Residents of the Home

Teresia Lönnström

1895–1986

After her husband’s death, Teresia Lönnström served as director of the Lönnström Group for thirty years. From a handful of companies that originally manufactured fuses and artillery shells, the Lönnström Group expanded and diversified after World War II to become one of the largest metal industry enterprises in Rauma. In 1973, as Teresia Lönnström neared her 80th birthday, she sold her majority stake in the group to the Huhtamäki conglomerate. She made several major donations at the time, including to the Finnish Cultural Foundation. She also expanded her collection of Finnish paintings to cover contemporary art.

Teresia Lönnström involved herself in the social activities of the Lönnström Group and played an active role in charities and various societies.

Famous for her elegance, Teresia loved to organise events and parties in her beautiful home.

Teresia Lönnström on the patio of her home in the 1950s

Rafael Lönnström

1892–1943

Captain Rafael Lönnström was an instructor at the Finnish army’s gunsmith school in the 1920s and for a short time served as factory manager at firearm manufacturer SAKO. An inventor by nature, he developed and patented artillery fuses and eventually, with partners, founded Oy Sytytin in 1929. In the 1930s, the business expanded into a group of companies in the metal industry, with factories set up in Rauma. In December 1943, Rafael Lönnström travelled to the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm to be treated for what had been diagnosed as advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. The journey remained his last.

As a young man, he acted on stage in Lappeenranta. Above all, however, he was an inventor who knew how to put his ideas into practice through his own companies.

Rafael Lönnström was known as an unpretentious man who was interested in art and culture.

Rafael Lönnström at his desk on his 50th birthday in 1942.

Teresia and Rafael Lönnström on a business trip in Potsdam, Germany, in the 1930s.

Else Lönnström-Bech

1911–1988

Else Bech was Teresia Lönnström’s niece. She moved in with the Lönnströms in the 1920s and followed them when they relocated to Rauma in 1942. She worked for Lönnström Group throughout her career as the group’s chief accountant and on the companies’ boards.

Else Bech stood by Teresia Lönnström’s side during the difficult time following Rafael’s death and later as her aunt grew old. Else and Teresia made numerous trips abroad together, which allowed Else to pursue her hobby, photography.

Else served as the first chair of the board of the Teresia and Rafael Lönnström Foundation, which was established after Teresia Lönnström’s death.

Summertime coffee break in the Lönnströms’ garden in the 1950s.

Else Lönnström-Bech and the family dog, Bony, in the living room, 1950s.