Gunnar Jahn
Gunnar Jahn (born January 10, 1883 in Trondheim , Fylke Sør-Trøndelag , † January 31, 1971 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian economist and politician who was director of the SSB statistical office from 1920 to 1945 , and finance minister in the third between 1934 and 1935 government of Prime Minister Johan Ludwig Mowinckel and after the German occupation of Norway in world war II after the operation weserübung member of Administrasjonsrådet was.
After the end of the war, Jahn, who was chairman of the Nobel Committee for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize from 1942 to 1966 , was finance minister in the first government of Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen between July and November 1945, and from 1946 to 1954 director general of Norges Bank , Norway's central bank .
Life
Family background, studies and employees of the Central Statistical Office
Jahn, son of the dentist Christian Fredrik Michael Jahn and his wife Elisabeth Wilhelmine Wexelsen, was a nephew of the clergyman of the Norwegian Church Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen , who was Bishop of Nidaros between 1905 and his death in 1909 . His great aunt, the writer Marie Wexelsen , was best known for her psalm poems . His great uncle Christian Delphin Wexelsen was a landscape painter from the Düsseldorf School . His cousins were the actor, writer and singer Per Kvist and the doctor Karl Evang, who was director of the Norwegian health administration between 1938 and 1972.
He grew up in a parental home characterized by left - wing liberalism and, after attending the cathedral school in Trondheim in 1902, began studying law at the University of Kristiania , which he graduated in 1907 as Candidatus juris (Cand. Jur.). This was followed by nine months as a representative of a lawyer and a year as an assistant judge in Lofoten before he returned to the University of Kristiania and completed a degree in economics in 1909 with the state examination.
Subsequently, Jahn, who married the librarian, pacifist and women's rights activist Martha Larsen Jahn on April 12, 1911 , found a job in the Central Statistical Office SSB (Statistisk Sentralbyrå) , where he was initially an assistant and from 1913 a secretary. In 1917 he first became an employee of the rationing department, of which he became director in 1919. As an employee of the SSB, he was significantly involved in numerous statistical surveys and published the craft census in 1909 and the census in 1910.
Director of the Central Statistical Bureau and Minister of Finance from 1934 to 1935
In 1920 Jahn finally succeeded Nicolai Rygg as director of the Central Statistical Office and held this position for 25 years until 1945. His own successor was Arne Skaug in 1946 , Norway's first permanent representative to NATO between 1952 and 1955 and from August 23 to On October 15, 1957 he was acting foreign minister in the third Gerhardsen government .
As director of the SSB, he led the planning for the 1920 and 1930 censuses and carried out an analysis of the position of children in Norwegian marriages. Most recently he was responsible for planning the censuses in 1946 and 1950. During his tenure as director of the Central Statistical Office, he was also chairman of the State Price Council (Statens Prisråd) between 1920 and 1926, chairman of the currency commission in 1925 and chairman of the currency committee in 1932.
In 1927 he also became a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences DNVA (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) .
Furthermore, he carried out analyzes of the shift in the number of employees in industry and derived the basis for economic and structural measures. The influence of Eilert Sundt , one of the pioneers in demography and sociology of Norway, became apparent both in this work and in his analyzes of rural building tradition and craftsmanship .
During his tenure as director he intensified the research activities of the SSB and promoted the scientific work of the employees. He also introduced the regular publication of reports on economic development in the Office's Official Gazette and regular reviews of the state budget, which preceded today's reports on the national budget.
In the meantime, from November 3, 1934 to March 20, 1935, he also served as Minister of Finance in the third government of Prime Minister Johan Ludwig Mowinckel.
Member of Administrasjonsrådet , chairman of the Nobel Committee and resistance movement
After the German occupation of Norway in World War II after the Weser Exercise operation , he became a member of Administrasjonsrådet on April 15, 1940 . In this administrative body, headed by Ingolf Elster Christensen , he was responsible for finances and customs and, from June 4, 1940, also for social affairs. Already during this time he showed his resistance and his attitude of rejection to the German occupation forces.
As the successor to Fredrik Stang , who died on November 15, 1941 , he became chairman of the five-member Nobel Committee appointed by Storting in 1942, of which he had been a member since 1938. He headed this committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, for 24 years until he was replaced by Aase Lionæs in 1966.
Later he joined the resistance movement Grimelundskretsen under the lawyer Paal Berg and the leadership of the home front HL (Hjemmefrontens Ledelse) . He was a bitter opponent of negotiations between the Reichsrat (Riksråd) and the German occupation forces and an active supporter of the resistance movement. In autumn 1944 he was finally arrested by the occupying forces and was together with numerous other political prisoners in the Grini police detention center until Norway was liberated .
Finance Minister 1945
After the liberation of Norway, Jahn was one of the participants in the negotiations for the formation of an all-party government (Samlingsregjeringen) , but renounced a possible candidacy for the post of prime minister in favor of Paal Berg, the chairman of the home front.
After the formation of this all-party government by Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen von der Arbeiderpartiet on July 25, 1945, he was appointed finance minister in its first government and belonged to this first government in Norway in the post-war period until November 5, 1945.
Director General of Norges Bank
Subsequently, in 1946, Jahn again succeeded Nicolai Rygg as director general of Norges Bank , the central bank of Norway, and held this position until he was replaced by Erik Brofoss in 1954. In addition to his original work at the central bank, he also served as chairman of the currency rate in 1946 and in 1948 as chairman of the money and finance council. He was also Vice President of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in The Hague between 1947 and 1951 , of which he later became an honorary member.
As a result of the Second World War, the central bank's independent monetary policy was often subject to the international monetary system . In addition, the Ministry of Finance largely determined national economic and currency policy, so that the central bank only played a subordinate role. However, he did not agree with this and therefore demanded a faster return to the previous monetary and currency policy and a stronger focus on the central administration economy .
After finishing his work as director general of the central bank Jahn finally acted between 1954 and 1959 as chairman of the joint committee of the research council and from 1954 to 1960 also as chairman of the council for whaling (Hvalrådet) .
The Jahntinden , a mountain in the Antarctic, has been named after it since 1967 .
Publications
- Statistics technology and method , 1920
- Byggeskikker på den norske landsbygd , 1925
- Langbuen , co-authors O. Bøhn and G. Meyer, 1938
- Om binding av ørretfluer , 1938
- Norges Bank gjennom 150 år , co-authors A. Eriksen and P. Munthe, 1966
- For rettferd and fred. Taler ved utdelingen av Nobels fredspris , posthumously 1972
Web links
- Biography in the store norske leksikon
- Biography on the Nobel Prize homepage
Individual evidence
- ^ The Norwegian Nobel Committee 1901-2014 on the Nobel Prize homepage
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jahn, Gunnar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian politician, minister, economist and statistician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 10, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Trondheim , Fylke Sør-Trøndelag |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 31, 1971 |
| Place of death | Oslo |