Max Manus

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Second Lieutenant ("Fenrik") Max Manus

Max Manus (born December 9, 1914 in Bergen , † September 20, 1996 in Bærum ; actually Máximo Guillermo Manus ) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during the German occupation of Norway between 1940 and 1945.

Together with Gunnar Sønsteby , Manus was one of the leading figures in the so-called Oslogjengen ("Oslobande") and was involved in a large number of sabotage activities during the war . He was considered a specialist in sabotage against ships and was one of the most colorful figures of the Norwegian resistance.

biography

Childhood, adolescence and early adulthood

Max Manus' father Johan Magnussen was originally from Bergen. After living in Spanish speaking countries for many years, he changed his name to Juan Manus. He eventually settled in Copenhagen , where he married the Danish Gerda Kiørup. The marriage had four children.

After the divorce, the father moved to Oslo with the children Max and Pia . Max attended the Ljan School there for a few years before the father decided to move on to Cuba with the children , where his brother ran a ship trade.

Even after his father and sister returned to Norway, Max stayed with his uncle in Cuba and worked as an ordinary seaman. Only at the end of 1939 - following a long journey from Chile across the Andes to Buenos Aires - did he return to Norway.

As soon as he got there, like many of his contemporaries, he volunteered for the winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union . His return home after the end of the Winter War in early April 1940 coincided with the occupation of Norway by Germany.

Occupation and Resistance

Immediately after the occupation , Manus fought under the Swedish officer Gösta Benckert at Kongsvinger against the German occupiers. After Norway surrendered on June 7, 1940, he became involved in the burgeoning Norwegian resistance. Together with Gunnar Sønsteby , among others , he was involved in the publication of the illegal newspaper Vi vil oss et land (“We demand a land for us”). In addition, he was also engaged in the manufacture of weapons.

In January 1941 he was surprised by the Gestapo in his Oslo apartment. The attempt to avoid arrest ended after jumping out the window at Oslo University Hospital. With the help of friends and, not least, the hospital staff, he managed to escape from there and go to Sweden. In order to get further to Great Britain and to be able to participate in the active resistance again, he had to travel on a seven-month odyssey via Russia and Odessa to Eastern Africa , from there with the troop transport ship " Empress of Asia " via Cape Town to Canada , before he was finally on board of a convoy reached its destination.

In Scotland he was integrated into the Linge Company (Norwegian Kompani Linge , actually Norwegian Independent Company No. 1 (NORIC 1) ) and, after training as a specialist in ship sabotage, parachuted to Oslo with Gregers Gram on March 12, 1943 . Their first assignment, called Operation Mardonius , was sabotage against ships in the port area of ​​Oslo with the help of magnetic explosive charges. On the night of April 27, 1943 they succeeded in sinking the Ortelsburg (3800 tons) and listing the Tugela (5800 tons). Both ships were of great importance for the German warfare. Also in the following Operation Bundle between October 1943 and April 1944 the order was ship sabotage.

Since the spring of 1944 he was a member of the Oslogjeng ("Oslobande"), with which he carried out several acts of sabotage in the last year of the war, including the demolition of the archives of the Arbeidkontor in Oslo, an offshoot of the Reich Labor Service . At the same time he worked together with Gram and Sønsteby in the propaganda organization Derby , which later belonged to almost 500 active members, according to a report from March 1945.

In June 1944 he tried together with Gram to sink the troop transport ship Monte Rosa , which failed, but the ship was badly damaged. On the other hand, he succeeded in January 1945, this time with Roy Nielsen , sinking the M / S Donau , also a troop transport ship.

Work and life after the war

After the war, he initially worked as a bodyguard for the Norwegian king and crown prince. He later founded the office supplies company Max Manus A / S, which has since developed into one of the leading companies in the field of speech recognition and recording systems in Scandinavia.

In 1947 he married Ida Nikoline Lie Lindebrække, called "Tikken", a sister of the banker and politician Sjur Lindebrække . They met while working together in the Norwegian resistance. He has three children with her - George, Mette and Max.

Max Manus wrote the books Det vil helst gå godt and Det blir alvor about his experiences during the war. They all achieved a high level of awareness and large editions in Norway. Max Manus spent the last years of his life in Spain . He died on September 20, 1996 in Bærum Hospital, a suburb of Oslo.

honors and awards

After the war, Max Manus received several awards, including

Movie

Publications

Web links

Commons : Max Manus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hallgeir Opedal: Han var storforlangende og utålmodig. In: Dagbladet , February 1, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2010 (Norwegian).
  2. ^ People of Max Manus. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012 ; Retrieved November 24, 2018 (Norwegian).
personal data
SURNAME Manus, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Manus, Máximo Guillermo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian resistance fighter from the time of the German occupation
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergen , Norway
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1996
Place of death Bærum , Norway