Helge Jung


Helge Victor Jung was a Swedish Army officer. He was the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces from 1944 to 1951.

Career

Military career

Jung was born on 23 March 1886 in Malmö, Sweden, the son of the headmaster Victor Jung and his wife Maria. He was commissioned into the Swedish Army as a second lieutenant in the South Scanian Infantry Regiment in 1906 and was a cadet officer at the Royal Military Academy from 1919 to 1922. Jung was a teacher of military history together with strategy at the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1926 to 1928. He was the head of the Military History Department of the General Staff in 1928 and was the Head of Department in 1929. Jung became a major in the General Staff in 1928, lieutenant colonel in 1933 and became colonel and commanding officer of the North Scanian Infantry Regiment in 1936.
Jung was chief of the Military Office of the Land Defense from 1936 to 1937, colonel and executive officer of the Life Regiment Grenadiers in 1936 and colonel and Chief of the Army Staff and the General Staff Corps from 1937 to 1940. He became major general of the army in 1938 and was commanding officer of the II Army Division from 1940 to 1942. Jung was then the military commander of the II Military District in 1942 and commanding officer of the IV Military District and was the Commandant General in Stockholm in 1943. He was appointed lieutenant general in 1944 and general in 1944. Jung was the Supreme Commander from 1944 to 1951.

Other works

He was the founder and editor of the Ny militär tidskrift from 1927 to 1930. Jung participated in or was the leader of several research trips for archival studies and battleground studies in Eastern and Central Europe for the General Staff Gustav-Adolfs-verk from 1922 to 1930. He was the Secretary of the Army in the 1930 Defence Commission and in the 1936 Defence Committee.

Personal life

In 1913 he married Ruth Wehtje, the daughter of the deputy district judge Ernst Wehtje and Mimmi Ahnfelt. In 1952 he married Dagmar Bager, the daughter of vice consul John Jeansson and Sigrid Maijström. He was the father of Stig, Karin and Elisabet. Jung died on 3 January 1978 and was buried in Djursholm cemetery.

Opinion

Helge Jung was largely a composite nature. His personality had traits of cunning and tactical calculation, even cynicism, but at the same time there were also clear hint of idealism and unselfish work for the Swedish military strengthening.

Dates of rank

Swedish