Have you considered going into a different industry?

If what you described is true, what your former boss did is way past freedom of speech and quite a few steps into defamation and personal harassment zone, talk to a lawyer with expertise in subject matter. Also if your former boss is a public figure, you may also want to contact local press.

Yes, I have to investigate my options here. The problem is re-education will take time and the town is not big. People here trust those who have reputation like my boss.

"I am not exactly sure what my question is" - you might want to think this over a bit and be more clear what you are asking for. You are unlikely to get a good answer without a real question.

@tweray we've agreed with the lawyer I talked to today that I will collect evidence of our interactions and get back to her, so she can evaluate whether that information can be used anyhow, but even the freaking calendar invitation from HR for a meeting to discuss the situation is gone. I feel like I am dreaming now.

@JoeStrazzere I'm sorry for not being very clear, I'm clearly not thinking straight right now.

I've edited the post to add what I believe you're ultimately asking. Feel free to rollback if I'm wrong. (As an aside, this is exactly why a future employer insisting on getting a reference from a current boss is a bad idea.)

I don't want to edit in case I'm mistaken, but the as written the "former" option is relocating to Germany, which seems like it would avoid the problems you've described. To clarify, are you remaining in Sweden?

@Upper_Case yes, this's what I've meant. Thank you.

If the boss is actually contacting potential employers and telling them that @Tobias is a problem employee (assuming you are not), that sounds like slander to me. IDK what the slander laws are where you live, but maybe consider contacting a lawyer for advice here.

@Bernhard I don't think he does. I think he simply spread the rumor among his contacts.

@asgallant I was told it is very hard to prove, because words are up to an interpretations. I don't it is illegal to just tel your friend: "I have a toxic (IMHO) employee. His name is Tobias. He is currently looking for a new job".

I have chosen the later – I think you mean "latter".

First of all, stop calming yourself with whiskey.

This is an extraordinary situation to be in and might require extraordinary responses. You really need to consider speaking to a lawyer.

Talk further to the lawyer - chances are that emails are backed up, and that just because they have been deleted superficially you could still retrieve copies with a subpoena. If the lawyer doesn't know what you're talking about, change lawyers.

so I went back to office after work hours and found out that my inbox is missing lots of emails sent to him and HR. - You said you resigned. Did you break in? - Also, too late now, but in such a situation (for future readers) all such communication should be done / copied to private email accounts, precisely to avoid this being deleted.

@rkeet, you mean getting out with a copy work related mail? Backing up all your mailbox is borderline.

@xdtTransform No, I mean that when you need HR and/or someone else to file complaints, which may or may not be held against you personally, you should make sure your own email address is in the CC and any received emails without your personal email in the CC get forwarded said mails (or are in the CC of a reply to one of those without). That way, you have a chain of documents for stuff for which you might personally be held accountable (or, in this case, used against you).

Your boss bears all the hallmarks of a strong narcissist. Especially: Soft-spoken and affable when you show "respect", but hard-nosed and manipulative when you confront them. You can almost never elicit understanding from them, and it's very hard to strong-arm them. Your best bet is to get as far away as possible and to protect yourself from the fall-out.

@Tobias As far as I know, under the new EU data protection law, contacting the previous employer is illegal. This might be another possible way of attacking your former boss with legal consequences.

"I don't it is illegal to just tel your friend: "I have a toxic (IMHO) employee. His name is Tobias. He is currently looking for a new job"." You want to read up on what's written in brottsbalken (Swedish criminal law), chapter 5, 1-2 §§.

@aCVn It's possible that asking someone for a reference goes under "försvarligt att lämna uppgift i saken". Is it slander if I explicitly ask someone about their opinion?

@pipe I would imagine that at least, that would make a very poor legal defense. (I also posted an answer to the same effect. Feel free to bring your comment there.)

I call this question BS. Yes, Sweden is a very consensus oriented society BUT it is also a very rational society and if someone called me and suggested I should avoid hiring someone for the reasons mentioned in the OP, I would demand very good proofs from the caller. Yes, maybe 2-3 of this boss' closest friends would just take his word but that can't impossibly be the case here. In fact, this type of back stabbing would reflect back on the boss, rather than the OP, in a very negative way.

@Bernhard maybe because he used the company email to talk with recruiters; or may be he reused his password to sign in to the company email with his private email; remember if he's using company email, it's not actually his email, it's company email; so they can have that data

@Tobias did you reuse your password to sign in to company email with your private email? another possibility would be that manager infected the computer you are using in the company with some malware that records typing; if you enter any time into your private email in that computer he sure have it; change your passwords for all your private accounts.