Hagbard Berner

Hagbard Berner

Hagbard Berner , Hagbard Emanuel Berner, (born September 12, 1839 in Sunndal , Møre og Romsdal , † January 24, 1920 in Kristiania ) was a Norwegian liberal politician and editor. He was a member of the Storting , Mayor of Christiania , President of the Norwegian Court of Auditors, founder and editor-in-chief of the liberal newspaper Dagbladet , and President of Norsk Kvinnesaksforening .

Life

His parents were the pastor Ole Christian Berner (1807–1765) and his wife Laura Nicoline Collin (1806–1874). On July 27, 1871, he married Selma Augusta Hovind (August 3, 1846-14 October 1919), daughter of the chief customs officer Ole Larsen Hovind (1811-1883) and his wife Berthe Kathrine Sørensdatter (1817-1862).

Berner grew up in various places in Vestlandet , where his father was a pastor. In 1850 the family moved to Ås in Akershus . In 1858 he passed the examen artium and in 1863 the legal state examination. In 1860 he won the Crown Prince's gold medal for his legal work on the foreign sources of the Norwegian constitution . His legal career was short. In 1867 he was a magistrate in Kristiansund for six months and for a short time also a copyist in the Ministry of Justice.

In Christiania, Berner was involved in an influential intellectual milieu, the "Døleringen", an intellectual circle around the historian Ernst Sars and the poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje . They represented national and democratic ideas. Berner was noticeable for his tireless endeavor to follow up on theoretical considerations with concrete actions. As a supporter of positivism , he was inspired by idealistic radicalism and a zeal for political reforms that gave the individual more freedom.

He supported the development of an association that was growing in the 19th century. It was believed that political goals could only be pursued effectively through associations. At first there were no political parties. Berner was involved in a number of new organizations. He was also a pioneer of the new political press.

The first topic in which Berner got involved was the language dispute. In 1868 he was accepted into "Det Norske Samlaget" (The Norwegian Society). It was an organization whose members dealt with the language and at the same time a publishing house for authors who wrote in Landsmål . He was Chairman of the Society for nine years. Dagbladet was also founded in 1868 together with Anthon Bang. Until 1879 he was editor of the paper. He pursued a national liberal course in opposition to the ruling official state and was close to the left movements. His main journalistic opponent was the conservative Christian Friele with his newspaper Morgenbladet . The highlight was his series of articles "Det Stangske system" (The Stang system), which was directed directly against the Stang government and then against the Selmer government and led in 1884 to indictment against the government before the Reichsgericht and conviction.

One of his other subjects of his political engagement was the pure Norwegian flag, the tricolor . It became a hotly contested issue before the 1879 elections. His suggestions led to tumult and found no supporters in the Storting. He was even thrown the window panes by conservative groups. But he persisted in his views. Berner was a candidate in Akershus together with Johan Sverdrup and won the election. He was even re-elected in 1882 and 1885. In 1880/1881 he was also there when the "Folkevæpningssamlaga" (The People's Armaments Association) was founded, a rifle club that was close to the left movement. In 1883/1884 he took part in the preparatory work for "Norges Venstreforening" (Association of the Norwegian Left), where he was a candidate for replacement in the state board. In 1884 he also tackled a matter close to his heart: together with Gina Krog he founded the “ Norsk Kvindesagsforening ” (Norwegian Women's Association) and was its first director. In 1889 he was also a co-founder of “Norsk Ligbrændingsforening” (Norwegian Cremation Association), of which he was chairman for 20 years. At the same time he was co-founder of the life insurance company and pension fund "Glitne". He also campaigned for the introduction of the jury in criminal proceedings and was a member of the commission for drafting a new code of criminal procedure.

During his first time in Storting he had a great reputation among the Left and was chairman of the budget committee and was also a member of the working group that prepared the indictment against the Selmer government before the Reichsgericht 1883/1884. But he found it difficult to submit to other leadership or to fit into fixed groupings. He fell out of favor with the inner-party opposition to Johan Sverdrup and considered himself expelled from the “Reine Venstre”. In 1888 he left the Storting and then took part in the public discussion with articles and small writings on political and economic issues. In some areas he launched proposals for radical reforms, for example in 1889 for a proportional representation to the Storting or in 1898 for the inclusion of a referendum in the constitution or in 1907 for the taxation of the increase in the value of land.

From 1871 to 1898 he was state auditor in Bern, from 1884 to 1899 director of the mortgage bank, and from 1898 to 1912 he was mayor of Kristiania, today's Oslo. In 1884 he sat in the commission for the drafting of a banking law, in 1889 in the committee for the liquor monopoly, represented Norway in 1891 at the International Alcohol Congress in The Hague, and in 1892 at the Coin Conference in Brussels, and was a member of the parliamentary workers' commission in 1896 and the commission in 1910 who should draft a law on capital gains tax.

literature

• KV Hammer: 1. Hagbard Emanuel B [erner] . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 3 : Benzene Derivatives Brides . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1915, p. 67-68 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
• Leiv Mjeldheim: Hagbard Emanuel Berner. In: Norsk biografisk leksikon. ( snl.no ), accessed February 16, 2010.

Remarks

The article is based on the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is shown separately.

1. ↑ The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination to the university, in this case the University of Copenhagen, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university until 1883.
2. ^ Department was the name for a ministry.
3. ↑ "Døleringen" was a group of radical academics who gathered around AO Vinje , who published the magazine Dølen (valley dwellers, simple, uncouth people) with almost exclusively their own texts, which were written in a Danish-Norwegian mixed language, but later joined borrowed the language of Ivar Aasen . They raved about the simple country life. The circle included Carl Berner and Hagbard Berner, Hans Ross , Ernst and Ossian Sars and now and then Ivar Aasen.
4. ↑ The Reichsgericht (riksrett) is a special court for members of the government, representatives of the storting and judges at the highest court for criminal offenses in office. The Lagting and the Supreme Court occupied the Imperial Court. The Odelsting ruled on the indictment.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Hammer: Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon. P. 67.
6. ↑ The state auditor was responsible for controlling the use of public funds.