Nygaardsvold's Cabinet (later becoming the Norwegian government-in-exile) was appointed on 20 March 1935, [1] the second Labour cabinet in Norway. It brought to an end the non-socialist minority governments that had dominated Norwegian politics since the introduction of the parliamentary system in 1884, and replaced it with stable Labour governments that, with the exception of during World War II, would last until the coalition Lyng cabinet in 1963. [2]
Following the brief tenure of the Hornsrud cabinet in the winter of 1928, the Labour Party changed its political stance from revolutionary communism to social democracy. The main reason for the change was the realization that government power could be used for reforms that could lessen the impact of the economic crisis. In the 1933 election the party used the slogans "Work for everyone" and "Country and city, hand in hand". The last time the party portrayed itself as "revolutionary" was the 1930 election.
The Labour Party advanced in the 1933 election, but did not get a majority. Instead they made a compromise with the Farmer Party, allowing Nygaardsvold to enter the Council of State. The party also failed to gain a majority in the 1936 election, but stayed in office thanks to fluctuating support from various opposition parties.
The night before 9 April 1940, the Norwegian Government was, like most other authorities in the country, surprised by the German invasion. At first, it chose resistance over capitulation. The Government left Norway on 7 June 1940 after the German conquest and established itself in London the same day, along with King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav. [2]
Back in Norway, over the course of the war, four de facto governments were led by Vidkun Quisling and Josef Terboven. The Government-in-exile is sometimes referred to as the London Cabinet. It returned to Norway on 31 May 1945 aboard the UK troop ship RMS Andes. [3] On 12 June, Nygaardsvold announced his resignation, and on 25 June, the pan-political Gerhardsen cabinet took over.
Below are the four de facto governments in Oslo during the war, either sympathising with or appointed by German forces. The Reichskommissar in Oslo was Josef Terboven.
Portfolio | Minister | Period | Party |
---|---|---|---|
Prime Minister | Johan Nygaardsvold | 20 March 1935 – 25 June 1945 | Labour |
Minister of Agriculture | Hans Ystgaard | 20 March 1935 – 25 June 1945 | |
Minister of Church Affairs and Education | Nils Hjelmtveit | 20 March 1935 – 25 June 1945 | |
Minister of Defence | Christian Fredrik Monsen | 20 March 1935 – 15 November 1935 | |
Adolf Indrebø | 15 November 1935 – 20 December 1935 | ||
Oscar Torp | 20 December 1935 – 15 August 1936 | ||
Christian Fredrik Monsen | 15 August 1936 – 22 December 1939 | ||
Birger Ljungberg | 22 December 1939 – 28 November 1942 | Conservative | |
Oscar Torp | 28 November 1942 – 25 June 1945 | Labour | |
Minister of Finance | Adolf Indrebø | 20 March 1935 – 13 November 1936 | |
Kornelius Bergsvik | 13 November 1936 – 1 July 1939 | ||
Oscar Torp | 1 July 1939 – 28 November 1941 | ||
Paul Hartmann | 28 November 1941 – 25 June 1945 | Resistance | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs | Halvdan Koht | 20 March 1935 – 19 November 1940 | Labour |
Trygve Lie | 19 November 1940 – 25 June 1945 | ||
Minister of Justice | Trygve Lie | 20 March 1935 – 19 November 1939 | |
Terje Wold | 19 November 1939 – 25 June 1945 | ||
Minister of Labour | Johan Nygaardsvold | 20 March 1935 – 2 October 1939 | |
Olav Hindahl | 2 October 1939 – 25 June 1945 | ||
Minister of Social Affairs | Kornelius Bergsvik | 20 March 1935 – 13 November 1936 | |
Oscar Torp | 13 November 1936 – 1 July 1939 | ||
Sverre Støstad | 1 July 1939 – 25 June 1945 | ||
Minister of Shipping | Arne Sunde | 1 October 1942 – 25 June 1945 | Liberal |
Minister of Supply | Trygve Lie | 2 October 1939 – 19 November 1940 | Labour |
Arne Sunde | 19 November 1940 – 1 October 1942 | Liberal | |
Anders Rasmus Frihagen | 1 October 1942 – 25 June 1945 | Labour | |
Minister of Trade, Shipping, Industry, Crafts and Fisheries | Alfred Madsen | 20 March 1935 – 1 July 1939 | |
Trygve Lie | 1 July 1939 – 2 October 1939 | ||
Anders Rasmus Frihagen | 2 October 1939 – 7 June 1940 | ||
Terje Wold | 7 June 1940 – April 1942 | ||
Anders Rasmus Frihagen | April 1942 – 1 October 1942 | ||
Olav Hindahl | 1 October 1942 – 9 March 1945 | ||
Sven Nielsen | 9 March 1945 – 25 June 1945 | Conservative |
Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a German Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation.
The Nasjonal Samling was a Norwegian far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling and a group of supporters such as Johan Bernhard Hjort – who led the party's paramilitary wing (Hirden) for a short time before leaving the party in 1937 after various internal conflicts. The party celebrated its founding on 17 May, Norway's national holiday, but was founded on 13 May 1933. Nasjonal Samling was made illegal and disbanded at the End of World War II in Europe, on 8 May 1945.
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.
The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:
Oscar Fredrik Torp was a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. He was party leader from 1923 to 1945, and mayor of Oslo in 1935 and 1936. In 1935 he became the acting minister of Defence in the government of Johan Nygaardsvold. He was also the minister of Social Affairs from 1936 to 1939, and then the minister of Finance from 1939 to 1942. He was appointed Minister of Defence again in 1942 in the London-based Norwegian exile government. He continued until the election in 1945 when he became the minister of Provisioning and Reconstruction until 1948.
Johan Nygaardsvold was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party who served as the 21st prime minister of Norway from 1935 to 1945. From June 1940 until May 1945, he oversaw the Norwegian Government-in-exile from London as head of the Nygaardsvold cabinet during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.
Johan Bernhard Hjort was a Norwegian supreme court lawyer. He is known for co-founding Nasjonal Samling in 1933, his later resistance work against Nazi Germany, including his work to help Scandinavian prisoners, as well as for his role as one of the country's leading defense attorneys after the war.
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the capitulation of German forces in Europe on 8 May 1945. Throughout this period, a pro-German government named Den nasjonale regjering ruled Norway, while the Norwegian king Haakon VII and the prewar government escaped to London, where they formed a government in exile. Civil rule was effectively assumed by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, which acted in collaboration with the pro-German puppet government. This period of military occupation is, in Norway, referred to as the "war years", "occupation period" or simply "the war".
Gulbrand Oscar Johan Lunde was a Norwegian chemist and politician of the Nasjonal Samling party who became a minister in the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling during World War II. His 1942 death was deemed accidental, although a 2012 biography of Lunde concluded that he was assassinated because his cultural views clashed with those of the government of Nazi Germany.
Kjeld Stub Irgens was a Norwegian politician during the German occupation of Norway.
Olav Meisdalshagen was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party best known for serving as the Norwegian Minister of Finance from December 1947 to November 1951 and as the Norwegian Minister of Agriculture from January 1955 to May 1956. He was also a Member of Parliament for a long time, being elected for the first time in parliamentary election of 1936 and serving until his death, except for the period between 1940 and 1945 when the Parliament of Norway was de facto defunct due to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. His death in 1959 came halfway through his fifth term in Parliament, and shortly after a parliamentary speech.
Events in the year 1940 in Norway.
Karl Alfred Nicolai Marthinsen was the Norwegian commander of Statspolitiet and Sikkerhetspolitiet in Norway during the Nazi occupation during World War II.
Carl Nicolai Stoud Platou was a Norwegian civil servant and politician. A jurist by education, he is best known for his civil servant career in the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police, which spanned from 1911 to 1941. He was promoted to deputy under-secretary of state in 1926, but was dismissed and later incarcerated for listening to hostile radio in 1941, during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. He returned after the war as Chief Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Police in May 1945 and County Governor of Akershus and Oslo from 1945 to 1955. He had been involved in politics before the war as well, as deputy mayor of Aker.
The Quisling regime, or Quisling government are common names used to refer to the fascist collaboration government led by Vidkun Quisling in German-occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Den nasjonale regjering. Actual executive power was retained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven.
The Administrative Council was a council established by the Supreme Court to govern Norway. The council of seven people was established on 15 April 1940, replacing Quisling's First Cabinet, and was led by Ingolf Elster Christensen. It was replaced on 25 September by another council by Josef Terboven, referred to in Norwegian as Josef Terboven's kommissariske statsråder.
Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie was a Norwegian jurist and Nazi collaborator. He is best known as director of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation for some time during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.
The Fatherland League was a Norwegian right-wing, anti-communist and nationalist political organisation in the interwar period. Founded in 1925, the movement aimed to unite all centre-to-right forces against the rise of the revolutionary Marxist labour movement. At its peak of popular support and political influence around 1930 it was the single largest mass movement ever organised on the political right in Norway, with an estimated 100,000 members. The movement began to decline through the 1930s, followed by some unsuccessful attempts to gain direct influence as a political party. The Fatherland League was banned and dissolved after the German occupation of Norway in 1940.