Traveling to Helsingfors

On the evening of February 4, 1876 Gösta left Berlin by train. He stopped in Königsberg to see the city and the university where the philosopher Immanuel Kant had worked, and where Fuchs and other prominent mathematicians had lived. Gösta’s arrival in St. Petersburg had been well prepared in advance, and he was warmly received at the Norwegian-Swedish legation. Baroness af Ugglas’s brother, Oscar Björnstjerna, whom Gösta had met at Lennartsnäs, had left his ministry post and was now the foreign minister in Stockholm. But the new minister, Frederik Georg Due, already counted Gösta among his friends. Everyone was optimistic with regard to Gösta’s chances in Helsingfors. He was invited to a number of parties and dinners hosted by Due and others connected to the Swedish community in the city. They introduced Gösta to their Finnish contacts, including Bernhard Indrenius, formerly vice chancellor at the university, who had a great deal to recount about the conditions in Helsingfors. The fact that Gösta was Swedish would undoubtedly mobilize the nationalistic opposition forces that now marked public life in Finland. However, everyone in St. Petersburg would do what they could to help him, although they also indicated that the person chosen for the professor position would ultimately be decided by the authorities in Helsingfors.