Friedrich Akel

Who was Friedrich Akel?

Friedrich Karl Akel was an Estonian diplomat and politician, a member of the International Olympic Committee., and Head of State of Estonia in 1924.

Akel attended the Alexander Gymnasium in Tartu, and studied in the department of medicine of Tartu University in 1892–1897.

He was an assistant in the Tartu University Clinic, a doctor in the Reimers ophthalmology clinic in Riga, 1899–1901 a doctor in the Ujazdov hospital in Warsaw. In 1901, he studied in Berlin, Prague and Leipzig. Akel worked a private ophthalmologist in Tallinn, and in 1907 he was one of the founders of the Private Clinic of Estonian Physicians. In 1912 he founded his own eye clinic. In 1904–1905 he was in the Russo-Japanese war as a physician. He was also a member and a chairman of the Tallinn Municipal Council, and the Honorary Justice of the Peace in the Tallinn-Haapsalu Peace Council.

Akel was a member the Board of the Northern Baltic Union of Physicians and the Tallinn Popular Education society, Chairman of the sports society "Kalev", building society of "Estonia" theatre and the Estonian Society "Estonia" in Tallinn, Member and Chairman of the Council and member of the Board of the Tallinn Loan and Savings Society, later the Tallinn "Krediitpank", 1920–1922 Vice President of the Consistory of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, and in 1927–1932 Estonia's representative in the International Olympic Committee.