Axel Robert Schönthal (12 June 1858 – 10 March 1929) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, known for being the founder and first chairman of the

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Biography

Axel Robert Schönthal was born in

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

to a Swedish-Jewish family, of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n descent, as the son of Moses Moritz Schönthal, the

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

at the local Norrköping Synagogue. At age 20, he moved to

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm. Overview The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wat ...

, a district in the

Stockholm City Centre Stockholm City Centre (''Stockholms innerstad'', ''Innerstaden'', ''Inre staden'') is in Stockholm Municipality, also known as the City of Stockholm, part of the Stockholm urban area in Sweden. Since 2007, Stockholm City Centre has been organize ...

. He studied to become an

and found employment at Stockholms Bomullsspinneri- och Väfveri AB. Throughout his professional career, Schönthal worked as a supervisor at their cotton spinning mill Barnängen.

Founding Hammarby IF

In 1884, Schönthal started to organise rowing competitions in Stockholm, which often drew attendances of some 1,000 people, allegedly drawing inspiration from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

where he had lived for a couple of years in his teens. On 10 April 1889, Schönthal founded Hammarby Roddförening ("Hammarby Rowing Association") in Stockholm together with five other members, and was the inaugural chairman of the club. Originally, it solely competed against other local clubs, with the races usually taking place on the watercourse

Hammarby Sjö Hammarby sjö (Swedish: "Lake Hammarby") is a watercourse in central Stockholm, Sweden. Separating Stockholm City Centre from South Stockholm, or, more locally, Norra Hammarbyhamnen on eastern Södermalm from , it connects Saltsjön to År ...

, which the club took its name from.Persson, p. 17. The club's crest consisted of a white flag with three green horizontal lines. They drew inspiration from two other competing rowing clubs in Stockholm that used two blue respectively two red lines on a white flag, but chose the colour green since it represented hope. The club eventually added a third stripe when it discovered that Göteborgs RF used a similar green-white flag with two stripes. The members exclusively consisted of young men from the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

, employed as industrial workers at one of the many factories in the Södermalm district. In 1891, Schönthal left the chairman position and instead got voted as an honorary member of Hammarby RF. By 1897, the club had diversified into different sports following demands from its members, with the first other being

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

, and it was renamed Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), or Hammarby IF for short.Persson, p. 15-17 The new multi-sport club was officially established on 7 March said year, with Carl Julius Sundholm taking the inaugural chairman position.

Works cited

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schönthal, Axel Robert 1858 births 1929 deaths Swedish Jews Swedish people of German-Jewish descent Swedish engineers Swedish sports executives and administrators Hammarby IF-related people