Editing Rolf Nevanlinna (section)

==Political activities==
Although Nevanlinna did not participate actively in politics, he was known to sympathise with the right-wing [[Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)|Patriotic People's Movement]] and, partly because of his half-German parentage, was also sympathetic towards [[Nazi Germany]]; with many mathematics professors fired in the 1930s due to the [[Nuremberg Laws]], mathematicians sympathetic to the Nazi policies were sought as replacements, and Nevanlinna accepted a position as professor at the [[University of Göttingen]] in 1936 and 1937.<ref>{{citation|contribution=A Failure Revisited: The First Finnish Computer Construction Project|title=IFIP WG9.7 First Working Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (HiNC1), June 16–18, 2003, Trondheim, Norway|pages=79–94|year=2005|doi=10.1007/0-387-24168-X_7|first=Petri|last=Paju|series=IFIP International Federation for Information Processing|volume=174|publisher=Springer|doi-access=free}}. Footnote 20, p. 86: "Nevanlinna had also been a visiting mathematics professor in Göttingen in 1936–1937. At that time, Nevanlinna was a known Nazi-sympathiser. On this topic, see O. Lehto, ''Korkeat maailmat'', on p.&nbsp;139."</ref> His sympathy towards the Nazis led to his removal from his position as Rector of the University of Helsinki after Finland made peace with the Soviet Union in 1944.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lehto |first=Olli |year=1997 |title=Nevanlinna, Rolf |url=http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:sks-kbg-007111 |journal=Studia Biographica 4, Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1997}}</ref>

In the spring of 1941, Finland contributed a [[Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS|Volunteer Battalion]] to the [[Waffen-SS]]. In 1942, a committee was established for the Volunteer Battalion to take care of the battalion's somewhat strained relations with its German commanders, and Nevanlinna was chosen to be the chairman of the committee, as he was a person respected in Germany but loyal to Finland.<ref name="korkeat_maailmat" /><ref>{{citation|title=British documents on foreign affairs: Reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print: Kenneth. Bourne. From 1940 through 1945. Series A: The Soviet Union and Finland, Part 3|first1=Kenneth|last1=Bourne|first2=D. Cameron|last2=Watt|first3=Paul|last3=Preston|first4=Anita|last4=Prazmowska|publisher=University Publications of America|year=1997|isbn=1-55655-670-5 |page=71|quote=such notorious figures as ... Professor Rolf Nevanlinna (rector of Helsinki State University and one of the organisers of the first S.S. volunteers)}}.</ref> He stated in his autobiography that he accepted this role due to a "sense of duty".

Nevanlinna's collaboration with [[Nazi Germany]] did not prevent mathematical contacts with [[Allies of World War II|Allied countries]]; after World War II, the Soviet mathematical community was isolated from the Western mathematical community and the International Colloquium on Function Theory in Helsinki in 1957, directed by Nevanlinna, was one of the first post-war occasions when Soviet mathematicians could contact their Western colleagues in person.<ref>The Soviet Union did not participate in the 1950 ICM, but was represented by five mathematicians at the 1954 ICM in Amsterdam</ref> In 1965, Nevanlinna was an honorary guest at a function theory congress in [[Soviet Armenia]].<ref name="korkeat_maailmat"/>