Rector Johan Kõpp’s anniversary medal arrived in Tartu

On 15 November, at a conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Johan Kõpp’s birth, Rector Toomas Asser was presented with Kõpp’s anniversary medal. 

Image

Johan Kõpp, who was the rector of the University of Tartu from 1928 to 1937, was one of the establishers of Estonia’s national university. In 1944, fearing Soviet repression, he fled to Sweden. In honour of his 80th birthday, anniversary medals were minted at Sveriges Riksbank in Sweden in 1954, one of which has now reached the University of Tartu. 

A total of 200 medals were minted. Of these, 180 were distributed on a pre-order basis in the Estonian refugee community and 20 were sent to coin cabinets around the world. The front of the bronze medal depicts Johan Kõpp, while the back shows the main building of the University of Tartu. The medal was designed by Swedish sculptor Gustaf Carell. 

There were specific instructions for handing over medals to memory institutions or coin cabinets: “These coins are to be handed over to the designated institutions when the countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have been liberated from the communist occupation and can once again govern themselves and determine their own destiny.” Until the medals could be handed over, the four medals designated for Estonia were entrusted with Johan Kõpp. 

Kõpp’s extensive archive has now arrived in Estonia, in the archives of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. One of these medals was presented to Rector Toomas Asser at the conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Johan Kõpp's birth by his successor, Archbishop Urmas Viilma of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.