Fanni Maria Luukkonen (13 March 1882 – 27 October 1947) was a Finnish teacher and the longtime leader of Lotta Svärd, the Finnish voluntary auxiliary organisation for women. She served as its president from 1929 until its dissolution in 1944, during which time the organisation grew from around 60,000 to over 200,000 members, making it the largest women's organisation in Finnish history. In 1940 she became the first woman to receive the Order of the Cross of Liberty, 1st Class with swords, and in 1943 she was the only non-German woman to be awarded the Order of the German Eagle with Star.
Early life and education
Fanni Maria Luukkonen was born in Oulu, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. She was the middle of three children of Katariina Sofia (née Palmgren) and Olli Luukkonen, a machine operator at Oulu's first electric power station. The family was religious (Protestant), supported temperance and enjoyed spending time at sea, which had a lifelong impact on their daughter. The young Fanni was a good sailor and keen on sports, particularly gymnastics.
Luukkonen studied at the Oulu Girls' School where her class teacher was Angelika Wenell (1857–1940), a well-known advocate of the Finnish Lutheran revival movement, who had a strong influence on her future outlook. Luukkonen later studied at the Finnish Further Education College in Helsinki.
thumb|left|Fanni Luukkonen was awarded the [[Order of the German Eagle with Star from Adolf Hitler on 19 May 1943]]
There was 15 months of Interim Peace in Finland during which the government gradually moved closer to Germany in order to fend off perceived Soviet aggression and Soviet interference in Finnish domestic politics. Finland later perceived co-operation with Germany as offering the potential to reclaim areas ceded to the Soviet Union during the Winter War. Two days after the beginning of Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Soviet–Finnish hostilities resumed with the start of the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
Again, the Lottas stepped up to support the armed forces in auxiliary roles. Luukkonen travelled the country from Lapland to the Karelian Isthmus, and across the former border into East Karelia, including Viena Karelia and Olonets Karelia, areas occupied by Finland during the war. She sometimes hosted foreign visitors interested in Lotta Svärd's activities under front-line conditions. She gave lectures and talks, in Finland and abroad, on the history and activities of the Lottas, and built relationships with other Scandinavian and Baltic Lotta organisations. Maja Schmidt, the leader of the Swedish Lotta organisation, considered the Finnish Lottas a model not only for Sweden but for the rest of Scandinavia and the Baltic states. The Finnish Lotta organisation was also well regarded in Germany, and on 19 May 1943 Luukkonen visited the headquarters of Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler, where she received the Order of the German Eagle with Star for her role in "the fight against Bolshevism". She was the only non-German woman to be awarded this decoration. The mental pressure of the period worsened her already poor health. Interviews in the film revealed how difficult it was for Luukkonen to disband the organisation and how the Lottas felt that their leader was treated harshly.