Place:Tampere, Häme, Finland

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Tampere (,^[1][2][3] ;  ; ^[4]) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries.^[5] It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population of 341,696;^[6] and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, has a population of 393,941 in an area of .^[7] Tampere is the second-largest urban area^[8] and third most-populous individual municipality in Finland, after the cities of Helsinki and Espoo, and the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area.^[5] Today, Tampere is one of the major urban, economic, and cultural hubs in the whole inland region.^[9]

Tampere and its environs belong to the historical province of Satakunta. The area belonged to the Tavastia Province from 1831 to 1997, and over time it has often been considered to belong to Tavastia as a province. For example, in Uusi tietosanakirja published in the 1960s, the Tampere region is presented as part of the then Tavastia Province. Around the 1950s, Tampere and its surroundings began to establish itself as their own province of Pirkanmaa. Tampere became the center of Pirkanmaa, and in the early days of the province, Tammermaa was also used several times in its early days - for example, in the Suomi-käsikirja published in 1968.^[10] Tampere is wedged between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi.^[11] Since the two lakes differ in level by , the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity.^[12] Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of the North" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse"^[13] and terms such as "Manserock".^[14][15][16] Also, Tampere has been officially declared the "Sauna Capital of the World", because it has the most public saunas in the world.^{[5][17][18][19][20]}

Helsinki is approximately south of Tampere, and can be reached in 1 hour 31 minutes by Pendolino high-speed rail service^[21] and 2 hours by car. The distance to Turku is roughly the same. Tampere–Pirkkala Airport is Finland's eighth-busiest airport, with over 230,000 passengers in 2017.^[22] Tampere also serves as an important transit route for three Finnish highways: Highway 3 (E12), Highway 9 (E63) and Highway 12.

Tampere ranked 26th in the list of 446 cities in the world's hipster cities,^[23] and it has often been rated as the most popular city in Finland.^[24][25][26] The positive development of Tampere and the Tampere metropolitan area has continued throughout the 21st century, which is largely due to Tampere being one of the most migratory and attractive cities in Finland.^[25][27][28]

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early history

The earliest known permanent settlements around Tammerkoski were established in 7th century, when settlers from the west of the region started farming land in Takahuhti.^[29] The area was largely inhabited by the Tavastian tribes.^[30] For many centuries, the population remained low. By the 16th century, the villages of Messukylä and Takahuhti had grown to be the largest settlements in the region. Other villages nearby were Laiskola, Pyynikkälä and Hatanpää.^[29] At that time, there had been a market place in the Pispala area for centuries, where the bourgeoisies from Turku in particular traded.^[31] In 1638, Governor-General Per Brahe the Younger ordered that two markets be held in Tammerkoski each year, the autumn market on every Peter's Day in August and the winter market on Mati Day in February. In 1708 the market was moved from the edge of Tammerkoski to Harju and from there in 1758 to Pispala.^[32] The early industries in the Pirkanmaa region in the 17th century were mainly watermills and sawmills, while in the 18th century other production began to emerge, as several small-scale ironworks, Tammerkoski distillery and Otavala spinning school were founded.^[33]

The birth and industrialization of the city

Before the birth of the city of Tampere, its neighboring municipality of Pirkkala (according to which the current Pirkanmaa region got its name) was the most administratively significant parish in the area throughout the Middle Ages.^[34] This all changed in the 18th century when Erik Edner, a Finnish pastor,^[35] proposed the establishment of a city of Tampere on the banks of the Tammerkoski channel in 1771–1772;^[36] it was officially founded as a market place in 1775 by Gustav III of Sweden and four years later, 1 October 1779,^[37] Tampere was granted full city rights. At this time, it was a rather small town, founded on the lands belonging to Tammerkoski manor, while its inhabitants were still mainly farmers. As farming on the city's premises was forbidden, the inhabitants began to rely on other methods of securing a livelihood, primarily trade and handicraft.^[29] When Finland became part of the Russian Empire as the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809, Tampere still had less than a thousand inhabitants.^[29]

Tampere grew as a major market town and industrial centre in the 19th century;^[38] the industrialization of Tampere was greatly influenced by the Finlayson textile factory, founded in 1820 by the Scottish industrialist James Finlayson.^[5] By the year 1850, the factory employed around 2000 people, while the population of the city had increased to 4000 inhabitants. Other notable industrial establishments that followed Finlayson's success in the 1800s were the Tampella blast furnace, machine factory and flax mill, the Frenckell paper mill, and the Tampere broadcloth factory.^[29] Tampere's population grew rapidly at the end of the 19th century, from about 7,000 in 1870 to 36,000 in 1900. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tampere was a city of workers and women, with a third of the population being factory workers and more than half women.^[29] At the same time, the city's area increased almost sevenfold and impressive apartment buildings were built in the center of Tampere among modest wooden houses. The stone houses shaped Tampere in a modern direction. The construction of the sewerage and water supply network and the establishment of electric lighting were further steps towards modernisation;^[29] regarding the latter, Tampere was the first Nordic city to introduce electric lights for general use in 1882.^[39][40] The railway connection to Tampere from the extension of the Helsinki–Hämeenlinna line section (today part of the Main Line) via Toijala was opened to public traffic on 22 June 1876.^[41]

The world-famous Nokia Corporation, a multinational telecommunication company, also had its beginnings in the Tammerkoski area;^[42] the company's history dates from 1865, when the Finnish-Swedish mining engineer Fredrik Idestam (1838–1916) established a pulp mill on the shores of the rapids^[42] and after that, a second pulp mill was opened in 1868 near the neighboring town of Nokia, where there were better hydropower resources.^[42]

Geopolitical significance

Tampere was the centre of many important political events in the early 20th century; for example, the 1905 conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), led by Vladimir Lenin, was held at the Tampere Workers' Hall, where it was decided, among other things, to launch an armed uprising, which eventually led to the October 1917 revolution in the Russian Empire.^[5][43][44] Also, on 1 November 1905, during the general strike, the famous Red Declaration was proclaimed on Keskustori.^[45][46] In 1918, after Finland had gained independence, Tampere played a major role, being one of the strategically important sites for the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR) during the Civil War in Finland (28 January–15 May 1918); the city was the most important industrial city in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century, marked by a huge working population.^[47] Tampere was a Red stronghold during the war, with Hugo Salmela in command. White forces, led by General Mannerheim, captured the town after the Battle of Tampere, seizing about 10,000 Red prisoners on 6 April 1918.^[48][49]

During the Winter War, Tampere was bombed by the Soviet Union several times.^[50] The reason for the bombing of Tampere was that the city was an important railway junction, and also housed the State Aircraft Factory and the Tampella factory, which manufactured munitions and weapons, including grenade launchers. The most devastating bombings were on 2 March 1940, killing nine and wounding 30 city residents. In addition, ten buildings were destroyed and 30 were damaged that day.^[51]

Post-war period and modern day

Prevalent in Tampere's post-World War II municipal politics was the Brothers-in-Arms Axis (aseveliakseli), which mostly constituted of the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats. While the Centre Party was the largest political force in the Finnish countryside, it had no practical relevance in Tampere.^[52]

After World War II, Tampere was enlarged by joining some neighbouring areas. Messukylä was incorporated in 1947, Lielahti in 1950, Aitolahti in 1966 and finally Teisko in 1972. The limit of 100,000 inhabitants was crossed in Tampere in 1950.^[53] Tampere was long known for its textile and metal industries, but these have been largely replaced by information technology and telecommunications during the 1990s. The technology centre Hermia in Hervanta is home to many companies in these fields.^[54] Yleisradio started broadcasting its second television channel, Yle TV2, in Ristimäki, Tampere in 1965,^[55][56] as a result of which Finland was the first of the Nordic countries to receive a second television channel, after Sweden's SVT2 started broadcasting only four years later. Tampere became a university city when the Social University moved from Helsinki to Tampere in 1960 and became the University of Tampere in 1966.^[57] In 1979, Tampere-Pirkkala Airport was opened from the center of Tampere on the side of the Pirkkala municipality.^[58][59]

At the turn of the 1990s, Tampere's industry underwent a major structural change, as the production of Tampella's and Tampere's textile industry in particular was heavily focused on bilateral trade with the Soviet Union, but when it collapsed in 1991 the companies lost their main customers.^[12] As a result of the sudden change and the depression of the early 1990s, Finlayson and the Suomen trikoo had to reduce their operations sharply. Tampella went bankrupt.^[12] But although the change left a huge amount of vacant industrial space in the city center, in the early 2000s it was gradually put to other uses, with the current Tampere cityscape being characterized above all by strong IT companies, most notably Nokia's Tampere R&D units.^[60]

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