. They are not taught about Japans horrible wrong doings during WW2.
Thank you, thats very kind of you. I have to admit, that I am very proud about how Germany behaved after the 40s by founding the EU and bringing Europe together. 😊
Sweden was very close to Germany before the political changes in 1933, it was the second language in favour to learn, everything gravitated towards connections wth Germany.
1933 made it difficult and in some way it split the swedes up. It was problematic to be a friend of Germany but in opposition to the nazi. Early on it wasn't obvious where it all would end. (Like it's not obvious where totalitarianism in our time will end) Autobahn, good stuff. German people brought back to inspiration after the difficulties of the depression, good stuff. Swedes were friends of the German nation and people. The attitude regarding übermensch ideals wasn't isolated to Germany, it was an ideal all over the western world at this time. Germany wasn't doing something different, they were just being effective about it. So there were no reaction to that part.
In fact there are some indications that the blueprints to the extermination camps were made by swedish NSDAP sympathizers that offered land on their estates in southern Sweden for this. They sent the drawings to NSDAP officials in 1934 that replied "Are you guys crazy?!!". The idea was forgotten, but I guess picked up in about 1942 again.
Before the war, Sweden shared the view of the threat from Communism. A swedish policeman were allowed to be a member of a nazi organisation, but not a communistic organisation. Swedish communists were put into KZ-camps or being prohibited from work to prevent sabotage, like the US did with the Japanese.
I think the neutrality was the wish of the majority, it's like looking at two friends having a quarrel, you can't pick sides, you just want it to stop. You have symphaties for all. And this was shared by all nordic countries. When the war was obviously comin, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland declared a neutrality union. It meant that all 4 countries would stay out of whatever would happen in the future, and if one of them were attacked, the other would support. President Roosevelt of USA gave his blessings to this neutrality alliance and thought it was the best move for all of europe.
The German high command making plans for Scandinavia decided on Admiral Dönitz suggestion to leave Scandinavia alone as we would be no problem. Germany trusted the neutrality pact.
Then Soviet declared that they wanted to build bases in Finland, Estonia and Latvia. Estonia and Lavtia know they had nothing to put up against this and accepted but Finland said no. Soviet initiated the winter war. Sweden honoured the neutrality pact by sending half of all our ammunition, rifles, artillery and airplanes to Finland, and arranging for volunteers to go to Finland. Nobody seems to know what Denmark and Norway did to honour the pact.
Then the British wanted to invade Sweden and Norway to control the iron ore, German high command reacted promptly by taking Norway and Denmark to create a lock of the north sea. Swedish import/export now needed a grant to pass from both the British and the Germans, or the ships would be sunk by either party. Thus causing Swedish trade to gravitate towards Germany as there were no where else to go.
Why didn't Sweden help Denmark or Norway when the Germans invaded? Because the pact said that there would be needed a call for help and that the others would respond to it. Denmark capitulated so fast that there was no time, and then developed fast into a model society of an occupied country. After all the cultural bonds were close. The Norwegians resisted and would have had time, but King Håkon took the decision not to call for help from Sweden knowing that we were out of resources from recently helping Finland, and that it wouldn't matter anyway, we coouldn't resist the German war machine anyhow. This way he saved Sweden from being involved. Norwegians still today think we turned our backs to them, but this is what happened. It made it possible for Sweden to be a safe haven for refugees from both Denmark and Norway throughout the war.
After the invasion of Norway and Denmark, Germany demanded things from Sweden "or else". Send more iron ore "or else". Allow for transit of soldiers "or else". At this moment Sweden chose sides, but quietly. Germany demanded to use Swedish telephone lines to Norway "or else". And from day 1 Sweden tapped the phone lines and forwarded all information to the allied forces. Fast smuggler boats delivered ball bearings to the Spitfire engines, we double-played Germany as much as we dared knowing that the German self-appreciation didn't expect this from us, small, insignificant and obediant as we were.
After the war, Admiral Dönitz were recieved by the Swedish Navy and greeted as a hero. It may seem strange but to the swedish command, he saved us from the war in that moment of 1939 where he convinced the German high command to leave Scandinavia out of the plans. It means that the occupation of Denmark and Norway were caused by the British, that didn't respect the neutrality pact of the nordic countries, thereby forcing Germany to make an exception of their plans.
Wow, I didn't know that Sweden was so close to Germany, thanks for clearing that :)
@@ChrisSweden Germany was our role models, we were very much attached to Germany, in so many ways. It was very hard to comprehend what happened in 1933 or foresee what it would end in. Politics got in the way of a fruitful civilian development that had been going on for a long time.
Its one of the few times a hear somebody say Germany is a role model, :) Today Germany sees sweden and the nordic countries in general (altough I heard you have much crime) as a role model in many ways@@falukropp2000
@@ChrisSweden All things are relative. Yes the crime rate is up, but it's still europe, not america. I'd say we had a couple of very calm decades and we're back in the 1980's or early 90's rather than in a disastrous spiral of crime never heard of before. The Nordic countries have many great countries to be inspired of. As mentioned elsewhere, water connects people. We see that Danes and Norwegians take a lot of inspiration from Germany and especially the UK if we look 100-150 years back and up to today. Sweden and Finland, the same thing but other way around. Germany is closer to us because of the Baltic.
Our history with Poland? For a short while we had the same king, Zygmunt Wasa, son of our "country father" Gustaf Wasa. Our history with France? Richelieu paid for our war campaigns during the reformation oddly enough, as a distraction to the world while France looted Italy. The 18th century saw us very inspired by France, after the revolution we turned to the UK, but from say after mid 1800's Germany was again the source to culture, technology, philosophy etc, the bright star on our heaven until the disastrous events in the 1930's and 40's. We have strong bonds through centuries with nobles and royals, affecting the politics and focus of development. Vorpommern with Rügen, Stralsund and Stettin belonged to Sweden 1648-1815, just like Bremen-Verden in Niedersachsen, and Wismar. Rostock was Swedish until 1903! Kaiser Wilhelm II thought it would be a good idea for us to return it by then, and we couldn't agree more (not the kind of guy you want any problems with).
As you can see, our bonds go very far back, all the way to the Hansa in Lübeck and the Deutsche Orden.
@@falukropp2000 First I must commend you on your knowledge of the history of Swedens possessions in northern modern day Germany but this would not be the internet if there was not one thing I think needs clarification. Sweden did not rule or control Rostock until 1903. Sweden had to give up all its territory in Germany already in 1814 BUT, for some weird reason, it still had the legal right to buy back some of it IF Sweden was prepared to put up the money needed. Luckily by 1903 the Swedish government, and the King, realized that it might not be such a good idea to try to force the new German Empire to hand over part of its territory to Sweden. After all we are talking about the early 20th century, ten years before WW1 when nationalism was at an all time high. Demanding to get that land back, even if you pay for it , would have meant war with Germany.
Country's neutrality means that the country isn't formally part of any alliance. It doesn't mean that country doesn't informally take sides and interact with other countries according to its own interests, like also Sweden did. Also, alliances are formed and ended accordingly: "Visiting Vesikko: Tour through a World War 2 Submarine", "Molotov, Ribbentrop and Hitler - November 12, 1940" and "A Soviet-Nazi Alliance - The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1939 Part 2 of 3". One interest Sweden had in Finland was that Arctic Truck Road through the northern Finland; the only available trade rout to West: "Sympathy For Finland (1939)", "Talvisota- The Winter War ([Rare video] Friends of Finland)", "Sir Winston Churchill - Everyone can see how Communism rots the soul of a nation - 20 January 1940", "Sweden's only road west - World War II documentary", "Field Marshal Mannerheim | Speech to the Swedish Volunteers | Finnish Winter War 1940" and "TVV Channel Finland SALLAN TAISTELUT". Some other relating videos, which might raise some thoughts also in a German viewer: "FAA Raid Petsamo", "British Movietone Lease-Lend To Russia", "Karelia - Historical province of Finland", "Sweden in World War 2 - Operation Stella Polaris", "Strangers in a Stranger Land: Finland's Jewish Soldiers in WWII", "Sota-ajan värifilmit - harvinainen väriotos talvisodan evakoista ja Kaleva -koneesta -41", "Lappland War fighting filmed in Tornio", "Finland: Forgotten children of German soldiers | Focus on Europe" and "1952 - Cold War Related News 220293-01 | Footage Farm". Norway hit oil in 1969. Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric family of languages. When Finland was the eastern part of Sweden, Swedish was the main language of jurisdiction, administration and higher education in Finland, but the majority of the Finnish population spoke Finnish outside of these sectors of society. There are lot of loan words from Swedish though. Nowadays 5,2 percent speak Swedish as their first language in Finland.
Riksdagen (Riksdagsledamöter) are the people. Riksdagshuset is the building.
Its so nice that swedish is so close to german. I mean I can easily translate that to Reichstagshaus so House of the Riksdag.You even have the same possesive "s" at the end of "dag", like we have. I don't know why, but it feels so rewarding, when you can understand some words of a language you never learned 😊
@weden The German Reichstag only became the Bundestag with the formation of the Bundesrepublik after WWII, obviously. Sweden has kept the same shared name for both the public representation and the building.
the did forget to add the fact that sweden was a hub for spies were they could rest and share information with eacher before heading out on new missions
10:55 No oil had been discovered in Norway during this time.
While Finland belonged to Sweden for about 500 years, the Finnish language existed long before Swedish influence over the region.
However, there’s a sizable minority of Swedish speakers in Finland, primarily along the coast. Then there’s the autonomous region of Åland, where the people basically only speak Swedish.
Basically, the reason we managed to hold onto Finland was due to Feudalism. People didn’t care as much what nationality the king was from, so long as the king upheld a certain standard of living for the people that ’mattered’.
Honestly, had Russia not split Finland away from Sweden, I have a feeling that the Finns themselves would’ve gained independence through pressuring the Swedish government, or through a revolution.
Nationalism is just too strong a force in the modern era.
I have a feeling that it would just have led to a long love/hate relationship between the Swedes and Finns if the country had sticked togheter. Had Sweden launched a campaign to convert Finland to Swedish culture in the 1700s, then maybe things could have been very different, but instead did our nobility prefer to start stupid catastrophic wars against Russia and Germany instead.
I guess that the relationship between Sweden and Finland could had become toxic, like that between Slavs and Austrians in the Austro-Hungrian empire. The only thing that held that old rotten empire togheter was the loyalty to the emperor and the threat from a common enemy (the Ottoman empire). When the threat from the Ottoman empire dissapeared did the slavs see less and less reason to stay loyal behind the Austrians so they could get their help and protection against the Ottomans so their own tiny kingdoms could keep their independence from the Turks. So many countries on the Balkans became more eager for independence. And likewise do I think that the common threat from Russia could have made many Finns eager to not cut all ties with Sweden so they could get help against Russia.
Finland belonged to Sweden for 700 years. It was a peaceful conquest and the Finns got everything from Sweden - their culture, religion, laws, their school system, their military, their monetary and economic policy.. everything. But they kept their own language and that is the reason why Finland and Sweden are separate countries today.
I think both Finland and Sweden benifitted from this union, as both each made each other stronger. Without Swedens military muscles would Finland not exist today. That place on the map would have been called russia today, and been filled with russian speakers.. as russia would have conquered that area and forced everyone to into russification.
So the finns have good reason to feel grateful to Sweden. But we Swedes have been lucky that we had a shield in the east that for the most time protected Sweden from the worst russian autrocities from their wars of aggression for the last 1000 years of war.
Hi Chris (Finland did belong to Sweden from about the year 1250 - to almost 1810) and yes - U right when thinking about that, Finland should at least have Germanic talking etc... The thing is that Sweden never tried to "forced" Swedish language on the Finnish people or adapt them to become "anything else". in the 14th century, when there were important gatherings in the kingdom, the Finns sent their delegations from Finland, and when they came to the gathering, there were always interpreters/translator who could tell/translate what was said and decided for the good of the kingdom/kingdoms. (important to know is that there was still not a whole area called Sweden yet.) Anyway, it did work for centuries, even if both our countries have nothing in common, when it comes to background, language culture etc. But it did work! No uprisings, no revolutions, and no oppression or unnecessary violence from the ruling elite. (I have been thinking for myself many times how this was even possible (I'm Swedish myself). My best friend is of Finnish heritage. We have known each other since kindergarten.
Many have said it in other words but; the biggest benefit of neutrality is that you have no enemies. The greatest threat of neutrality is that you have no allies. Do you shoot at everyone or do you shake everybody's hand? Neutrality is a solution and a problem, and only your surroundings and your own readiness, if you have the ability to create it, will affect if and how the scales tip. Nothing happens in a vacuum. The actions of both the Allies and the Axis affected the countries that tried to stay neutral. Regardless of what their actions were. At the end of the day, as a neutral party, if someone suddenly considers you an enemy, you have no allies to rely on. (As you pointed to in the early part of the video.) If someone asks you to be their ally, you suddenly have to figure out what's going to happen in the future and if you, personally, can afford the cost in the now or the censure you'll face in the future for refusing. Neutrality is one of the most dangerous and difficult games you can play because it deals with two sets of the unknown; the present and the future. The stakes are extremely high and utterly uncertain.
About your closing thoughts; it's completely understandable, being unsure how to feel in such a situation. It's a weird sort of middle ground that's difficult to maneuver emotionally and logically. You're doing well though!
Thank you :)
Language differences was not seen as a barrier for the unity of Sweden and Finland, the latter which was simply the name of the eastern part of Sweden for 700 years. Finland was never its own country; it simply melted into Sweden rather seamlessly, despite the language barrier. Only in the 1800's with the rise of nationalism and uniform states, it began to be considered important to have a shared language. But by then we'd lost Finland anyway 🤷♂️
Interesting, so there were no real civil wars for independence?
@@ChrisSweden Russia is the reason that Sweden and Finland are separate countries today. Not to say that it could never have happened otherwise, but for the sake of argument lets say it would be so.
Sweden lost a war against Russia, and Russia occupied the area which is today known as Finland. They brutalized the population and told them that they were now subjects of the Russian Empire and their Tzar. The Finns could do nothing but comply.
Sweden was weak after this war and the newly appointed king refused to try and take Finland back, instead, because Sweden was on the right side (against Napoleon) Sweden gained Norway, which was at the time the territory of Denmark.
As a side note, there would be a short war of independence later between Norway and Sweden, but instead of beating them down, the Swedes accepted that they wanted to be independent and let them (this was in 1905).
So, to answer your question: Sweden and Finland have never been at war against each other. This is because Finland (as it is today) didn't exist until after Finland stopped being a part of Sweden (in 1809). The area of todays Finland was just called "Eastland", and was as much a part of the Swedish kingdom as any other part of Sweden proper is today. It was a national tragedy when the Russians split our country. Still, there are few nations today that sport such friendly and trusting relations as Sweden and Finland have. No doubt because of our long and shared history, and our many wars against the Ruskies.
@@vicolin6126 It should be noted that during the 1808-09 war a number of Finnish noblemen conspired against Sweden, believing they could get a better deal from the Tsar than the weak Swedish king Gustav IV. Indeed Finland was not absorbed into Russia but rather ruled as a separate dukedom with the Tsar as grand Duke. It retained Swedish law and only during the late 1800s did Russification start in earnest, which was not popular.
There are no reliable sources that there was ever a "civil war", there are unconfirmed Finnish records stating this. There are reliable sources in Sweden that state that there were three or four large groups in the interior of Finland fighting for "power" in today's areas of Finland. Sweden began to create settlements along the Finnish coastal strip of today's Finland. The reason was increased population in Sweden and access to new arable land. Through our contacts with the population in the areas, Sweden offers these areas the opportunity to be admitted under the Swedish common language and law. The language is Swedish as it is through a common language that all citizens have the opportunity to influence direction and development. For example, "Finland" kept its constitution far longer than Sweden did at the beginning of the 20th century, Sweden made major changes in its own constitution so did Finland during the 18th century and onwards, for example women's right to vote, etc. Many Finns changed their name to a more Swedishized name and many of those surnames still survive today in both Finland and Sweden.
Finland has chosen to keep Swedish and Finnish as languages in its school system. Some Finns consider that this with have to learn Swedish is a compulsion, but not a "compulsion" that comes from Swedish pressure. Sweden and Finland have had a common government for many years and Finland has long been an independent state, where citizens between countries still have a lot of common ground and cooperation. If Sweden did not lose the war against Russia, it is mostly likely that today's Finland had not been given independence by Sweden, as there are many mineral arable lands in Finland that were important resources for the Kingdom of Sweden, for example during our Great Power era.
As a Swede, I am happy that Finland is an independent state and that we as states have maintained close cooperation between our elected representatives. If you ask me as a post-war child, which of my neighbors do I find the most community with. My answer will always be Finland over Norway and Denmark. However, these four countries (Swe,Fin,Nor and Den) have a lot of common history, e.i. Norway named their parade street in Olso after a Swedish King "Karl Johans gate". The name is meant as a tribute from the Norwegians to Sweden. In Sweden, it is unusual to name streets after kings or queens, more common with constellations e.i. I don't think there is a street named after Christian II, as he is called Kristian Tyrann in Sweden, which comes from an event known as the Stockholm bloodbath 7 to 9 November 1520. As far as I know, Christian II is loved and celebrated in Denmark , not so much in Sweden from this event in our common history. The common History of these countries is a fantastic subject and is all too rarely taught or communicated in the media today. Thank god for social media
Norwegian oil weren't discovered and exploited until the 1970's. German oil came from Romania and Baku
You are really an expert in History 😊
The oilfields outside Norwegian cost didn't exist att the time. Much later discovery.
Thanx for a good reaction video. best way to avoid making mistakes is to learn from the past mistakes. No nation or person is perfect.I will most certainly subscribe. Vielen Dank
Thank you :) I totally agree on that :)
@@ChrisSweden Ps I had a great time on my trips to Germany. learned from that more than from school and books.Thinking Germany is doing the best it can to deal with it´s past and moving forward.
This is off topic but I was looking at Catan sitting on the bookcase a lot watching this video. Games like Catan came to be because of postwar Germans wanting games without direct conflict and warfare.
Back in those days, the monarchy still had some sway legally (being able to veto law proposals and such), but was mostly a figurehead.
Many modern day European monarchies still have such systems in place today, although in practice, these powers are never used in said countries.
Either way, probably in part due to the King’s use of his remaining powers during WW2, basically all of his non-ceremonial powers were revoked in a series of constitutional reforms in the 70s.
The left wing actually wanted to make Sweden a republic, and the right wing wanted to keep the system as it was, so the current fully ceremonial monarchy was a compromise between the two sides.
Technically, the Social Democratic party still wants to make Sweden a republic today, but in practice, enough of the party’s members are satisfied enough with the compromise that they don’t care either way, making it a non-issue today. Plus, the monarchy is surprisingly popular even among left wing centrist voters.
How long of an answer do you want? The short and extremely simplified version is that the country sold materiel to both sides but supported Finland, which fought against the Soviet Union. You can get the longer answer from Aron Flam and his "A Swedish Tiger".
After WW 2, the Soviet Union and England were very angry with Sweden.
Sweden had close cooperation with Germany during much of WW 2. No joke.
We were scared off both but my grandpa who was a pilot was in south off sweden near denmark so he was focused on hitler
Sweden is a parlamentarian democracy and a constitutional monarchy with the monarch as the head of state.
Other countries that declared themselves neutral in 1939 were Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg as well as Switzerland and Ireland. Neutrality was not a guarantee of not being invaded so Sweden felt it had to avoid angering Germany. Hitler used this threat on many occasions to get what he wanted.
I think you balanced the superpowers very well, because as we say in Belgium or Norway its pretty difficult to not get occupied.
An interesting detail to add is when the Finns asked for help from Sweden in 1939, the Germans had indicated to Sweden that they would not accept Swedish military support to Finland, but to the Finns they said that they had no problem if the Swedes wanted to do that. The Germans did this in order to support their allies in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and it caused the Finns to believe that the Swedes were lying when they heard this. This caused some confusion with the Finns but they just assumed the Swedes needed some extra justification to deny the request for military support and it did not have a large impact on the relationship.
Finland was actually a part of Sweden for 700 years.
Thats crazy
Finland didn't belong to Sweden it was the eastern part of Sweden and in that part most people spoke Finnish and the preasts preached in Finnish unless it was a Swedish speaking part of Finland. To get a higher education you had to be able to speak Swedish. This thing that one contry has one language didn't become a common idea until the eighteen hundreds.
Riksdag = parlament "bundestag" and Sweden had a unity government during the war except for the communists, the king didn't have any power, he could threaten to resign, which the government did not want him to do.
No Norwegian oil during WWII. That came much later.
If I can give some reconcile, at the the the germans did a ton of attrocities and I can't even imagine what it feels for a modern german that 'my people did this'. However, eugenics and forced sterilizaction of people with 'unwanted traits' really took off in sweden after the end of the war. Are we any better?
It's diffcult, atleast if you think you are responsible, I dont think that, altough I feel sorry for what happend (Idk if it is the same in English, but I feel sorry = I feel sad that it happend). I have also a polish channel, were we talk much more about the war, so if you are interested, maybe you want to check it out.
What is actually hard and this is only there since I reacted to Polish stuff, is that many polish people make me responsible and are hostile to me because I am German and they need a place for their hate and frustrations. That is hard, because you get so tired, if you explain something for the 100th time and already another harmful comment pops up. Dont get me wrong, many poles are very appreciative about my content, but also many are not.(most viewers don't see the most harmful stuff, because I delete them, before they can see it).
Germans don't have much National pride and you are quickly put into a corner if you say that you are proud of Germany (what I am but only from the 50s on). I could talk for hours about that 😂
@@ChrisSweden Every country is more than their political affairs, it is tradition, mentality, achievements through history. Every citizen of any country have a right to be proud of the history of the country, because it's more than it's wars and politicians. It's what brings any country back on it's feet after being knocked down by bad politics and war orchestrated by those in power acting on other interest than the wellbeing of the country. It's what can't be erased even through the misery brought on us by those who destroys our world for their own gain, whoever they are in any given moment.
Alot of Finnish people learn swedish in school even today
Finland was part of Sweden for almost 700 years from around 1150 until the Finnish War of 1809.
This raises even more questionmarks why the languages are so different
@@ChrisSweden It goes back many thousands of years, to when the nordic area became populated after the ice age. One stream of people came from the west, over Denmark, and one came up the east side of the Baltic sea. They met at about the center of Sweden and could co-exist. In these years water was connecting people while land isolated them. The high mountains of Scandinavia divided people into later days Norway/Sweden (simplified explanation) while people at the coast of the Baltic sea were connected across water, even though the languages were different. The oldest historical records that mentions kingdoms rather than tribal conglomerates mention all of the Swedish east coast and Finnish Baltic coast as "one country". The first reliable and complete maps are drawn after that Danish king Valdemar Atterdag occupies southernmost Sweden in the 14th century, the Skåne region (which we took back in the 17th century).
Finland was the name of one of the eastern counties of Sweden, today Åbo/Turku area. Napoleon wanted to make sure Sweden were incapacitated and offered Tsar Peter peace with France if he neutralized Sweden "for good". He did it by capturing the eastern half of Sweden, and made it into the Russian enclave Duchy of Finland in 1809. This weakened Sweden in such a way that we were no longer a force to be counted upon, very much like the reason for the division of Germany into east and west after WW2. It means that before 1809, Sweden was a country of two languages, which was spoken in both east and west. When the Duchy of Finland revolted in the 1917 turbulence and became the independent nation of Suomi/Finland, the present situation becomes the "normal".
Google for "Carta Marina" of 1539 and you can see the Swedish eastern border towards the Moscovites going east of the Karelia region.
@@ChrisSweden Slavic (Russia & Poland-Lituania) divided the tribes that settled in Finland + Estonia from those in Hungary. A Finn and a Hunn can understand eachother about as well as a German and a Swede. Another interesting thing I noted is the Estonian national anthem is essentially the same as the Finnish, and that song has Swedish lyrics too and is sung in Sweden on our Kings coronations. If Sweden would have supported Germany in operation Barbarossa, maybe Leningrad could have been reclaimed.
A more fun think about Sweden is the youth culture around the EPA-traktor. Kids from 15 years old can drive this slow moving car on the road. It has evolved to a youth culture around these EPA-traktors with it's own music called EPA-dunk This is a link to video made by a German explaining the history of how and why this is a thing in Sweden and only in Sweden. czcams.com/video/dkpVglZfeF8/video.html and a lonk to a clip from DW doing a report intervjuing and riding with young people that are part of this culture czcams.com/video/LZpVwP7Qhg0/video.html
Wow thats cool, is it really big in sweden or only in some regions? :)
It has never been as popular as it is now. It's mostly popular in small towns with less train and busses.
Its a bit complicated. Effectively in 1939 Sweden had sort of 3 sides in the government. The VPK party that sided with USSR, the H and FP party that sided with UK and S and C sort of kind of sided with Germany.. but not quite. They was say at early stages of the war kind of luke warm to USSR. It wasn´t like they sided with USSR, but they didn´t want to sort of upset them.
During the year 1936 to 1940 S and C governed and. When the Ribbentrop act was signed, and USSR invaded Finland S and C wasn´t that keen on heaping. They really didn´t care for UK and they lets say, didn´t want to make Germany or USSR upset. While H and FP really wanted to help. At this point the two government party had a really dominating post in the parliament and eventually they agreed on volentares only.
In 1940 the was a election. The result as a single party majority, that during this time was a really poor result. The reason for it was that it might destabilize the country. As a compromise C as well as H and FP (but not VPK) was invited to sit in the government on a representative footing. Its worth saying that the invasion of Norway happens prior to the cross party government. S and C was still bias towards Germany at this point.
When the cross party was formed it invasion of USSR happened quite soon after and the Finish continuation war. At this time S and C sided mostly with Germany, while H and FP still sided with UK. Now it so happen in the continuation war the script was sort of flipped.
When Finland was invaded in 1939 Finland was (at least verbally) supported by UK. Finland was in effect in the western side. Despite that Finland took help from Germany to kick USSR out. This fitted the then new Swedish government well while H and FP supported Finland, S and C still supported, or at least aliened with Germany. As a sort of both sides get there way . H and FP got to send Swedish troops to Finland while S and C got to transfer German troops and equipment to Finland. Its worth saying this all happened after the invasion of Norway.
The idea that Germany would have invaded Sweden else-wise is really BS. There was not capacity of that after operation Barbarossa. On the contrary. Sweden transferring German troops to Finland actually freed up German logistics support for the rest of the front.
While Sweden really could not do much for Denmark (apart supporting Denmark under ground that was done) and could do very little for Norway at this point. Norway was backstabbed by Sweden with the C+S government only. When it came to Finland, this was probobly the best solution.
But, this was not quite the only thing that happened. Sweden was trading with both Germany and UK for the full duration of the war. Trade was a bit hampered by access with UK. And for USSR, Sweden was kind of sort of n a war with USSR. So trading with Germany was kind of necessary.
Here is the part that is not that well known. Sweden traded with Germany on German credits. This wasn´t a good deal because those would never be payed back. As well Sweden produced equipment for Germany during the war. This was done covertly. IN fact so covertly that not all of the government know about it. This was done really mostly by the S and C in the government giving Germany a leg up in the war and prolonging the conflict. (at the late stage of the war, some of the credit was actually payed back as license and machine tools. This was primarily done for Sweden to produce German equipment in Sweden to shield them from allied bombing, but the war ended very close after and very little or no equipment was actually sent back)
The kicked is that the C and S party still exist, and the H and FP is renamed as M and L. The C and S party spend all day every day calling M and L Nazis.
Norwegian king Olav had problems with Sweden rest of his life after the war…
Because the swedes didn't help him?
@@ChrisSwedenyes, his wiife that was a Swedish princess had to escape to the US because she wast allowed to stay in Sweden during war. Olav lived in London with our government in exile
It was at a time there I not even was born, but yes.. our goverment did what they could.. I presume?
They say we was cowards.. its not dficult to understand when one is military week, and dependent on Germany in trade!
And even our elit was divided between german and anglosaxon wiev of future europe!
Its one thing that bother me most and that is that Denmark and Norway was occupied becuse Germany needed to secure Swedish iron ore frome Narvik!
You didn't say it in particular but I read between the lines (and please correct me, if I am wrong) that there is criticism about how Sweden handled the Situation?
Sweden saw a greater enemy in russia and cccp and was preperad to deal with Mephisto, so they were pragmatic and sold iron ore etc to both the UK and Germany. They followed Odin the highs advice in Havamal and "rewarded treachery with lies". I am not sure this was what they intended. But it turned out that way.
the rikstag in sweden is the government butt you can cal the bilding ther the riksdag sitts in the rikstad
This is amazingly good video about early Finnish history and relationship with Sweden (and Russia). This is rare finding as it doesn't follow the "official" history narrative written by Swedes & the rest of the West but presents things pretty truthfully from the Finn perspective. Also well edited, pleasure to watch (every Finnish word correct, you don't see that often). czcams.com/video/wd6Oyw8KB6E/video.html
Okay, thanks for the recommendation😊, I don't know if I will cover this on this channel, because I am not sure, if I want to focus this channel only on sweden or also on other nordic countries, at this video is mostly about finland I guess, but I will put it on my list 😊
We let the Nazis run trains through Sweden with a gun to our head. But at the same time Sweden became a sanctuary for resistance fighters who could come to Sweden. Watch the movie Max Manus about the famous Norwegian freedom fighter.
Try to teach Finnish people Swedish without a vast network of schools and infrastructure. They even have trouble now. With internet...
Norway discovered oil in 1969
It was a good question there about monarchy or democracy. Gustav V were the last king of the kings that had any political power. He and the farmers of Sweden did not want the monarchy to go. But Gustav V saw what happened in Russia with the tsar family and became worried so the social democrats and the liberals made a deal with him. The monarchy was safe and the democracy building project could continue.
Switzerland was also neutral but helped germany
Interesting, I always thought they were afraid from Germany and hided (is this the right past tense😂) in the mountains
Also, Germany stole the Czech tanks we had ordered so we were very weak. Pz35(t) and Pz38(t)
Yeah it was probably not the smartest move to order them in one of Hitlers most favoured territories🤔
Finnish is the language of Finland cause thats the peoples language. The same way for example conquered and colonized african nations have their own language even though during and after European rule it was European languages that was the government languages of the colonies, swedish was the government language of Finland until and a while after Sweden had to give up Finland to Russia.
And the norwegian oilfields weren't discovered until the late 1960's.
I think Sweden's policy at that time, was very impressive. Tough times called for tough decisions. Sweden should not be judged just for having a choice and making good decisions.
Very interesting.😊
Thats exactly what I think as well :)
I have always wondered about German school system. How do they teach history? Especially WW1 and WW2. Do they you know, tune it down a bit or is it cold hard facts like "yepp we murdered 6 million jews"?
Collaboration…
The Swiss helped more and the Ford company even more.
Oh really? I didnt know that, I thought the swiss protected theriselfs in the mountains
@@ChrisSweden I"n 1999 an international panel of historians declared that Switzerland was "guilty of acting as an accomplice to the Holocaust when it refused to accept many thousands of fleeing Jews, and instead sent them back to almost certain annihilation at the hands of the Nazis." They also helped the German government with transferring confiscated funds and goldfrom Jewish people, acting as money launderers.
SKF?
Really nice reaction video. I enjoyed watching
I would recommend the two part video of ”The Swedish Bomb - the bomb in stockholm’s basement”
czcams.com/video/0t4H0-Zb53Y/video.htmlsi=1qcLnUJ8yI7gz8Dy
As a Swede, those facts are well known. Not from school, you have to search for it. It is a shame , we cant blame on a weak army ,Norway for example had pretty much nothing but still did fight, Denmark did surrender, on the paper , but the citizens still did fight. If you as Swedish citizen did fight open against Germany, or did help the allied ...well
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_camps_in_Sweden_during_World_War_II
We should of course, fight side by side whit Norway, Denmark, and help Finland way better . And Sweden..did take help from the Marshall Plan. I don't know why , we did sell guns to England..iron ore and ball bearings to Nazi-Germany. If you ask me, was Sweden a part of the axis forces...i can only say , Yes we was .
You can only say that? Then, you're not paying any attention at all I'm afraid. The only opinion that makes any form of sense is to not view the swedes with one or the other side. It's clearly a struggle to keep face with several fronts. How that is "siding with the axis", only you can answer, and you haven't. You've basically just said that if you're a child with a wooden rifle, you should still try to strike the giant hairy man with an AK-47, lest you're "axis"... Bad take.
@@Bloink You defend the famous double standard Sweden did have in WW2 or as Churchill did say :
According to Winston Churchill, during the war Sweden ignored the greater moral issues and played both sides for profit . We did not give a damn ,if some countries did have to face the Axis whit wooden gun ....the lack of moral , was detestable. It was a World War ..and you talk about the fronts ? that we never had . And if you think that diplomacy..is a war , think again.
We will learn very fast , that we have to make a stand , get enemies..it will be a rude awakening, but we need it ...and it means that we at least did something.
Social demokrats let Nazist came by train in the, giong up to the north for iron ore...🇸🇪
Russia has always and will always be Sweden's primary enemy, though with their recent quite pathetic attempt i think that we don't have to worry in the near future.
We're also basically an American protectorate these days, meaning they have partial rule and protect us from foreign aggression. Even before we joined NATO we had separate agreements with the US to place troops and bases here.
just do the math m8 sweden were and still are a neutral country so we do not choose sides!!:(
I don't understand how you as a german could be happy when your country were the ones who were invading other innocent countries who just want to be left alone? I mean it's like thinking Russia is the good guys for invading Ukraine? Glad to hear that you are sorry for the holocaust though. It's not your fault for the nazis but i do think you know what i mean. If my country Sweden would invade another country i wouldn't be cheering for Sweden. But i'm certain that Sweden would never invade any other countries just defending ourselves. In the 2nd world war Sweden also helped Finland with aeroplanes and pilots against the russians among several other things.
I think I expressed myself in a misleading way. I never said that I want Germany to attack anyone, but in the first milliseconds when you see such cards or representations, you automatically go for your country, until after a second you realize, wait a second, we are the bad guys. I never think to myself, let's go Germany conquer someone else, my cheering in the video was meant as an illustration of the soccer game that I brought as an example and was meant as an exaggerated representation of the first intention that you always have in the first moment when your own country participates in something.
Of course, as a German, you have mixed feelings because ancestors/relatives are fighting on one side and people who should not be conquered on the other. You want Germany to lose, but you also don't want many people to die, you just want peace.
Ok, then i see what you mean. I'm sorry that i miss judged you wrong. You seems to be a very kind person. Germany is a good country today and of course you should cheer for Germany in sports and other things. Personally i liked Angela Merkel. I have been to Berlin once and it was a very nice city with lots of history, good and bad. I'm a drummer myself and plays on a very high quality kit called Sonor and it's made in Germany. In the future i hope that Sweden and Germany always will have good relations with eachother. I hope that i didn't offend you. Good luck in the future!
Don't worry, we are both communicating in a language that isnt our native one so misunderstandings are normal, its important to listen to each other and to solve the misunderstanding and thats exactly what you did, so great job 😊👍🏻@@robertjonsson5750
Sweden did help overthrow Khadaffi in 2011 because of his threat to sell oil for gold instead of dollar. Be certain that we are no better than any other country.