Foreign Minister from among Sweden's top diplomats, which was thought to put the foreign policies in the firm grip of the party leaders in the cabinet, where they planned to broker compromises. Foreign Minister Günther left no memoirs, no diaries, very few personal letters of interest for historians, and actually remarkably few notes and writings from his time as Foreign Minister. Hence, an assessment of Günther must rely on the account of colleagues in the cabinet and in the Foreign Ministry. As a Foreign Minister, Günther represented a stark contrast to Rickard Sandler's idealist policies. Günther's preferred line was a cautious realpolitik, which was adapted to the very limited options of a small country during a war between great power neighbours. Like many, maybe most, of his contemporary peers, he expected German culture to be inherently stronger than the Nazi barbarism. Thus, he did not subscribe to the idea of the world war as primarily a clash of democracy against fascism but rather as a traditional war on dominance of Continental Europe. In that light, a German victory over the Soviet Union, the latter being the latest appearance of Sweden's old arch-enemy, could not be perceived as particularly alarming. On that point, Günther was close to the most conservative cabinet members. In popular culture In the Swedish television movie Four Days that shook Sweden - The Midsummer Crisis 1941 (Sveriges Television TV1, from 1988), his role is played by the Swedish character actor Sven Lindberg. Notes 1886 births 1966 deaths Politicians from Stockholm Swedish nobility Swedish people of German descent Swedish Ministers for Foreign Affairs World War II political leaders Uppsala University alumni Ambassadors of Sweden to Argentina Ambassadors of Sweden to Chile Ambassadors of Sweden to Paraguay Ambassadors of Sweden to Uruguay Ambassadors of Sweden to Norway Ambassadors of Sweden to Italy Place of death missing 20th-century Swedish diplomats