Jaerevik clique

The Jaerevik clique (Delkoran: Jaerevikse kliken) was an informal group of socialites, intellectuals, writers, and artists in Delkora during the early 20th Century. Although many of its members came from noble families, the group consciously sought to break with what it saw as a traditional aristocratic and academic culture defined by political conservatism, snobbery, and disregard of societal problems. The core members of the group met regularly from 1905 until about 1943. It is considered to have had significant influence on the early 20th Century fields of politics, literature, art, and philosophy in Delkora.

Members

At its height, the Jaerevik clique consisted of some 25 associates, although its core members were:

• Sofia Westergaard: Socialite and Liberal politician who went on to serve as Chancellor of Delkora from 1932 to 1940.
• Marie Jakobsen: Economist and political theorist
• Gustav Haagesen: Historian and philosopher
• Tilde Kjøller: Fiction writer and socialite
• Lillian Thrane: Fiction writer and socialite
• Gerda Skaarup: Post-impressionist painter and art critic
• Freja Kjærsgaard: Philosopher
• Villads Vittrup: Expressionist painter
• Émilie Chauchoin: Actress and Progressive leader, who served as finance minister in Westergaard's cabinet.

Origins

The original members of the clique were Gustav Haagesen, Tilde Kjøller, Lillian Thrane, and Gerda Skaarup, who all met while studying at Gothendral University. Beginning in 1905, they began getting together on weekends at the Kjøller estate in Jaerevik to discuss politics, philosophy, and literature. Vittrup joined the following year, as did Jakobsen and Kjærsgaard. The introduction of Jakobsen and Kjærsgaard, who had both been educated at the University of Norenstal, produced a friendly intellectual rivalry within the clique between the "Gothendral group" and the "Norenstal group."

Westergaard joined the clique in 1907 while studying at Gothendral. Despite being its youngest member, she proved to be a capable debater who could hold her own in philosophy discussions with the older and more experienced Kjærsgaard and Haagesen. She is often credited with pushing the clique to be more activist; at her insistence, the group became involved with the women's suffrage movement, taking part in demonstrations and producing essays calling for equal rights. Going forward, the clique would continue to become more politically active, speaking out on current events.

Philosophy and public image

Ideologically, the clique's members broadly identified with the left-liberalism espoused by the Venstre faction of the Liberal Party, and the reformism of the Progressives. They opposed militarism but decried isolationism, favored trade but insisted upon protections for workers, and believed that the fundamental purpose of government was to help people.

They were strong proponents of the social security programs implemented in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and called for more aggressive measures to combat poverty. Likewise, they were dedicated philanthropists. Leftist critics have claimed this was merely an expression of noblesse oblige, although biographers disagree with this claim, arguing that the group's politics had more in common with the contemporary labor movement than paternalist conservatism.

Members were distinctive for their bohemian image, cosmopolitanism, and rejection of aristocratic conventions. The socialite status of members like Westergaard and Kjøller was a repudiation of both noble and gender expectations, as was their self-described promiscuity. The clique was hostile to established religion, with some members of the group being militant atheists, while others followed foreign religions like Vilageism and Kisekidō, and still others followed more spiritual versions of Vallyar.

Still, despite their rejection of noble culture in both their lifestyle and works, they retained what Kjøller called a "noble aesthetic" in that they kept all the outward appearances of the nobility: they dressed in the stylish fashion of nobles, insisted upon using their titles, dogmatically observed rules of etiquette, and always used proper language.

According to one historian: "The Jaerevik clique represented a progressive faction within the Delkoran nobility that sought to construct an alternative aristocratic identity stripped of inequality, patriarchy, classism, and privilege." Westergaard reflected on this in a 1968 interview:

"Although myself and the others were in general agreement that the nobility was an obstacle to the kind of world we wanted, we also believed that it was not necessary to burn the whole institution to the ground. We knew that the nobility, like the monarchy before it, could simply be rendered impotent and allowed to exist in the background as a fanciful thing for reactionaries to worship. The best way for us to achieve this state of affairs was to change the aristocracy from within, to not only agitate against it in our writings, artworks, and activism, but also embody an alternative nobility that was more in line with modern society, one which did not close itself off from common people."

Westergaard acted on these goals as Chancellor. She abolished the nobility's last remaining privileges and stopped issuing hereditary titles. She awarded titles to various intellectuals and artists, while seizing on public controversies to withdraw titles from other nobles, in an effort to change the nobility's composition. Right-wing nobles attacked these policies as "purges".

Comparisons are sometimes drawn between the ideal aspired to by the Jaerevik clique and the concept of socialised luxury that developed in Gylias during the Liberation War and Golden Revolution, within which aristerokratia serves as the closest equivalent to the Jaerevik clique's experience. The fine arts salon in the Gylian Senate similarly earned comparison to the Jaerevik clique, and Westergaard and other politicians specifically identified them as a model for reforming the Chamber of Nobles.

The clique also formed ties with their contemporaries the mauve circle; many members would accompany Westergaard during her visits to Alscia, allowing both groups to meet.

Significance

According to one historian, the significance of the Jaerevik clique is to be found in the fact that it represented one of the first major intellectual revolts against the Delkoran aristocracy to come from within the aristocracy itself since the early modern period.

The clique had considerable influence on a number of fields, including politics, art, literature, and philosophy. This was to such an extent that, according to one biographer, "What started out as a small social circle became a defining intellectual and cultural force–when members of the Jaerevik clique spoke, Delkoran society listened." Individually, each member made important contributions in their field.

The clique reached the height of its political influence during Westergaard's chancellorship, with opposition leader Veidnar Albendor criticizing her tenure as "government by the Jaerevik clique." Within her own government, National Labor leader Johannes Löfgren lamented in 1937 how often Westergaard sought advice from her "second cabinet."