Finansministern i domkapitlet: Ernst Wigforss som ledamot av Göteborgs domkapitel 1918−1936

Ernst Wigforss (1881−1977) was Minister of Finance in Sweden 1925−26, 1932−36, and 1936−49, and one of the great ideologists of Swedish Social
Democracy. During 1918−36 he was also a member of the Chapter in the Diocese of Gothenburg, Church of Sweden.
Before 1937, lecturers in the old grammar schools were ex officio
members of the diocesan chapter. The agnostic Wigforss took his seat in the chapter on 27 November 1918, swearing the consistory oath. Hardly three weeks before, he had felt himself ‘closest to Bolsjevism’.
Wigforss took the matters seriously and acted from an independent position. He did not always unite with the liberal lecturers in the chapter.
In ecclesiastical matters, he could vote with the conservative bishop and clergymen. He was absent when two matters of theological importance were considered: changes in the ritual of baptism, and the admission of
women to the ecclesiastical ministry.
On 17 October 1923, the chapter discussed making it easier for tenant farmers on ecclesiastical land to buy the land they farmed. Wigforss proposed ‘the greatest caution’ in selling. Instead, he advocated an unlimited
tenure, thus anticipating a Social Democratic motion in Parliament
1927.
When Wigforss was appointed Minister of Finance in 1925, the liberal journalist Torgny Segerstedt considered this choice to be ‘a bad joke’. It confirms the distance between Wigforss and the leading liberal circles
in Gothenburg.
From 29 December 1926, Wigforss does not seem to have taken part in the sessions. He now had leave of absence from his lectureship.