Personal life

He was born in 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....

 as a son of Halvdan Koht

Halvdan Koht

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...

 (1873–1965) and Karen Grude Koht

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. He was a brother of 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...

. He was a grandson of 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....

 and Martin Adolf Grude, and through his sister he was a brother-in-law of 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 uncle of 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...

, 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 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...

.

In January 1938 he married architect Grete Sverdrup (1913–1996).

Career

He finished

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...

 his secondary education at Stabekk

Stabekk

Stabekk is a suburban centre in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Mainly a residential area and have most of the conservative population in Norway the current population is 6,261....

 in 1932, and graduated from 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...

 in 1938 with the cand.jur. degree. He also studied briefly at the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and in Paris. In 1938 he was hired as a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway...

, which was headed by his father. He was stationed at the Norwegian legation

Legation

A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....

 in Bucureşti for some time, but left in November 1939. Following the German attack on Norway

Operation 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...

 in April 1940 he briefly served as liaison for French fighters, before serving as a diplomat 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...

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 and New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. His father resigned at Minister of Foreign Affairs in November 1940.

After the war Paul Koht became assistant secretary, in 1947. He served as chargé d'affaires

Chargé d'affaires

In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...

 in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 from 1950 to 1951, then at OEEC and NATO from 1951 to 1953. In 1953 he was appointed deputy under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He remained there until serving as chargé d'affaires in Denmark

Denmark

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...

 from 1956 to 1957, and the Norwegian ambassador to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from 1958 to 1962, to West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 from 1963 to 1968, to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

from 1968 to 1975 and to Denmark from 1975 to 1982.

He died in March 2002 in Oslo, and was buried at Nordre gravlund in Oslo.