Aina Erlander

Who was Aina Erlander?

Aina Erlander was a Swedish lecturer. She was the wife of Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander from 1930 until his death in 1985.

Erlander's father had a mill, factory and was an active right wing man. Aina Erlander attended a girls school and gymnasium, and then continued to study in Lund. In 1923 she met Tage Erlander, who also studied in Lund, and they married in 1930. Together they got two children. Aina worked as a teacher at Södra Flickläroverket in Stockholm when Tage Erlander became Prime Minister of Sweden in October 1946.

Erlander was a member of the board of Save the Children and in 1949 travelled to the then West Germany, which had suffered through World War II. In 1954 she visited the Netherlands, which had been flooded in 1953. In 1957 she became chairperson of Unga Örnar, a position she retained for nine years. After the death of her husband in 1985 she organised and cleaned up the notes he had left behind.