Halvdan Koht
Encyclopedia
Halvdan Koht was a Norwegian
historian
and politician representing the Labour Party.
As a politician he served as the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935 to 1941. He was never elected as a member of the Parliament of Norway, but was a member of Bærum municipal council in 1917–1919 and 1929–1937. He joined the Labour Party around 1910, having formerly adhered to the Liberal Party. He became controversial as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Second World War, where he clung to a policy of Norway being neutral. This led to his exit from the cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but he returned to an academic career track and wrote major works in the 1950s and 1960s.
As an academic he was a professor of history at the Royal Frederick University
(now: University of Oslo) from 1910 to 1935, having advanced in the ranks from research fellow
since 1900 and docent
since 1908. Well donned with honours, he among others held an honorary degree
at the University of Oxford
. He was a prolific writer, and touched upon numerous subjects during his long academic career. Penning several biographies, his works on Johan Sverdrup
and Henrik Ibsen
spanned several volumes each. He became known for syntheses on Norwegian history, and emphasized the roles of peasants and wage laborers as historical agents who found their place in an expanding notion of the Norwegian nation
. He was also interested in the United States and its history, and was a pioneer in this respect in Norway.
Another specific issue for which Koht became known, was his views on the Norwegian language. He promoted the Samnorsk ideal, and a reform pushing the formal written language in this direction was indeed agreed to in 1938, but historical events led to the downfall of this policy. He was also an activist in the Norwegian and international peace movement, and was a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
. As an activist and politician he was described as a strong-willed and individualistic, and nurturing a strong belief in taking an academic and legal perspective on political problems.
He came from a resourceful family, with his father being a parliamentarian, and his wife being a noted teacher, writer and women's rights activist. His two children both had distinguished careers; as a child psychologist and an ambassador respectively, and his grandchildren also reached high positions in politics, academia and organizations.
as a son of educator and politician Paul Steenstrup Koht
(1844–1892) and Betty Giæver (1845–1936). He was a distant relative of the Holmboe family
; the bailiff Jens Holmboe
had a daughter Hanna Birgitte Holmboe who married into the Giæver family, mothering Joachim Gotsche Giæver, Betty's father. Halvdan was ⅛ German, since Betty's mother was from Bremen
. Through Joachim Gotsche Giæver's brother and his descendants, Halvdan Koht was a third cousin of parliamentarian Ola Krogseng Giæver. In his father's family, Kjeld Stub
was a distant ancestor. The name Koht came from German immigrants in the 17th century.
Himself, Halvdan Koht had three siblings. He was intended to have the name Joachim, but this was stopped on request from Joachim G. Giæver who voiced his dislike for the name. He was then christened Halfdan, changed to Halvdan some years later. The family lived in Tromsø, where Paul Steenstrup Koht was a headmaster and mayor. The family moved to Skien when Halvdan was twelve years old, and his father was again mayor as well as parliamentarian for the Liberal Party. Koht finished school here, taking his examen artium
in 1890. His father was among his teachers for a while in Norwegian
and Greek
. After the death of his father in 1892, the family moved to Bekkelaget
in 1893. Koht studied at the Royal Frederick University
(now: the University of Oslo).
In September 1898 in Kristiania
he married teacher Karen Elisabeth Grude
(1871–1960), a daughter of Martin Adolf Grude. They had three children. One child died young, but the remaining two had distinguished careers; Åse Gruda Skard
(née Koht) as a child psychologist and Paul Koht
as an ambassador. Through Åsa he was a father-in-law of literature professor Sigmund Skard
and a grandfather of politician and academic Torild Skard
, psychologist and ombud Målfrid Grude Flekkøy
and politician and organizational leader Halvdan Skard
. In the late 1920s and the 1930s Halvdan's relationship with Karen was somewhat faltering, because of Karen's health issues and Halvdan's preoccupation with his work. Halvdan Koht entered friendships with several women, often pen friendships. During the Second World War, there were rumours about a romantic relationship to his own secretary Unni Diesen. After 1945 the relationship to Karen was refurbished.
. The next examination was in different languages—classical and modern. Koht had the choice between Greek/Latin or Norwegian/German (including Norse). Koht chose the latter. In 1895, then, after finishing history, he spent three months in the Mediterranean, travelling with three two ships, the first from Norway to Venice
, the second from Venice to Constantinople
, the third back to Norway. He studied German literature during this travel. In December 1896 Koht was finally examined by Sophus Bugge
and earned his degree. He was one of three students to be examined in Norwegian and German in late 1896, and had been the only candidate in history the previous year.
A break from the studies came in the second half of 1892. After his father's death, he could not afford to attend university that semester. He worked briefly as a private tutor in the Skien district, and was paid to write in the newspaper Varden. After returning to his studies he later worked as a Kristiania correspondent for the newspaper; later for Päivälehti
as well. In 1901 he took over after Erik Vullum
as obituary and anniversary writer in Verdens Gang. In the next years he would contribute extensively to publications such as Den 17de Mai
, Nationalbladet, Nordmanns-Forbundets tidsskrift, Syn og Segn
, Samtiden
, Unglyden, Dagbladet
, Verdens Gang and Tidens Tegn
; mostly Liberal or Norwegian nationalist publications.
For some months after graduating he worked as an unpaid volunteer at the University Library of Oslo
. He also continued to attend university lectures. He was then given a fellowship, the "Gustav Bruun Endowment", from the University of 2 x . From 1897 to 1899 he studied abroad with this fellowship. He studied at the University of Copenhagen
, the University of Leipzig
and in Paris (École des hautes études
, École des Chartes
). He was especially marked by Karl Lamprecht in Leipzig.
From 1899 to 1901 he worked as a substitute at the University Library of Oslo, and part-time as a school teacher. He was also engaged by Gustav Storm to help him with publishing the source text
Regesta Norvegica. In 1900 he took over the work of Jens Braage Halvorsen
, who had died, with the biographical dictionary
of Norwegian writers, Norsk Forfatter-lexikon. This was a substantial work, and Koht's part of the work, the fifth and sixth volumes, took until 1908 to complete.
at the Royal Frederick University. He rarely had responsibility for any teaching of the students, and since he was often busy with Norsk Forfatter-lexikon he remained a research fellow until 1907. In 1908 he took his dr.philos. degree on the thesis Die Stellung Norwegens und Schwedens im Deutsch-Dänischen Konflikt 1863–1864. Opponents at the dissertation were Ebbe Hertzberg
and Yngvar Nielsen
. Koht was then hired as a docent
at the University in 1908. Because of internal opponents, the docenture was designated to be in "cultural history" instead of "history". After a while the university changed it to "history", then the cabinet changed it back, before the Parliament finally decided on "history". Despite being appointed as docent, Koht argued with Waldemar Christofer Brøgger that he deserved to travel abroad. From 1908 to 1909 he travelled around in the United States, England and Sweden, visiting the peace conferences in London (1908), Chicago (1909) and Stockholm (1910). He then returned to the university, and was a docent for a short time until being promoted to professor in 1910. He remained so until 1935, and was the dean
of his Faculty from 1912 to 1917.
from the farmers' perspective. Gustav Storm claimed that farmers in Norway had "done no effort of their own". Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae
exclaimed that a person whom Koht wanted to study, the farmer-politician John G. Neergaard, was a "crook [...] oh well, trahit sua quemque voluptas". Koht was given to do research in Nordmøre
on Neergaard. In 1896 professor Cathrinus Bang
replied to Koht's wish to study social history: "Yes, do not go out and become a socialist!"
Koht followed the farmer-politics trail in 1910 when he wrote the thesis Bonde mot borgar i nynorsk historie. It was published in the journal Historisk Tidsskrift in 1912, and in it, Koht elaborated on his theory about class and the nation. In Koht's theory, the community of the nation was expanded in democratic way as the agrarian movement, then the labour movement, both rose from political passivity to demand a place in the political and national sphere. He wrote about this in the 1910 article Norsk folkesamling as well. His work finally culminated in the book Norsk bondereisning, which was issued in 1926. The writing of that book had started already in 1911, when he presented material in his university lectures. An economical background for the farmers' rising was presented in 1912, in Priser og politikk i norsk historie, originally a lecture for the second Norwegian conference of historians. This lecture was also where his historical materialism
came to fruition. In 1951 he stated that he "has never thought that the theories could be foundational for a political or social uprising".
Koht's stay in the United States had an impact on his historical views and adaptation of historical materialism, and Koht also tried to prop up the study in Norway of American history
. American culture did not have a particularly high standing in Norway at the time. In school, Koht did not learn proper English. Before he embarked to the US, some historian colleagues insinuated that the country "barely had any history" and was not worth visiting. Koht's first writing on the subject came in 1910 with the lecture Genesis of American Independence. He followed with Pengemakt og arbeid i Amerika ("Monetary Power and Labour in America", 1910) which was based on "People's Academy" lectures, then Amerikansk kultur ("American Culture", 1912) and Den amerikanske nasjonen ("The American Nation", 1920). He would return briefly to American academia during his career, for instance in the autumn of 1930 to hold a course at Harvard University
.
Koht was also a prolific biographer. Inspired by the work with Norsk Forfatter-lexikon, he biographed the author Henrik Wergeland
in 1908. Later he biographed both Norwegians and foreigners; Otto von Bismarck
(1911), Ivar Aasen
(1913), Johan Sverdrup
in three volumes between 1916 and 1925, Marcus Thrane
in 1917, Henrik Ibsen
in two volumes in 1928 and 1929, and Haakon VII of Norway
in 1943. He also wrote about 400 pieces in Norsk biografisk leksikon
, first edition. Between 1909 and 1932 he published letters and original writings of Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje
and Henrik Wergeland. He chaired Kjeldeskriftfondet from 1918 to 1927 and Norsk historisk kjeldeskriftråd from 1923 to 1928, two institutions that dealt with publishing of source texts. He also chaired the Norwegian Historical Association
from 1912 to 1927 and 1932 to 1936, the Norwegian Genealogical Society
from 1928 to 1940 and the Comité International des Sciences Historiques from 1926 to 1933.
in 1908. Between 1923 and 1939 he was both praeses and vice praeses. He held honorary degree
s from the University of Oxford
, the University of Chicago
and the University of Warsaw
. He was decorated by France as a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and in 1952 he received the Gunnerus Medal
from the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
.
should contain the union badge
(the "flag case"). In 1893 he left this forum, co-founded a new students' association called Den Frisinnede Studenterforening, and as the students' association collectively entered the Liberal Party, Koht became a board member of the party branch in Kristiania. Nonetheless, he voted the Norwegian Labour Party
from 1900. He continued his fight against the union badge, and the union
as a whole. In 1905, when the union was dissolved altogether, he agitated for the establishment of a republic, but a plebiscite
decided to keep the monarchy.
Despite his early adherence to the Liberal Party, some traits in Koht's personality pointed to him becoming radical. He never adhered to Christianity in his adolescent or adult life. His political views radicalized further in the 1890s, and he came to consider himself a Socialist in 1896. While living in the United States, he developed a form of historical materialism, which led to a fusion of history scholarship and political views. He viewed the Liberal Party as an important agent in Norwegian history, since it pronounced the rights of the farmers, but he now viewed the working class
as the next class to be included in the political life, and specifically through the Norwegian Labour Party
. In Koht's Liberal Party period, he had cooperated with some of their radical members, who were now members of the Labour Party, such as Carl Jeppesen
. He joined the Labour Party when he returned from the United States and moved to Bærum
in 1909. He was elected as a member of Bærum municipal council in the terms 1916–1919, 1928–1931 and 1931–1934. In 1952 he wrote the 50-year history of Bærum Labour Party.
and Norway about the disposition of Eastern Greenland
. Sovereignty was claimed by Denmark. Koht teamed up with C. J. Hambro, a politician who was conservative, but who had edited Nordmanns-Forbundets tidsskrift to which Koht had contributed. The negotiations led to an agreement on Norwegian trade rights in the area, but a question of sovereignty over Eastern Greenland remained unsolved. In 1931, forces in and outside of the then-Agrarian
government annexed "Erik the Red's Land
".
In the 1930s Koht became the foremost international politician of the Labour Party. He positioned himself in the Labour Party as the prospect for the Minister of Foreign Affairs position, should the party form a government. He did so because the fellow historian and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1928, Edvard Bull, Sr.
, had died, making Koht the "Foreign Minister-designate". The Labour Party also polled well in the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1933
, leading them to prepare on a takeover of power. The forming of a Labour government was imminent happened on 20 March 1935. Koht became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Johan Nygaardsvold
's Cabinet.
After the League of Nations
more or less capsized as a capable international body, Koht again favored the strict neutrality
policy to which Norway had adhered before the League of Nations membership. For many years, he was reluctant to an expansion of a Norwegian military defence capacity. He did not vehemently and principally oppose such an expansion, and had been quite friendly to the principle of a national defence in the past. Owing to his neutrality policy he was nonetheless on the "defence-sceptical" side together with Johan Nygaardsvold and most of his cabinet. Among the more "defence-friendly" in and around the cabinet, not the least from 1936, were Trygve Bratteli
, Haakon Lie
, Finn Moe
, Trygve Lie
, Oscar Torp
, Martin Tranmæl
and Minister of Defence Fredrik Monsen.
, the invasion of Norway of 9 April 1940, Germany sent an envoy Curt Bräuer
to present demands of capitulation. Koht personally met with Bräuer, and rejected his demands. Koht and the cabinet instead fled Norway's capital, and from the start Koht was willing to take up the fight against the invaders. He stood staunchly against the German demands, and wrote several key speeches to convey this, some of which were held by King Haakon VII
. When the rest of the government fled from Molde
to Tromsø
, Koht and Ljungberg
followed the cruiser HMS Glasgow
to London, where they had negotiations with representatives from the Britsh government (Lord Halifax, Chamberlain
and Philips) on British aid to Norway. Koht also held a radio speech from London on BBC's broadcasting to Norway, and a speech on American radio. On 8 and 9 May they were in Paris, where they met Reynaud, Gamelin
and Daladier. The Norwegian Ministers departed from London on 11 May, arriving back in Norway on 17 May. Koht was informed by British Minister to Norway Sir Cecil Dormer
on 1 June that the Allied Forces had decided to retreat from Norway, due to the difficult situation at the Western Front. The cabinet eventually fled the country on 7 June. Koht landed in London on 19 June 1940, now heading the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in exile. Norway was now a close ally of the United Kingdom, but Koht was seen as clinging somewhat to his neutrality policy, and not embracing the alliance with the United Kingdom enough. From the autumn of 1940, Trygve Lie was behind a change in policy which meant seeking lasting allies in the western world, and Koht viewed this as "distrust". A schism between him and the rest of the cabinet grew as it also became known that Koht's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had received reports on a possible assault on Norway, without Koht having informed the cabinet thoroughly. Furthermore, there was discontent over Koht's decision to establish the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-in-exile in Bracknell
, several miles west of the cabinet headquarters.
Koht was granted an absence of leave on 19 November 1940, and ultimately left the post as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 20 February 1941. Trygve Lie took over. Koht travelled to Canada, then the United States. He lived with his daughter Åsa and her family in Washington, DC, but returned to Norway after the end of the Second World War.
, characterized Koht in his memoirs. Lie noted that Koht was an expert on foreign affairs, but that he was introvert. He had relatively little contact with other politicians, kept to himself to study in peace, and spent much time on his extensive writing. Koht reportedly preferred to solve a problem by himself instead of involving co-workers and employees, even the experts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His way of thinking was logical and rational, but he allegedly nurtured an "exaggerated belief in paragraphs" and a "dogmatic belief in international law", and wrongly thought that other countries would obey formal regulations at most times. Koht had few or no alternatives to his neutrality policy, and in many ways he based his entire career in foreign affairs on that policy. Trygve Lie claimed that before the Second World War, the neutrality policy had "become a religion" for Koht.
His role in the weak and unorganized defense against Operation Weserübung was debated during and after the occupation
. After the World War, a commission named Undersøkelseskommisjonen av 1945
("Scrutiny Commission of 1945") was set to scrutinize the actions of the Norwegian government in 1940. It concluded with a partial criticism of Koht's dispositions. Although the commission applauded his decisiveness and commitment immediately following the German invasion, it considered that he had isolated his ministry too much in the period leading up to the invasion, and had not engaged the full cabinet and the Prime Minister soon enough as an invasion became imminent. The historical consensus appears to be that he was a well-meaning but too idealistic statesman. After receiving Undersøkelseskommisjonen analysis, Koht volunteered to undergo an Impeachment
trial. The Parliament of Norway did not find it necessary, and no such trial took place.
Since Koht lived in Lysaker
, Bærum Municipality wanted to honor him by naming a street after him. When the street was named in 1967, Koht was still controversial because of the aforementioned issues. The street was thus named Professor Kohts vei ("Professor Koht's Road") to emphasize his academic, rather than his political career.
), from 1891 he wrote the "rural" language form Landsmål
with strong tinges of Bø
dialect. Before this he had attempted to write both "Knudsen Riksmål" and "Aasen
Landsmål", but neither stuck. Early publications on the Norwegian language controversy
were Det norske målstrævs historie (1898) and Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve (1900). He became a board member of the Landsmål-based publishing hoise Det Norske Samlaget
, and edited the Landsmål periodical Syn og Segn from 1901 to 1908, until 1905 together with Rasmus Flo
. He chaired Noregs Mållag
, an association the propagation of Landsmål, from 1921 to 1925. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk
.
Koht spoke of language in a social context in general and the class struggle
in particular. He eventually used the Labour Party as a vehicle for his language activism, especially after being asked by the party to write Arbeidarreising og målspørsmål in 1921. In it, he synthesized the class struggle and language struggle in Norway, and because he was an integrationist he wanted a popular gathering around one written language. Koht became a member of Rettskrivingsnemnda in 1934, and in 1936 the Labor Party agreed that a language reform should be carried out, moving the two language forms Bokmål
and Nynorsk closer to one another. The language reforms took place in 1938 and promoted the Samnorsk ideal. The reforms were reversed in 1941 under Nazi rule; the Nazi reform was re-reversed after the end of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. According to historian Kåre Lunden
, Koht was downright hated by many because of his language reforms. They viewed the reforms as an attack on and downgrading of their preferred language. His ideals were dubbed "det kohtske knot", i.e. "the Kohtian mishmash". For his own part, Koht often used spellings that contrasted with both Nynorsk and Bokmål, cf. the titles of his publications Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve and Sosialdemokratie. The definite article
, which is formally the suffix "-et", was substituted with the suffix "-e".
and John Theodor Lund
to an interparliamentary peace conference in London
. In 1895 he was a founding member and board member of the Norwegian Peace Association, serving as chairman from 1900 to 1902. From 1901 to 1902 he edited his own monthly periodical named Fredstidende ("Peace Times"). The Peace Association was dominated by Liberal Party politicians, or "bourgeois" people from a Marxist perspective. Historian Nils Ivar Agøy had noted that the socialists who were active in the bourgeois peace movement—the most prominent being Koht, Adam Egede-Nissen
and Carl Bonnevie
—were "radicalized sons of the bourgeoisie". This meant that they were "capable of asserting themselves among the ship-owners and county governors in the board" of the Norwegian Peace Association. Koht also followed his own goals during his first period as chairman. He wanted to tie the "apolitical" peace movement closer to the labour movement, to prop up "economic justice" and to employ the use of arbitration
in labour conflicts. These goals were not supported by all members, particularly those who wanted to keep the Peace Association apolitical. A larger problem, however, was that Koht rated Norwegian nationalism higher than pacifism. He had thus carried out his compulsory military service "with fervor", notes Agøy. Koht demanded that the Peace Association did not resist to an armed defence of the "fatherland". The national convention in 1902 refused to acknowledge this principle, and Koht thus resigned his membership. The defence question more or less solved itself when the Swedish-Norwegian union was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Koht later returned to the Peace Association to serve as a board member from 1910 to 1912.
He became a member of Institut International de la Paix in 1913. He was a consultant for the Norwegian Nobel Institute
from 1904 to 1913, examining proposed candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize
, and served on the Norwegian Nobel Committee
from 1918 to 1942. He was absent in the decisive meeting in 1936 that awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
to Carl von Ossietzky
, and was thereafter absent while being Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he did not want to combine the two roles. He returned briefly afterwards, but left in 1942. Another reason for his inactivity was that he did not live in Norway since 1940, but either way the Prize was not awarded in the years 1939 through 1943.
His academic writing also encompassed the peace issue. Books by Koht on the peace issue include Histoire du mouvement de la paix en Norvège ("History of the Peace Movement in Norway", 1900) and Fredstanken i Noregs-sogo ("The Notion of Peace in the History of Norway", 1906).
in the same year. The second book, written together with son-in-law Sigmund Skard, dealt more with older history and literature of Norway. It was released in Swedish in 1944 and Norwegian in 1948.
After the war, he could return to career in Norway. His political career was effectively over, but some of his ideas had prevailed. For instance, his analysis of the class situation in Norway became a part of the general social democratic ideology of the post-war years. He also consistently advocated a neutral role for Norway in foreign policy, citing Norway's strategic position in the intersection between East and West
.
He resumed his literary career, albeit without being professor. A main trend in his production was the several works on the war years. Titles include For fred og fridom i krigstid 1939–1940, Frå skanse til skanse. Minne frå krigsmånadene i Noreg 1940 and Norsk utanrikspolitikk fram til 9. april 1940. Synspunkt frå hendingstida, all released in 1947. These memoir-like books have been analyzed as being self-apologetic. His main work from the post-war years was more academic in its character; the six-volume work Kriseår i norsk historie. The six volumes each described a decisive moment in Norwegian history. The first volume, released in 1950, centred on "Vincens Lunge
contra Henrik Krummedige". The second volume, released in 1951, was about Olav Engelbriktsson and Norway's descent into dependency to Denmark in 1537. The third and fourth volumes, released in 1952 and 1955 respectively, were about medieval kings; Sverre I of Norway and Harald I of Norway
respectively. The fifth volume, released in 1956, centred on "Queen Margaret
and the Kalmar Union
". The sixth and last volume, released in 1960, was about the years 1657 to 1661, when Denmark (and by extent Norway) became an absolute monarchy
.
Koht died on 12 December 1965 in Bærum. He was buried at Nordre gravlund in Oslo. Two works have been released posthumously; the memoirs Minne frå unge år in 1968 and the diary Rikspolitisk dagbok 1933–1940 in 1985. His son-in-law Sigmund Skard biographed him, releasing Mennesket Halvdan Koht ("The Human Halvdan Koht") in 1982.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and politician representing the Labour Party.
As a politician he served as the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935 to 1941. He was never elected as a member of the Parliament of Norway, but was a member of Bærum municipal council in 1917–1919 and 1929–1937. He joined the Labour Party around 1910, having formerly adhered to the Liberal Party. He became controversial as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Second World War, where he clung to a policy of Norway being neutral. This led to his exit from the cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but he returned to an academic career track and wrote major works in the 1950s and 1960s.
As an academic he was a professor of history at the Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
(now: University of Oslo) from 1910 to 1935, having advanced in the ranks from research fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
since 1900 and docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
since 1908. Well donned with honours, he among others held an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. He was a prolific writer, and touched upon numerous subjects during his long academic career. Penning several biographies, his works on Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first Prime Minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was Prime Minister from 1884 to 1889.- Early years :...
and Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
spanned several volumes each. He became known for syntheses on Norwegian history, and emphasized the roles of peasants and wage laborers as historical agents who found their place in an expanding notion of the Norwegian nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
. He was also interested in the United States and its history, and was a pioneer in this respect in Norway.
Another specific issue for which Koht became known, was his views on the Norwegian language. He promoted the Samnorsk ideal, and a reform pushing the formal written language in this direction was indeed agreed to in 1938, but historical events led to the downfall of this policy. He was also an activist in the Norwegian and international peace movement, and was a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...
. As an activist and politician he was described as a strong-willed and individualistic, and nurturing a strong belief in taking an academic and legal perspective on political problems.
He came from a resourceful family, with his father being a parliamentarian, and his wife being a noted teacher, writer and women's rights activist. His two children both had distinguished careers; as a child psychologist and an ambassador respectively, and his grandchildren also reached high positions in politics, academia and organizations.
Early and personal life
He was born in TromsøTromsø
Tromsø is a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population, and the seventh largest city in Norway by population...
as a son of educator and politician Paul Steenstrup Koht
Paul Steenstrup Koht
Paul Steenstrup Koht was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Liberal Party.He was elected to the Parliament of Norway from the constituency Skien in 1889 and 1892. He was a headmaster in that city....
(1844–1892) and Betty Giæver (1845–1936). He was a distant relative of the Holmboe family
Holmboe (family)
Holmboe is a Norwegian family which origin came from Denmark.-Family tree:The family trees are not meant to be complete. It lists only the notable individuals of this family, as well as their ancestors.-Jens Holmboe line:...
; the bailiff Jens Holmboe
Jens Holmboe (bailiff)
Jens Holmboe was a Norwegian bailiff. He is notable for his role in the settling of Målselvdalen.-Personal life:...
had a daughter Hanna Birgitte Holmboe who married into the Giæver family, mothering Joachim Gotsche Giæver, Betty's father. Halvdan was ⅛ German, since Betty's mother was from Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. Through Joachim Gotsche Giæver's brother and his descendants, Halvdan Koht was a third cousin of parliamentarian Ola Krogseng Giæver. In his father's family, Kjeld Stub
Kjeld Stub
Kjeld Lauridsen Stub was a Danish-Norwegian priest. He was also involved in the Thirty Years' War in various roles....
was a distant ancestor. The name Koht came from German immigrants in the 17th century.
Himself, Halvdan Koht had three siblings. He was intended to have the name Joachim, but this was stopped on request from Joachim G. Giæver who voiced his dislike for the name. He was then christened Halfdan, changed to Halvdan some years later. The family lived in Tromsø, where Paul Steenstrup Koht was a headmaster and mayor. The family moved to Skien when Halvdan was twelve years old, and his father was again mayor as well as parliamentarian for the Liberal Party. Koht finished school here, taking his examen artium
Examen artium
Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...
in 1890. His father was among his teachers for a while in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. After the death of his father in 1892, the family moved to Bekkelaget
Bekkelaget
Bekkelaget is an area in the borough Nordstrand in Oslo, Norway.Until 2004 it was, together with adjacent Ekeberg, a part of the borough Ekeberg-Bekkelaget.Bekkelaget is known nationwide for the sports club Bækkelagets SK....
in 1893. Koht studied at the Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
(now: the University of Oslo).
In September 1898 in Kristiania
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...
he married teacher Karen Elisabeth Grude
Karen Grude Koht
Karen Grude Koht was a Norwegian pedagogist, essayist and feminist pioneer. She was born in Høyland and started her working career as a teacher in Sandnes. She was married to historian Halvdan Koht, and mother of Åse Gruda Skard and Paul Koht. Among her works are Mi fyrste bok from 1921 and Barna...
(1871–1960), a daughter of Martin Adolf Grude. They had three children. One child died young, but the remaining two had distinguished careers; Åse Gruda Skard
Åse Gruda Skard
Åse Gruda Skard was a Norwegian psychologist, and a pioneer in the field of the bringing up of children. She lectured at the University of Oslo from 1947 to 1973. She edited the magazine Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift from 1936 to 1970. She wrote 24 books and almost 2,000 journal articles...
(née Koht) as a child psychologist and Paul Koht
Paul Koht
-Personal life:He was born in Bærum as a son of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht 1871–1960. He was a brother of Åse Gruda Skard. He was a grandson of Paul Steenstrup Koht and Martin Adolf Grude, and through his sister he was a brother-in-law of Sigmund Skard and uncle of Halvdan Skard, Målfrid...
as an ambassador. Through Åsa he was a father-in-law of literature professor Sigmund Skard
Sigmund Skard
Sigmund Skard was a Norwegian poet, essayist and professor of literature.He was born in Kristiansand as a son of educators Matias Skard and Gyda Christensen . He was a nephew of Johannes Skar and Christopher Bruun, a brother of Bjarne and Eiliv Skard and a half-brother of Olav and Torfinn...
and a grandfather of politician and academic Torild Skard
Torild Skard
Torild Skard is a Norwegian psychologist and researcher, feminist, politician for the Socialist Left Party, civil servant and former high-ranking United Nations official . She served as a Member of Parliament, President of its upper chamber and Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice...
, psychologist and ombud Målfrid Grude Flekkøy
Målfrid Grude Flekkøy
-Personal life:She was born in Oslo as a daughter of Sigmund Skard and Åse Gruda Skard . She is a sister of Halvdan Skard and twin sister of Torild Skard. Through her mother, she is a granddaughter of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht, and through her father she is a granddaughter Matias Skard and...
and politician and organizational leader Halvdan Skard
Halvdan Skard
Halvdan Skard is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.He was born in Oslo as a son of Åse Gruda Skard and Sigmund Skard, and through Åse the grandson of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht. He has two sisters Torild Skard and Målfrid Grude Flekkøy, who are twins, and himself has a twin...
. In the late 1920s and the 1930s Halvdan's relationship with Karen was somewhat faltering, because of Karen's health issues and Halvdan's preoccupation with his work. Halvdan Koht entered friendships with several women, often pen friendships. During the Second World War, there were rumours about a romantic relationship to his own secretary Unni Diesen. After 1945 the relationship to Karen was refurbished.
Education
Koht graduated with the cand.philol. degree from the Royal Frederick University in 1896. He studied history with geography as a minor subject until 1895, The main history teacher was Gustav StormGustav Storm
Gustav Storm was a Norwegian historian, a professor at the University of Christiania from 1877. He was a driving force in the research of Scandinavian history and literature of the Middle Ages.-Personal life:...
. The next examination was in different languages—classical and modern. Koht had the choice between Greek/Latin or Norwegian/German (including Norse). Koht chose the latter. In 1895, then, after finishing history, he spent three months in the Mediterranean, travelling with three two ships, the first from Norway to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, the second from Venice to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, the third back to Norway. He studied German literature during this travel. In December 1896 Koht was finally examined by Sophus Bugge
Sophus Bugge
Sophus Bugge was a noted Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scientific work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic alphabet and the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. -Background:Elseus Sophus Bugge was...
and earned his degree. He was one of three students to be examined in Norwegian and German in late 1896, and had been the only candidate in history the previous year.
A break from the studies came in the second half of 1892. After his father's death, he could not afford to attend university that semester. He worked briefly as a private tutor in the Skien district, and was paid to write in the newspaper Varden. After returning to his studies he later worked as a Kristiania correspondent for the newspaper; later for Päivälehti
Päivälehti
Päivälehti was a newspaper in Finland, which was then a Grand Duchy under the Czar of Russia. The paper was founded in 1889 as the organ of the Young Finnish Party and published on six days a week....
as well. In 1901 he took over after Erik Vullum
Erik Vullum
Erik Vullum was a Norwegian journalist, writer and politician for the Liberal Party.-Personal life:He was born in Lund as a son of vicar Olaus Vullum and his wife Ingeborg Krogness . He was a nephew of Johan Richard Krogness...
as obituary and anniversary writer in Verdens Gang. In the next years he would contribute extensively to publications such as Den 17de Mai
Den 17de Mai
Den 17de Mai is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1894 to 1935.The founder and first editor-in-chief of Den 17de Mai was Rasmus Steinsvik, who edited the newspaper until his death in 1913. Arne Garborg was co-editor the first four years. Later editors were Anders Hamre and Einar...
, Nationalbladet, Nordmanns-Forbundets tidsskrift, Syn og Segn
Syn og Segn
Syn og Segn is a Norwegian cultural and political magazine. It was founded in 1894, and Rasmus Flo and Arne Garborg were the magazine's first editors....
, Samtiden
Samtiden
Samtiden is a Norwegian political and literary magazine. It was founded by Jørgen Brunchorst and Gerhard Gran in 1890. The magazine's first publisher was John Griegs forlag , and from 1900 Aschehoug . Gran was the magazine's editor from 1892 to 1925. Cathrine Sandnes has been editor-in-chief from...
, Unglyden, Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
, Verdens Gang and Tidens Tegn
Tidens Tegn
Tidens Tegn is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1910 to 1941.-Editors:The founder and first editor-in-chief of Tidens Tegn was Ola Thommessen, who edited the newspaper until 1917. Thommessen had recently left the editor chair of Verdens Gang in protest, bringing much of Verdens...
; mostly Liberal or Norwegian nationalist publications.
For some months after graduating he worked as an unpaid volunteer at the University Library of Oslo
University Library of Oslo
The University Library of Oslo is a library connected to the University of Oslo.Like the University, it was established in 1811 with Georg Sverdrup as the first head librarian. It originally doubled as the Norwegian national library, and was located at the old University of Oslo campus.In 1913 the...
. He also continued to attend university lectures. He was then given a fellowship, the "Gustav Bruun Endowment", from the University of 2 x . From 1897 to 1899 he studied abroad with this fellowship. He studied at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
, the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
and in Paris (École des hautes études
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
, École des Chartes
École Nationale des Chartes
The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...
). He was especially marked by Karl Lamprecht in Leipzig.
From 1899 to 1901 he worked as a substitute at the University Library of Oslo, and part-time as a school teacher. He was also engaged by Gustav Storm to help him with publishing the source text
Source text
A source text is a text from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.-Description:...
Regesta Norvegica. In 1900 he took over the work of Jens Braage Halvorsen
Jens Braage Halvorsen
Jens Braage Halvorsen was a Norwegian librarian, magazine editor and literary historian.He edited the magazine Ny Illustreret Tidende from 1880 to 1883. He is particularly known for his principal work, the encyclopedia of Norwegian writers, Norsk forfatterlexikon, which was issued from 1881 until...
, who had died, with the biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionaries – a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information – have been written in many languages. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country...
of Norwegian writers, Norsk Forfatter-lexikon. This was a substantial work, and Koht's part of the work, the fifth and sixth volumes, took until 1908 to complete.
Appointments and doctorate
In 1901 he was appointed as a research fellowResearch fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
at the Royal Frederick University. He rarely had responsibility for any teaching of the students, and since he was often busy with Norsk Forfatter-lexikon he remained a research fellow until 1907. In 1908 he took his dr.philos. degree on the thesis Die Stellung Norwegens und Schwedens im Deutsch-Dänischen Konflikt 1863–1864. Opponents at the dissertation were Ebbe Hertzberg
Ebbe Hertzberg
Ebbe Hertzberg was a Norwegian historian, economist and politician.He graduated as cand.jur. in 1870, and studied law history in Uppsala from 1870 and in Munich from 1872 to 1873. He was appointed professor of statistics and economy at the Christiania University in 1877...
and Yngvar Nielsen
Yngvar Nielsen
Yngvar Nielsen was a Norwegian historian, politician, geographer and pioneer of tourism in Norway.-Background:...
. Koht was then hired as a docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
at the University in 1908. Because of internal opponents, the docenture was designated to be in "cultural history" instead of "history". After a while the university changed it to "history", then the cabinet changed it back, before the Parliament finally decided on "history". Despite being appointed as docent, Koht argued with Waldemar Christofer Brøgger that he deserved to travel abroad. From 1908 to 1909 he travelled around in the United States, England and Sweden, visiting the peace conferences in London (1908), Chicago (1909) and Stockholm (1910). He then returned to the university, and was a docent for a short time until being promoted to professor in 1910. He remained so until 1935, and was the dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of his Faculty from 1912 to 1917.
Fields of research
Koht's research, authorship and political convictions stemmed from an interest in understanding decisive forces at work in history. He met much scepticism in the academic milieu when announcing his intentions to study social historySocial history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
from the farmers' perspective. Gustav Storm claimed that farmers in Norway had "done no effort of their own". Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae
Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae
Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae was a Norwegian historian. He was born in Aremark.Daae was assigned as a professor at the University of Kristiania for more than thirty years, from 1876 to 1910. He published a large number of scientific works, and was also a frequent contributor to newspapers. In 1899 he...
exclaimed that a person whom Koht wanted to study, the farmer-politician John G. Neergaard, was a "crook [...] oh well, trahit sua quemque voluptas". Koht was given to do research in Nordmøre
Nordmøre
Nordmøre is a traditional district in the Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. The area comprises the northern third of the county including the municipalities of Kristiansund, Averøy, Tingvoll, Surnadal, Rindal, Aure, Halsa, Eide, Sunndal, Gjemnes, and Smøla...
on Neergaard. In 1896 professor Cathrinus Bang
Cathrinus Bang
Cathrinus Dorotheus Olivius Bang was a Norwegian literary historian. He was born in Drammen, and unmarried adoptive father of physician and feminist Dagny Bang. He was appointed professor of Scandinavian literature at the University of Oslo from 1869. Bang was the first holder of this chair, and...
replied to Koht's wish to study social history: "Yes, do not go out and become a socialist!"
Koht followed the farmer-politics trail in 1910 when he wrote the thesis Bonde mot borgar i nynorsk historie. It was published in the journal Historisk Tidsskrift in 1912, and in it, Koht elaborated on his theory about class and the nation. In Koht's theory, the community of the nation was expanded in democratic way as the agrarian movement, then the labour movement, both rose from political passivity to demand a place in the political and national sphere. He wrote about this in the 1910 article Norsk folkesamling as well. His work finally culminated in the book Norsk bondereisning, which was issued in 1926. The writing of that book had started already in 1911, when he presented material in his university lectures. An economical background for the farmers' rising was presented in 1912, in Priser og politikk i norsk historie, originally a lecture for the second Norwegian conference of historians. This lecture was also where his historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
came to fruition. In 1951 he stated that he "has never thought that the theories could be foundational for a political or social uprising".
Koht's stay in the United States had an impact on his historical views and adaptation of historical materialism, and Koht also tried to prop up the study in Norway of American history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
. American culture did not have a particularly high standing in Norway at the time. In school, Koht did not learn proper English. Before he embarked to the US, some historian colleagues insinuated that the country "barely had any history" and was not worth visiting. Koht's first writing on the subject came in 1910 with the lecture Genesis of American Independence. He followed with Pengemakt og arbeid i Amerika ("Monetary Power and Labour in America", 1910) which was based on "People's Academy" lectures, then Amerikansk kultur ("American Culture", 1912) and Den amerikanske nasjonen ("The American Nation", 1920). He would return briefly to American academia during his career, for instance in the autumn of 1930 to hold a course at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Koht was also a prolific biographer. Inspired by the work with Norsk Forfatter-lexikon, he biographed the author Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist...
in 1908. Later he biographed both Norwegians and foreigners; Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
(1911), Ivar Aasen
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...
(1913), Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first Prime Minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was Prime Minister from 1884 to 1889.- Early years :...
in three volumes between 1916 and 1925, Marcus Thrane
Marcus Thrane
Marcus Møller Thrane was a Norwegian author, journalist, and the leader of the first Norwegian labor movement, later known as the Thrane movement .-Early life:...
in 1917, Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
in two volumes in 1928 and 1929, and Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
in 1943. He also wrote about 400 pieces in Norsk biografisk leksikon
Norsk biografisk leksikon
Norsk biografisk leksikon is the largest Norwegian biographical encyclopedia.The first edition was issued between 1921 and 1983, including 19 volumes and 5,100 articles...
, first edition. Between 1909 and 1932 he published letters and original writings of Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...
, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje
Aasmund Olavsson Vinje
Aasmund Olavsson Vinje was a famous Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for poetry, travel writing, and his pioneering use of Landsmål .-Background:...
and Henrik Wergeland. He chaired Kjeldeskriftfondet from 1918 to 1927 and Norsk historisk kjeldeskriftråd from 1923 to 1928, two institutions that dealt with publishing of source texts. He also chaired the Norwegian Historical Association
Norwegian Historical Association
The Norwegian Historical Association is a Norwegian historical organization.It was founded in 1869 by Michael Birkeland and Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae. Its purpose was to publish the academic journal Historisk Tidsskrift, which it commenced in 1871...
from 1912 to 1927 and 1932 to 1936, the Norwegian Genealogical Society
Norwegian Genealogical Society
Norwegian Genealogical Society is a genealogical society in Oslo, Norway.It was founded on 22 October 1926 as the first exclusively Norwegian genealogical society. Among the founders were Stian Herlofsen Finne-Grønn, Christoffer Morgenstierne Munthe and Sigurd Segelcke Meidell...
from 1928 to 1940 and the Comité International des Sciences Historiques from 1926 to 1933.
Honorary positions
Koht became a fellow of the learned society Norwegian Academy of Science and LettersNorwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...
in 1908. Between 1923 and 1939 he was both praeses and vice praeses. He held honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
s from the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and the University of Warsaw
University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...
. He was decorated by France as a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and in 1952 he received the Gunnerus Medal
Gunnerus Medal
The Gunnerus Medal is a medal awarded by the learned society Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.It was inaugurated in 1927, and named after Johan Ernst Gunnerus, founder of the learned society...
from the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters is a learned society based in Trondheim, Norway.-History:DKNVS was founded in 1760 by bishop of Nidaros Johan Ernst Gunnerus, headmaster at the Trondheim Cathedral School Gerhard Schøning and Councillor of State Peter Frederik Suhm under the name...
.
Early involvement and local politics
Koht originally adhered to the Liberal Party, like his father. His father brought Koht to the Liberal Party national convention in 1891, where he was allowed to enter because he studied at the university. Koht's first political arena was the Norwegian Students' Society, where he vehemently opposed that the flag of NorwayFlag of Norway
The flag of Norway is red with an indigo blue Scandinavian cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark.- History :...
should contain the union badge
Union badge of Norway and Sweden
The Union badge was inserted into the canton of Swedish and Norwegian flags in 1844 to denote their partnership in the personal Union, which they entered in 1814. It combined the flag colours of both kingdoms, equally distributed, to reflect their equal status within the Union...
(the "flag case"). In 1893 he left this forum, co-founded a new students' association called Den Frisinnede Studenterforening, and as the students' association collectively entered the Liberal Party, Koht became a board member of the party branch in Kristiania. Nonetheless, he voted the Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
from 1900. He continued his fight against the union badge, and the union
Union between Sweden and Norway
The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....
as a whole. In 1905, when the union was dissolved altogether, he agitated for the establishment of a republic, but a plebiscite
Norwegian monarchy plebiscite, 1905
The Norwegian Monarchy Plebiscite, 1905 on accepting a republican or monarchial form of state in Norway was held on 12 and 13 November 1905. The voters were to cast a yes or no vote on whether they approved of the decision the Storting had made in authorizing the government to offer the throne of...
decided to keep the monarchy.
Despite his early adherence to the Liberal Party, some traits in Koht's personality pointed to him becoming radical. He never adhered to Christianity in his adolescent or adult life. His political views radicalized further in the 1890s, and he came to consider himself a Socialist in 1896. While living in the United States, he developed a form of historical materialism, which led to a fusion of history scholarship and political views. He viewed the Liberal Party as an important agent in Norwegian history, since it pronounced the rights of the farmers, but he now viewed the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
as the next class to be included in the political life, and specifically through the Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
. In Koht's Liberal Party period, he had cooperated with some of their radical members, who were now members of the Labour Party, such as Carl Jeppesen
Carl Jeppesen
Carl Jeppesen was a Danish-born Norwegian worker, newspaper editor and politician. He edited the newspaper Social-Demokraten from 1887 to 1892, and from 1906 to 1912. He was among the founders of the Norwegian Labour Party, and served as chairman for two periods, from 1890 to 1892, and from 1894...
. He joined the Labour Party when he returned from the United States and moved to Bærum
Bærum
is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandvika. Bærum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. A suburb of Oslo, Bærum is located on the west coast of the city....
in 1909. He was elected as a member of Bærum municipal council in the terms 1916–1919, 1928–1931 and 1931–1934. In 1952 he wrote the 50-year history of Bærum Labour Party.
Foreign affairs politician
Internationally, Koht tried to prop up the institutions that maintained public international law. In 1923 he participated in the arbitrations between DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Norway about the disposition of Eastern Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. Sovereignty was claimed by Denmark. Koht teamed up with C. J. Hambro, a politician who was conservative, but who had edited Nordmanns-Forbundets tidsskrift to which Koht had contributed. The negotiations led to an agreement on Norwegian trade rights in the area, but a question of sovereignty over Eastern Greenland remained unsolved. In 1931, forces in and outside of the then-Agrarian
Centre Party (Norway)
The Centre Party is a centrist and agrarian political party in Norway, founded in 1920. The Centre Party's policy is not based on any of the major ideologies of the 19th and 20th century, but has a focus on maintaining decentralised economic development and political decision-making.From its...
government annexed "Erik the Red's Land
Erik the Red's Land
Erik the Red's Land was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlements in Greenland in the 10th century...
".
In the 1930s Koht became the foremost international politician of the Labour Party. He positioned himself in the Labour Party as the prospect for the Minister of Foreign Affairs position, should the party form a government. He did so because the fellow historian and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1928, Edvard Bull, Sr.
Edvard Bull, Sr.
Edvard Bull was a Norwegian historian and politician for the Labour Party. He took the doctorate in 1912 and became a professor at the University of Kristiania in 1917, and is known for writings on a broad range of subjects. In addition to his academic work, he is known for his work on Norsk...
, had died, making Koht the "Foreign Minister-designate". The Labour Party also polled well in the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1933
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1933
-Results:- References :...
, leading them to prepare on a takeover of power. The forming of a Labour government was imminent happened on 20 March 1935. Koht became Minister of Foreign Affairs in Johan Nygaardsvold
Johan Nygaardsvold
Johan Nygaardsvold was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He was Prime Minister of Norway from 1935 to 1945 , as head of the cabinet Nygaardsvold.-Political career:...
's Cabinet.
After the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
more or less capsized as a capable international body, Koht again favored the strict neutrality
Neutrality (international relations)
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
policy to which Norway had adhered before the League of Nations membership. For many years, he was reluctant to an expansion of a Norwegian military defence capacity. He did not vehemently and principally oppose such an expansion, and had been quite friendly to the principle of a national defence in the past. Owing to his neutrality policy he was nonetheless on the "defence-sceptical" side together with Johan Nygaardsvold and most of his cabinet. Among the more "defence-friendly" in and around the cabinet, not the least from 1936, were Trygve Bratteli
Trygve Bratteli
was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party and Prime Minister of Norway in 1971–1972 and 1973–1976.-Early life and career:...
, Haakon Lie
Haakon Lie
Haakon Lie was a Norwegian politician who served as party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party from 1945 to 1969. Coming from humble origins, he became involved in the labour movement at an early age, and quickly rose in the party system...
, Finn Moe
Finn Moe
Finn Moe was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.He was born in Bergen.He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1950, and was re-elected on four occasions. He had previously served in the position of deputy representative during the term 1945–1949.-References:...
, Trygve Lie
Trygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian Foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first Secretary-General of the United...
, Oscar Torp
Oscar 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 acting Minister of Defence in the government of Johan Nygaardsvold. He was also Minister of Social Affairs from 1936 to 1939, and then Minister of...
, Martin Tranmæl
Martin Tranmæl
Martin Olsen Tranmæl was a radical Norwegian socialist leader.-Biography:Martin Tranmæl grew up in a middle-sized farm in Melhus, in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. He started working as a painter and construction worker. In the early 20th century, Tranmæl lived for a while in the USA where he came...
and Minister of Defence Fredrik Monsen.
Second World War
At the advent of the Nazi German Operation WeserübungOperation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
, the invasion of Norway of 9 April 1940, Germany sent an envoy Curt Bräuer
Curt Bräuer
Curt Bräuer was a German career diplomat.Born in Breslau, in what is modern-day Poland, Bräuer entered service in the German foreign ministry in 1920. At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Bräuer was posted at the German embassy in Paris. Later that year, Bräuer was named as envoy to...
to present demands of capitulation. Koht personally met with Bräuer, and rejected his demands. Koht and the cabinet instead fled Norway's capital, and from the start Koht was willing to take up the fight against the invaders. He stood staunchly against the German demands, and wrote several key speeches to convey this, some of which were held by King Haakon VII
Haakon VII of Norway
Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...
. When the rest of the government fled from Molde
Molde
is a city and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Romsdal region. The municipality is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord...
to Tromsø
Tromsø
Tromsø is a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population, and the seventh largest city in Norway by population...
, Koht and Ljungberg
Birger Ljungberg
Birger Ljungberg was the Norwegian Minister of Defense 1939–1942....
followed the cruiser HMS Glasgow
HMS Glasgow (C21)
The seventh HMS Glasgow , built on the Clyde, was a Southampton-class light cruiser, a sub-class of the Town-class and commissioned in September 1937. She displaced 11,930 tons and had a top speed of 32 knots . She was part of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet; she escorted the...
to London, where they had negotiations with representatives from the Britsh government (Lord Halifax, Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
and Philips) on British aid to Norway. Koht also held a radio speech from London on BBC's broadcasting to Norway, and a speech on American radio. On 8 and 9 May they were in Paris, where they met Reynaud, Gamelin
Maurice Gamelin
Maurice Gustave Gamelin was a French general. Gamelin is best remembered for his unsuccessful command of the French military in 1940 during the Battle of France and his steadfast defense of republican values....
and Daladier. The Norwegian Ministers departed from London on 11 May, arriving back in Norway on 17 May. Koht was informed by British Minister to Norway Sir Cecil Dormer
Cecil Dormer
Sir Cecil Dormer was the British Minister to Norway between 1934 and 1941. After the German invasion of Norway in April 1940 he joined the Norway's government and King on their move northwards, and followed the government into exile in London in June 1940. He was appointed Ambassador to Poland's...
on 1 June that the Allied Forces had decided to retreat from Norway, due to the difficult situation at the Western Front. The cabinet eventually fled the country on 7 June. Koht landed in London on 19 June 1940, now heading the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in exile. Norway was now a close ally of the United Kingdom, but Koht was seen as clinging somewhat to his neutrality policy, and not embracing the alliance with the United Kingdom enough. From the autumn of 1940, Trygve Lie was behind a change in policy which meant seeking lasting allies in the western world, and Koht viewed this as "distrust". A schism between him and the rest of the cabinet grew as it also became known that Koht's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had received reports on a possible assault on Norway, without Koht having informed the cabinet thoroughly. Furthermore, there was discontent over Koht's decision to establish the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-in-exile in Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
, several miles west of the cabinet headquarters.
Koht was granted an absence of leave on 19 November 1940, and ultimately left the post as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 20 February 1941. Trygve Lie took over. Koht travelled to Canada, then the United States. He lived with his daughter Åsa and her family in Washington, DC, but returned to Norway after the end of the Second World War.
Political legacy
Trygve Lie, who after the war became the first Secretary-General of the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, characterized Koht in his memoirs. Lie noted that Koht was an expert on foreign affairs, but that he was introvert. He had relatively little contact with other politicians, kept to himself to study in peace, and spent much time on his extensive writing. Koht reportedly preferred to solve a problem by himself instead of involving co-workers and employees, even the experts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His way of thinking was logical and rational, but he allegedly nurtured an "exaggerated belief in paragraphs" and a "dogmatic belief in international law", and wrongly thought that other countries would obey formal regulations at most times. Koht had few or no alternatives to his neutrality policy, and in many ways he based his entire career in foreign affairs on that policy. Trygve Lie claimed that before the Second World War, the neutrality policy had "become a religion" for Koht.
His role in the weak and unorganized defense against Operation Weserübung was debated during and after the occupation
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
. After the World War, a commission named Undersøkelseskommisjonen av 1945
Undersøkelseskommisjonen av 1945
Undersøkelseskommisjonen av 1945 was a commission appointed by the Parliament of Norway in 1945 and chaired by Gustav Heiberg, given the task to investigate the role of the three branches of power; the Norwegian Parliament, Government and Supreme Court as well as the Administrative Council in 1940...
("Scrutiny Commission of 1945") was set to scrutinize the actions of the Norwegian government in 1940. It concluded with a partial criticism of Koht's dispositions. Although the commission applauded his decisiveness and commitment immediately following the German invasion, it considered that he had isolated his ministry too much in the period leading up to the invasion, and had not engaged the full cabinet and the Prime Minister soon enough as an invasion became imminent. The historical consensus appears to be that he was a well-meaning but too idealistic statesman. After receiving Undersøkelseskommisjonen analysis, Koht volunteered to undergo an Impeachment
Impeachment (Norway)
In Norway, impeachment, also known as the Constitutional Court of the Realm , is a judicial process with the power to convict Members of Parliament, Members of the Council of State and Supreme Court Justices for criminal acts performed in line of duty. Impeachment is based on the Constitution of...
trial. The Parliament of Norway did not find it necessary, and no such trial took place.
Since Koht lived in Lysaker
Lysaker
Lysaker is a section of and a postal code area of the Norwegian municipality of Bærum, just west of Oslo.Geographically, it is bordered by Lysakerelven on the east, which also forms the border to Oslo; Fornebu to the south; Stabekk to the west; and Jar to the north...
, Bærum Municipality wanted to honor him by naming a street after him. When the street was named in 1967, Koht was still controversial because of the aforementioned issues. The street was thus named Professor Kohts vei ("Professor Koht's Road") to emphasize his academic, rather than his political career.
Language views
Hailing from Tromsø, Koht spoke a Northern Norwegian dialect in his early life. In Skien he received negative reactions from his peers on that dialect. He was inspired by the dialects of Skien's surroundings (TelemarkTelemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
), from 1891 he wrote the "rural" language form Landsmål
Landsmål
Landsmål, meaning "language of the land/country", was the name Ivar Aasen gave the Norwegian orthography he created in the 19th century. In 1885 it was adopted as an official language in Norway alongside Danish. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk...
with strong tinges of Bø
Bø, Telemark
Bø is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Midt-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bø i Telemark. The municipality of Bø was established on 1 January 1838...
dialect. Before this he had attempted to write both "Knudsen Riksmål" and "Aasen
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...
Landsmål", but neither stuck. Early publications on the Norwegian language controversy
Norwegian language struggle
The Norwegian language struggle is an ongoing controversy within Norwegian culture and politics related to spoken and written Norwegian. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the standard written language of Norway due to Danish rule...
were Det norske målstrævs historie (1898) and Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve (1900). He became a board member of the Landsmål-based publishing hoise Det Norske Samlaget
Det Norske Samlaget
Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk....
, and edited the Landsmål periodical Syn og Segn from 1901 to 1908, until 1905 together with Rasmus Flo
Rasmus Flo
Rasmus Flo was a Norwegian teacher, philologist, magazine editor, translator and proponent for Nynorsk language. He was the first editor of the magazine Syn og Segn.-References:...
. He chaired Noregs Mållag
Noregs Mållag
Noregs Mållag is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk , one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language. In the Norwegian language struggle, it advocates the use of Nynorsk...
, an association the propagation of Landsmål, from 1921 to 1925. In 1929, Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
.
Koht spoke of language in a social context in general and the class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
in particular. He eventually used the Labour Party as a vehicle for his language activism, especially after being asked by the party to write Arbeidarreising og målspørsmål in 1921. In it, he synthesized the class struggle and language struggle in Norway, and because he was an integrationist he wanted a popular gathering around one written language. Koht became a member of Rettskrivingsnemnda in 1934, and in 1936 the Labor Party agreed that a language reform should be carried out, moving the two language forms Bokmål
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
and Nynorsk closer to one another. The language reforms took place in 1938 and promoted the Samnorsk ideal. The reforms were reversed in 1941 under Nazi rule; the Nazi reform was re-reversed after the end of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. According to historian Kåre Lunden
Kåre Lunden
Kåre Lunden is a Norwegian historian, and Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Oslo.He originally studied agronomy at the Norwegian College of Agriculture, graduating in 1957. He then worked six years as a civil servant in the Norwegian Ministry of Church Affairs and Education,...
, Koht was downright hated by many because of his language reforms. They viewed the reforms as an attack on and downgrading of their preferred language. His ideals were dubbed "det kohtske knot", i.e. "the Kohtian mishmash". For his own part, Koht often used spellings that contrasted with both Nynorsk and Bokmål, cf. the titles of his publications Det vitskapelege grunnlage for målstræve and Sosialdemokratie. The definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
, which is formally the suffix "-et", was substituted with the suffix "-e".
Peace activism
Koht's first travel abroad was in 1890, when he accompanied his father as well as Hans Jacob HorstHans Jacob Horst
Hans Jacob Horst was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. He graduated with a master's degree in liberal arts in 1874, becoming a teacher and later principal. He became active in the Liberal Union and the Workers' Union in Tromsø in 1881, and was then elected to the municipal council. He...
and John Theodor Lund
John Theodor Lund
John Theodor Lund was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. He was a local politician in Bergen for thirty years before becoming a member of parliament from 1883 to 1885 and from 1892 to 1900. He was President of the Lagting from 1893 to 1900...
to an interparliamentary peace conference in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In 1895 he was a founding member and board member of the Norwegian Peace Association, serving as chairman from 1900 to 1902. From 1901 to 1902 he edited his own monthly periodical named Fredstidende ("Peace Times"). The Peace Association was dominated by Liberal Party politicians, or "bourgeois" people from a Marxist perspective. Historian Nils Ivar Agøy had noted that the socialists who were active in the bourgeois peace movement—the most prominent being Koht, Adam Egede-Nissen
Adam Egede-Nissen
Adam Egede-Nissen , Norwegian Communist politician. Born in Levanger and he started his political involvement in the Liberal Party of Norway and was elected to the Storting in 1900. In 1905 he broke with the Liberal Party and joined the Norwegian Labour Party and became one of its leaders...
and Carl Bonnevie
Carl Bonnevie
Carl Emil Christian Bonnevie was a Norwegian jurist, peace activist and politician. He was born in Trondheim as the son of Jacob Aall Bonnevie. He was a member of the Parliament of Norway from 1913 to 1915, and from 1934 to 1936. He chaired the organization Norwegian Peace Association from 1926 to...
—were "radicalized sons of the bourgeoisie". This meant that they were "capable of asserting themselves among the ship-owners and county governors in the board" of the Norwegian Peace Association. Koht also followed his own goals during his first period as chairman. He wanted to tie the "apolitical" peace movement closer to the labour movement, to prop up "economic justice" and to employ the use of arbitration
Arbitration
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
in labour conflicts. These goals were not supported by all members, particularly those who wanted to keep the Peace Association apolitical. A larger problem, however, was that Koht rated Norwegian nationalism higher than pacifism. He had thus carried out his compulsory military service "with fervor", notes Agøy. Koht demanded that the Peace Association did not resist to an armed defence of the "fatherland". The national convention in 1902 refused to acknowledge this principle, and Koht thus resigned his membership. The defence question more or less solved itself when the Swedish-Norwegian union was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Koht later returned to the Peace Association to serve as a board member from 1910 to 1912.
He became a member of Institut International de la Paix in 1913. He was a consultant for the Norwegian Nobel Institute
Norwegian Nobel Institute
The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established in 1904 in Kristiania , Norway.The principal duty of the Nobel Institute is to assist the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the task of selecting the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and to organize the annual Nobel event in Oslo.The institute is situated...
from 1904 to 1913, examining proposed candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
, and served on the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...
from 1918 to 1942. He was absent in the decisive meeting in 1936 that awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
to Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky was a German pacifist and the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize. He was convicted of high treason and espionage in 1931 after publishing details of Germany's alleged violation of the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding an air force, the predecessor of the Luftwaffe, and...
, and was thereafter absent while being Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he did not want to combine the two roles. He returned briefly afterwards, but left in 1942. Another reason for his inactivity was that he did not live in Norway since 1940, but either way the Prize was not awarded in the years 1939 through 1943.
His academic writing also encompassed the peace issue. Books by Koht on the peace issue include Histoire du mouvement de la paix en Norvège ("History of the Peace Movement in Norway", 1900) and Fredstanken i Noregs-sogo ("The Notion of Peace in the History of Norway", 1906).
Post-political life
After he resigned from the exiled cabinet in 1941, Koht spent the rest of the war years in the United States. Here he continued his literary production. The books Norway Neutral and Invaded (1941) and The Voice of Norway (1944) were both released in London. The first book dealt directly with the advent of war in Norway, and was released in SwedishSwedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
in the same year. The second book, written together with son-in-law Sigmund Skard, dealt more with older history and literature of Norway. It was released in Swedish in 1944 and Norwegian in 1948.
After the war, he could return to career in Norway. His political career was effectively over, but some of his ideas had prevailed. For instance, his analysis of the class situation in Norway became a part of the general social democratic ideology of the post-war years. He also consistently advocated a neutral role for Norway in foreign policy, citing Norway's strategic position in the intersection between East and West
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
He resumed his literary career, albeit without being professor. A main trend in his production was the several works on the war years. Titles include For fred og fridom i krigstid 1939–1940, Frå skanse til skanse. Minne frå krigsmånadene i Noreg 1940 and Norsk utanrikspolitikk fram til 9. april 1940. Synspunkt frå hendingstida, all released in 1947. These memoir-like books have been analyzed as being self-apologetic. His main work from the post-war years was more academic in its character; the six-volume work Kriseår i norsk historie. The six volumes each described a decisive moment in Norwegian history. The first volume, released in 1950, centred on "Vincens Lunge
Vincens Lunge
Vincens Lunge was a Danish noble, member of the Norwegian realm council and the foremost representative of King Christian III of Denmark in Norway.-Biography:...
contra Henrik Krummedige". The second volume, released in 1951, was about Olav Engelbriktsson and Norway's descent into dependency to Denmark in 1537. The third and fourth volumes, released in 1952 and 1955 respectively, were about medieval kings; Sverre I of Norway and Harald I of Norway
Harald I of Norway
Harald Fairhair or Harald Finehair , , son of Halfdan the Black, was the first king of Norway.-Background:Little is known of the historical Harald...
respectively. The fifth volume, released in 1956, centred on "Queen Margaret
Margaret I of Denmark
Margaret I was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. Although she acted as queen regnant, the laws of contemporary Danish succession denied her formal queenship. Her title in Denmark was derived from her...
and the Kalmar Union
Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population...
". The sixth and last volume, released in 1960, was about the years 1657 to 1661, when Denmark (and by extent Norway) became an absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
.
Koht died on 12 December 1965 in Bærum. He was buried at Nordre gravlund in Oslo. Two works have been released posthumously; the memoirs Minne frå unge år in 1968 and the diary Rikspolitisk dagbok 1933–1940 in 1985. His son-in-law Sigmund Skard biographed him, releasing Mennesket Halvdan Koht ("The Human Halvdan Koht") in 1982.