Albert Ehrensvärd

Albert Ehrensvärd came to diplomacy from law and scholarship. He studied the humanities at Lund before turning to law and completing a doctorate in 1895 on the effect of foreign criminal judgments. He worked in the Svea Court of Appeal and the civil ministry, then became cabinet secretary at the foreign ministry in 1906. Posts in Brussels and The Hague preceded his American mission. ¹

Ehrensvärd represented Sweden at the 1911 Washington conference that revised the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property. He signed the agreement on 2 June. It covered patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. ²

He returned to serve as foreign minister in Karl Staaff's government from 1911 to 1914, then represented Sweden in Bern and in Paris, where he remained from 1918 to 1934. Alongside diplomacy he wrote essays on French literature and history, translated French poetry, and composed poems of his own. After retiring to Lund, he continued publishing historical and political essays, including appeals for Swedish assistance to Finland during the Winter War. ¹