Room Tellander

In the strict director Tellander’s former residence, both strict discipline can prevail and creativity can flow.

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Facts

Cinema seating	Up to 20 people
Classroom	Up to 17 people
Islands	Up to 25 people
U-shape	Up to 17 people
Room size	5,2 m x 5,8 m

Equipment in the room

Projector
Whiteboard
Flipchart
Wifi
Mineral water & goodies
Pads & pens
Table signs

Available for rent or borrow: Video conference, telephone conference, microphone / mosquito, projector cable adapters, computer.

About

Our conference room Tellander is close to the much-beloved section we call the Director’s hall. The rooms are named after former prison directors, both liked and disliked. There are plenty of sitting groups here for coffee brakes and group work.

History

After a line of weak directors who were bad at maintaining the discipline, a strong man, Frans August Tellander, took over the management of Långholmen between 1854 and 1866. Tellander had been company commander in the labour crops at Stömholm and was described as a man of action. He was the first to introduce a real regime of terror at Långholmen and is said to have often beaten the prisoners with his special stick “daggen”. He soon became a director that was both loathed and feared. With his harsh methods he succeeded in putting an end to alcohol smuggling.

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Tellander had been working for just a few weeks when the great mutiny broke out. It was Saint Lucia’s day, 1854, the date of the greatest prisoner rebellion in Långholmen’s history. It started with one of the soldier guards who had previously been smuggling alcohol to the inmates. He had “fiddled” with the delivery. Only half the ration reached the agreed hiding place. Because of this, a few drunk prisoners started throwing stones at soldier guard Törnblom, whose delivery had been too stingy. More drunk inmates joined the rebellion and all ended with a mass escape attempt. People fought, threw stones, started making random fires and broke out cell doors while more and more inmates joined the mob. Workers from Bergsund’s factories were called in to help subdue the rebellion and they joined with their hoes and spades. Even the Life Guards were called in the end. The tumult ended when a former prison director, Ekenstjerna, made the prisoners see reason and convinced them to return to their cells.

Meanwhile, some prisoners managed to reach the church hall and are said to have taken some of the communion wine. As a result, the soldier guards were fired and the people involved were put on bread-and-water regime for 28 days. After the mutiny, director Tellander continued with his slavish discipline, thanks to which the number of escapes decreased significantly and the work performance increased. Still, his methods spoke clearly. In 1855, one in every five prisoners who broke the rules was whipped. The most common misdemeanour was for prisoners to show “insolence towards the guards and themanagement”.

In 1867, Tellander’s regime of terror ended with the dismissal of the then active director general Vilhelm Stråle.