Vårt större fädernesland – Paneuropa i Tidevarvet och svensk debatt 1924–1936

Sammanfattning: This is a reception study on how the idea of Paneuropa, as launched by the austrian count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi in 1923, was received by the political weekly magazine Tidevarvet, a product of – and an opinion forming organ for – the social liberal wing of the Swedish suffrage- and peace movements. The main purpose is to examine to what extent there was an existent Europeanism in the public debate in Sweden during the interwar period, and how that discourse was constructed through the conceptual pairings disruption/unity and parts/whole. The study is conducted mainly through discourse analysis, combined with partly new research into sources such as the parliament, the newspapers and civil society to try to initiate a mapping over the wider reception of the Paneuropa project in a Swedish context. The study finds that the subject of Paneuropa is present throughout the almost entire period of the publication, namely 1924–1936, and that the question of a federal Europe is closely connected to the pacifist attitude of the editorial staff in general and writer/editor Elin Wägner in particular. The study shows that the concept of Paneuropa is presented in three thematically different phases: the future – connected to a sense of idealism, the now – connected to a sense of political change, and the past – connected to a sense of disbelief and disappointment. Furthermore, the analysis conveys that Tidevarvet perceives Paneuropa as one of the most promising unifying movements of its time, due to its perceived ability to achieve peace in Europe, and when signs of the opposite appear, there is a decrease in interest towards the concept. The study concludes that there was a period of Europeanism in parts of the Swedish public from the mid-1920s and throughout the mid-1930s, and that Tidevarvet was one of the most prolific opinionators.