Personal life

He was born in Christiania

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, and was the brother of judge Ferdinand Schjelderup

Ferdinand Schjelderup

Ferdinand Schjelderup was a Norwegian mountaineer, Supreme Court Justice and resistance member during the German occupation of Norway.-Personal life:He was born in Kristiania as the son of Thorleif Frederik Schjelderup and Inga Berven...

. He was a son of Thorleif Frederik Schjelderup

Thorleif Frederik Schjelderup

-Personal life:He was born in Christiania as the son of Thorleif Schjelderup and Fredrikke Marie Caspary. His older sister Berte married Bredo Henrik von Munthe af Morgenstierne, son of Vilhelm Ludvig Herman von Munthe af Morgenstierne....

, nephew of Bredo Henrik von Munthe af Morgenstierne

Bredo Henrik von Munthe af Morgenstierne

Bredo Henrik von Munthe af Morgenstierne was a Norwegian jurist, member of an old noble family.-Personal life:...

 and uncle of ski jumper Thorleif Schjelderup

Thorleif Schjelderup

Thorleif Schjelderup was a Norwegian author and in the 1940s and 1950s one of Norway's best ski jumpers.He was born in Aker as a son of Ferdinand Schjelderup and his wife Marie Leigh Vogt....

.

Career

Gunnar Schjelderup took his education as an engineer in 1917 in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. In 1926 he took over as CEO of iron- and steelware factory Christiania Spigerverk

Christiania Spigerverk

Christiania Spigerverk is a steel company which was founded in Oslo in 1853, and developed into one of the largest industrial companies in Norway. In 1972 Christiania Spigerverk fusioned with Elkem. It was sold to Norsk Jernverk in 1985, and again split out as a separate company in 1993....

, where his father had been co-owner. He retired in 1961. He had also invested heavily in Bremanger Smelteverk in Svelgen

Svelgen

Svelgen is a village in the municipality of Bremanger in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. Svelgen, the municipal center of the municipality, has a population of 1,189. It is located at the end of the Nordgulen fjord, about northeast of Midtgulen Church...

.

In April 1940, following the German invasion of Norway and the Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...

 coup d'etat

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

, Gunnar Schjelderup and others contacted the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of Norway

The Supreme Court of Norway was established in 1815 on the basis of the Constitution of Norway's §88, prescribing an independent judiciary. It is located in Oslo and is Norway's highest court...

 to establish a civil administrative council, Administrasjonsrådet, to normalize working life as soon as possible. The council was established a few days after the invasion.