Kråkerøy is an island and a former municipality in Østfold

Østfold

is a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The seat of the county administration is Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city.Many manufacturing facilities are situated here. Moss and...

 county, Norway

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...

.

The island of Kråkerøy was separated from Glemmen

Glemmen

Glemmen is a parish and former municipality with the city of Fredrikstad, Østfold county, Norway.-History:The parish of Glemminge was established as a municipality 1 January 1838 . A part of Glemmen with 2,013 inhabitants was moved to Fredrikstad 1 January 1867...

 as a municipality of its own January 1, 1908. At that time Kråkerøy had a population of 3,311. The rural municipality was (together with Borge

Borge, Østfold

Borge is a parish and former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.-History:The parish of Borge was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . The district of Torsnes was separated from Borge as a municipality of its own January 1, 1910. The split left Borge with a population of 6,466...

, Onsøy

Onsøy

Onsøy is a peninsula and a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre was Gressvik.-History:The parish of Onsø was established as a municipality January 1, 1838...

 and Rolvsøy

Rolvsøy

Rolvsøy is an island and a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.It was created by a split from Tune on 1 January 1911. At that time Rolvsøy had a population of 2,381. On 1 January 1994 Rolvsøy was incorporated into the municipality of Fredrikstad, the neighboring municipality to the south...

) merged with the city of Fredrikstad

Fredrikstad

is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad....

 January 1, 1994. Prior to the merger Kråkerøy had a population of 7,445.

In 1948 Kråkerøy was the site of the Kråkerøy speech

The Kråkerøy Speech

The Kråkerøy speech, also known as the Fredrikstad speech, is one of the most well-known speeches of former Norwegian Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen. It was given at the Folkvang assembly hall in Kråkerøy near Fredrikstad, on February 29, 1948. The speech attracted great attention, and not only in...

 by then Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen

Einar Gerhardsen

was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was Prime Minister for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With 17 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism...

, which became an important part of Norwegian political history.

The name

The Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 form of the name was Krákarøy. The first element is (probably) the genitive case of kráka f 'crow

Crow

Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...

', the last element is øy f 'island'. Kråkerøy had a ancient norse god called Adam. He is still considered as a important person for the small island.