of Sanoma Oy keeper of the historical archive, phil.lis. Lisa Meckelburg-Mäkelä died on July 21, 2024 in Espoo. He was 92 years old, born in Helsinki on December 6, 1931.
The path of a language student at the University of Helsinki led to a newspaper company in 1957, as the summer editor of Helsingin Sanomat. The duties soon changed, when a woman who had also studied in the United States was presented as CEO Eljas Erko’s secretary.
He described the selection situation as Antti Blåfield Great Erkots– book (2014) I saw: “When I entered the room, I waved my hair like that, and Eljas Erkko later said that he thought that ‘I’ll make it there, I’ll have to see.'”
The cooperation still went well, and the secretary accompanied her supervisor on many trips abroad.
In addition to his work, Meckelburg graduated from the university in 1958 and did his licentiate work in 1959. In the same year, she married Esko Mäkelä, graduate engineer.
Meckelburg-Mäkelä served as Erko’s secretary until his death in 1965, i.e. during the period when Helsingin Sanomat grew and developed strongly.
“It was developed to be as news-like as possible, to tell readers about new things and events right away,” he said in the 90th anniversary interview in December 2021.
After Eljas Erko’s death, son Aatos entrusted Meckelburg-Mäkelä with organizing his father’s remaining papers. They were the seed for the historical archive, the caretaker of which he worked until his retirement in 1990.
To support it, a foundation was established in 1984, and the Päivälehti archive started operating in 1990, the Päivälehti museum in connection with it in 2001. Today, the name is Median museum and archive Merkki, and both are maintained by the Helsingin Sanomai foundation.
Managing director Meckelburg-Mäkelä had other tasks under Aatos Erko’s office. He organized the general assembly of the international press institute IPI in Helsinki in 1971, and when HS turned one hundred years old, he wrote Päivälehti-Helsingin Sanomat 1889–1989 – history and acted as an expert in the organization of festive events.
While still retired, he was involved in collecting, among other things Orimattila’s Erkot – exhibition, which opened in Orimattila Art Museum in 1993 and is now part of the museum’s permanent collections.
“It was one of my fun jobs,” he recalled in a 90-year interview. “And it really wasn’t just about promoting Erkko and Helsingin Sanomat, because the exhibition tells a lot about the cultural history of Finland as a whole.”
Meckelburg-Mäkelän three children were born to the family.
The couple enjoyed traveling and sauna culture. Together they wrote articles for the magazine of the Finnish Sauna Society until Esko Mäkelä’s death in 2014.
Summer Ahola
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