Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Artikelns frågeställning är: vilka skulle Alfred Nobel innefatta i en tackskål vid slutet av hans liv? Sökandet efter det leder till ett fokus på ingenjören Alarik Liedbeck (1834-1915) som var Nobels främste medarbetare under 30 år. Han var dotterson till Per Henrik Ling och är begravd vid dennes friluftsgrav vid Brunnsviken norr om Stockholm. Det visar sig att Nobel och Liedbeck dessutom är släkt via universalgeniet Olof Rudbeck den äldre. 

Alfred Nobel is the Swedish inventor of dynamite and the testamentator behind the Nobel Foundation and the Nobel Prizes. The article “Alfred Nobel and his unknown co-worker” is  a translation of the originally in Swedish published article in the daily Swedish newspaper Norrbottens-Kuriren, in December 18, 2019. It elaborates on the issue of which potential persons that Alfred Nobel himself would have toasted in thankfulness for his life and achievements.  Based on Nobel´s testament, and unknown or very sparsely known sources, the great importance of his coworker, the engineer Alarik Liedbeck, protrudes in a new light. Further news in this article is the fact that Liedbeck was a grandchild of the gymnasiarch Per Henrik Ling, who founded the Swedish Ling Gymnastics, including Medical Gymnastics, or what today is known as physiotherapy. Both of them were related to Alfred Nobel through their relative in common; Olof Rudbeck, the older, who discovered the lymph system. Also the grave of Alarik Liedbeck, side by side with Per Henrik Ling, at the shore of Brunnsviken in the Royal National Urban Park in Stockholm, Sweden, sheds light over this unique outdoor burial place which was created by Ling.