Fideikommiss som kulturarv: Argumentation vid förlängningar av fideikommiss, 1995–2006

Abstract

Fideikommiss as cultural heritage: Arguments for prolonging Swedish fideikommiss, 1995–2006

Sweden is the only country in the world where the institution of fideikommiss, a form of entail, still exists. Like its equivalents elsewhere, the purpose of the Swedish fideikommiss was to keep a given property undivided by limiting its inheritance to a single heir in perpetuity. It has survived, despite coming under political attack in the nineteenth century and a law for its complete abolishment being in effect since 1964. One reason for its continued existence is five cases, between 1995 and 2006, where the validity of certain fideikommiss was extended by the government with reference to the protection of cultural heritage. It was deemed that to avoid an undesirable division of the properties in question, each of the five fideikommiss could be prolonged by one generation.

This article examines how the Swedish fideikommiss came to be regarded primarily as cultural heritage. What circumstances meant the fideikommiss could be considered cultural heritage? The background of the institution is outlined, followed by an examination of the legislative developments regarding the fideikommiss, the field of cultural heritage conservation, and the relationship between the two. This is followed by the particulars of how the fideikommiss was constructed as cultural heritage during the process of prolongation.

The connection between the fideikommiss and cultural heritage is shown to follow on the wider adoption of the concept in the late twentieth century, to the extent that the abolition of the fideikommiss itself came to be seen as problematic. The return to normal succession, and consequent inheritance by multiple heirs, risked splitting up large estates, which, from a cultural heritage point of view, were thought more valuable if kept intact. The prolongations of the fideikommiss were the result of a strong consensus about cultural heritage, an official heritage discourse, and the institution itself. Stakeholders generally agreed that the properties in question, their buildings, collections, and land, were cultural heritage of great significance, and the continued validity of the fideikommiss was an effective way to preserve them.