Hjalmar von Bonsdorff (26 November 1869 inHelsinki,Finland – 5 April 1945 inStockholm,Sweden) was a Finnish admiral.[1][2]
Von Bonsdorff's parents were Captain Victor Emil von Bonsdorff and Louise Adelaide Munck.[3] Von Bonsdorff, trained as a naval officer in Saint Petersburg, served in theImperial Russian Navy from 1891 to 1898. After joining the Finnish Maritime Administration, he was the head of its nautical chart department from 1899 to 1904. He participated in theRusso-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 as a commander.[3][4] After that, von Bonsdorff returned to Finland, where he was the head of the Oulu pilotage district and a lieutenant colonel in the Finnish Maritime Administration from 1908 to 1910. After the beginning of the First World War in 1914 he was called back to service and promoted to captain. Among other things, he was responsible for the coastal defense of the mouths and capes of theDanube in theBlack Sea.[3]
After Finland gained its independence, von Bonsdorff was admitted to theFinnish White Army as a colonel.[3] During theFinnish Civil War, he was the Chief of Staff of the Mikkeli White Guard and the Chief of the Savo Front. In the spring of 1918, he was appointed military governor of Åland and acting governor and made the decision to detainLev Kamenev, a Soviet Russian leader who was returning from France.[4] He was tasked with crushing the separatist aspirations of theÅlanders. He received the rank of major general in the same year.[3] In 1919 von Bonsdorff was for some time the Chief of Staff of theFinnish Navy and from March to July the Acting Chief of the Navy.[5] He resigned the same year he received the rank of rear admiral.[4] After that, he mainly focused on running theSöderkulla mansion, which he owned inSipoo. During the Winter and Continuation Wars, he performed special duties from the commander-in-chief, such as awarding honors to the wounded in hospitals.[2]
Von Bonsdorff was known as an open antisemite and fanatical supporter ofNazism. He was a founding member of thePatriotic People's Movement in 1932 and was also a member of the NaziFinnish People's Organisation and for a short time was the editor-in-chief of the Nazi newspaper "For Freedom and Justice" (För frihet och rätt). He was the chairman of the Nazi organization forSwedish speaking Finns, "People's Community Society" (Samfundet Folkgemenskap).[6][1] At the end of theContinuation War, he fled to Sweden in September 1944 and died there the following spring.[2]
Söderkulla in Sipoo has streets named in honor of von Bonsdorff: Amiraalintie and Amiraalinkuja.[6]
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