28 Södertou fortress BACKGROUND Many people seem to know a little bit about Carl-Göran Persson. Together the stories describe an odd man who took matters into his own hands. He was born in 1894 in a small village in the middle of Skåne called Södertou,1 where he would work as a horse carriage driver for the priest. Regardless of his seemingly safe life in the swedish countryside in the middle of the 20th century, CarlGöran was preoccupied by the tensions that surrounded him, with the United States in the west and the Soviet Union in the east, it was the times of the Cold War. The Swedish relations to the Soviet Union was characterized by the difference in importance for each country. Soviet was Sweden’s largest and in many aspects most important neighbor, and threat both politically and militarily. The same circumstances however did not apply for Soviet, who regarded Sweden as a country of minor importance.2 Nonetheless the Baltic sea was a strategically important area for the Soviet union in many ways. It was regarded as their inner defense area, had a great importance for the submarine fleet and defined the border towards the central parts of Europe. The people of Sweden also felt threatened by Soviets strive to spread communism, though this was not considered as the most urgent threat by the swedish government.
Carl-Göran Persson in his home in Södertou. Copyright: Bengt Rosenhall 4
At these times Carl-Göran got unemployed. The priest had bought a car and no more had anys use of a carriage driver. Since he now had more time on his hands and still felt the threat from the east, he was now able to start building the Södertou fortress, which would be his engagement from the on. It was supposed to protect himself, the villagers and if he would be passing, even the king, from a Russian attack. He started to gather building material, consisting of what he could lay his hands on. Reinforced concrete was a suitable choice. As the fortress grew larger and the rumors about Carl-Göran along with it, the authorities forbade the vendors to sell concrete to Carl-Göran. He was therefore forced to go further and further with his bike. The concrete was reinforced with whatever he could find; bike parts, iron bed frames, milk cans and bread baskets and parts of the second floor was supported by beams made out of rail.5 All of this formed a steady concrete object in the middle of the fields of Skåne, far from politics, war and Russians.
Södertou fortress today.3
81 year old Carl-Göran passed away in 1975, and the farm was demolished, but the fortress is still standing, as is the memory of Carl-Göran himself.
1
Sveriges släktforskarförbund, Sveriges Dödbok 1947-2003, version 3.0, Pub. 2005.
4
2
Utrikesdepartementet, ‘SOU 2002:108 Fred och säkerhet’, Säkerhetspolitiska utredningen, 2001, p. 132, http://www.regeringen.
5
se/content/1/c4/16/35/1cddddce.pdf, (accessed 24 september 2014). 3
F. Linander, Södeto Fortress, Hörby, September 2014.
Bengt Rosenhall, Södertou fortress, February 1970. Copyrighted Material used by permission of the author. C. Ekmark, ‘Regissör ger liv åt man bakom märklig fästning’, Skånskan, 29 November 2013, http://www.skanskan.se/article/20131129/HORBY/131129220/-/regissor-ger-liv-at-man-bakom-markligfastning, (accessed 24 September 2014).