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"By knowing our past we may easier understand our present and also be prepared for the future!"


This is a website completely dedicated to living history. On the following pages I will be sharing with You accounts of my historical odyssey through various re-enactment periods and themes, some historical briefs from my native country and also extensive links to various museums, historical places, regiments and various associations and re-enactment suppliers.

Naturally, I have also have a personal collection with a military theme - My European Military Headwear Collection that currently numbers some 220+ individual items.

 

History - as a way of life

Living and preserving history is more than a hobby, it has become a way of life. I have during my brief time in this "racket" experienced different forms, from historical parade units, military music bands to live re-enactments of historical battles and anniversaries.

This lifestyle incorporates some of the main interests in my life: 
- Traveling, exploring new interesting places, visiting battlefields and museums etc
- History, learning about new places, epoques, conflicts, battles, nations and their respective struggles, not forgetting the people that were part in all these.
- New acquaintances ... by taking part in different events, You invariably meet and befriend new people. 

This is something I warmly recommend to anyone, regardless of age, who would be interested in the same theme.

I just love the way fellow re-enactors create wonderful uniforms and costumes, hand-made instruments, lovingly restored muskets, hand-painted regimental colours, carefully built field camps, amazing historical dances, knowledge about history ... and the obvious time-travel You encounter when entering a period camp.

Another interesting aspect has also been the close encounter, or should I say endless hours, with needle and thread. Trying my hand at sewing my own uniforms has been a novel but stimulating experience, despite bleeding fingertops and numerous remakes. 

 

Historian

Young Finnish Jaegers somewhere on the front.Young Finnish Jaegers somewhere on the front.No, I have no degree in history, but decades spent studying and living it has given me a certain level of knowledge, this fascination that I have carried since early childhood. From the humble start of building model airplanes and warships (airfix, revell and the others) to seriously studying history courtesy of books and archives, visiting countless museums and battlefields all over Europe, taking part in re-enactments, debating and arguing history with fellow enthusiasts, the stories of my grandfathers fighting in the Finnish Army during 1939-44. All these have given me an enormously interesting and vast insight into the very turbulent European history from the renaissance all the way to the Cold War. 

This fascination for history is not about glorifying war but remembering events that shaped our countries, about the people that were involved in the wars. Whether we like it or not, most of the technological developments in the world have their origins in military evolutions - for good and for bad. One of the more recent evolutions, or should I say revolutions - the internet - is also originally a military technology. This useful tool helps us to find and share information on the global World Wide Web.       

 

Input welcome

As You tread through these pages I hope You will find something interesting, or maybe even some new angles to history. If You have any feedback, comments and corrections, these will be warmly received. Thanks and welcome back again - I aim to keep updating regularly.        

 

Joacim