OC Gundersen

OC Gundersen (1940)

Oscar Christian Gundersen (* 17th March 1908 in Christiania , † 21st February 1991 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian jurist , diplomat and politician of Arbeiderpartiet , among others, from 1945 to 1952 Minister of Justice in the Government Gerhardsen II and in the government Torp was . He was then a Supreme Court judge from 1953 to 1958 and then from 1958 to 1961 Ambassador to the Soviet Union . Between 1962 and 1963 he served as Minister for Trade and Shipping in the Gerhardsen III government and from 1963 to 1965 in the Gerhardsen IV government as Minister of Justice and Police. He was again a Supreme Court judge from 1967 to 1977.

Life

Lawyer, local civil servant and World War II

Gundersen, son of Hans Christian Gundersen and Hilda Gjeruldsen, began to study law at the University of Oslo after attending school in 1927 and joined the labor movement in 1928 . After completing his studies as Candidatus juris (Cand. Jur.) In 1931 he became head of department at the Communist Intellectuals Association Mot Dag in Trondheim , which published the magazine of the same name . Shortly afterwards he also took up a job as a lawyer and was also involved in the student association. After Mot Dag was dissolved in 1936, he became a member of Trondheim's city council, to which he was a member until 1938. In 1937 he married the midwife Ragna Lange, a daughter of Consul General Christian Blom Lorentzen and Ragna Storm. In 1937 he took over the function of office manager of the tax office and in 1939 the office of alderman (Rådmann) of Trondheim, which he held until 1941. After the mayor of Trondheim Ivar Skjånes, who belonged to the Arbeiderpartiet, was deposed by the Nasjonal Samling (NS) from Vidkun Quisling during the occupation of Norway by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 and replaced as mayor by Olav Bergan from the NS, he was one of the three councilors who resigned from office in 1941.

A year later Gundersen fled to Sweden in 1942 , where he worked for the Norwegian Legation in Stockholm until 1943 . He then became head of the social security service in 1943, which was based in the government-in-exile in London , led by Johan Nygaardsvold . He held this position until the end of the Second World War in 1945.

Minister of Justice 1945 to 1952

After the formation of the first sole government of the Arbeiderpartiet , Gundersen was appointed Minister of Justice ( Justice Minister ) by Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen on November 5, 1945 and also held this position in the government of Prime Minister Oscar Torp until his resignation on October 16, 1952. In this capacity At the beginning he dealt mainly with the regulations on the proceedings for treason against collaborators with the German occupying power. On the other hand, he dealt with the reconstruction of the police security service POT ( Politiets Overvåkningstjeneste ) .

Under the impression of the expansion of Soviet interests in Eastern Europe in the post-war period, fear of excessive loyalty to communism increased . He therefore prepared a legislative initiative to ensure internal defense readiness in the event of an attack. in the fall of 1950 some amendments to the Military Criminal Code were discussed. However, this proposed emergency legislation met with strong criticism from the opposition and broad sections of the population. Among other things, the draft envisaged major changes to the judiciary, the introduction of internment camps and press censorship, and was ultimately not passed. A draft proposed by the Judiciary Committee was also not adopted. Ultimately, as a compromise, it was envisaged that the government and the Storting would take the necessary decisions in the event of a threat. As Minister of Justice, he was also responsible for the police from 1951. There was criticism that it was not equipped to protect internal security.

Judge, ambassador and renewed ministerial term

In 1953 Gundersen was first judge at the Supreme Court (Norges Høyesterett) and was a member of this until 1958. Due to his interest in foreign policy, he was temporarily a member of the delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations and in 1955 acted as chairman of a committee that dealt with the amendment of the Charter of the United Nations . During this time he was also a member of the Criminal Law Council from 1953 to 1957 and chairman of the board of directors of Vinmonopolet between 1953 and 1958 , a state-owned company in Norway under the supervision of the Norwegian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the national monopoly on the sale of alcoholic beverages Has.

He then succeeded Erik Braadland as ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1958 and held this diplomatic post until 1961. In 1958 and 1960, he also headed the Norwegian delegation at UN conferences on international law in Geneva .

On January 13, 1962, Gundersen was appointed by Prime Minister Gerhardsen to succeed Arne Skaug as Minister for Trade and Shipping (Handels- og skipsfartsminister) in his third government , to which he belonged until the end of Gerhardsen's term of office on January 28, 1963. He was an advocate of Norway's full membership in the European Communities (EC), although negotiations were discontinued after the negotiations with the United Kingdom were broken off under pressure from Charles de Gaulle . After the end of the bourgeois minority government of Prime Minister John Lyng , he also took over the post of Minister of Justice and Police in the fourth Gerhardsen government from September 25, 1963 until the end of Gerhardsen's term of office on October 12, 1965.

After the defeat of the Arbeiderpartiet in the election of September 13, 1965 , Gundersen was then initially judge at the Eidsivating Lagmannsrett , one of the six appellate courts in Norway. In 1967 he was again a judge at the Supreme Court and was a member of it until 1977. From 1970 to 1974 he was also chairman of the commission for reforming the duties of state secretaries and between 1977 and 1980 he was also chairman of the banking commission.

Publications

• Noen betraktninger omkring rettsoppgjøret med landssvikerne , 1949
• Beredskapslovgivningen , 1950
• Foredrag ved åpningen av fengselsvesenets forelesningsrekke , 1953
• Statssekretærordningen. Utredning om statssekretærordningen og ordingen med personal secretaries or medarbeidere for statsrådene , 1974

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Storting
• Short biography in the store norske leksikon
• Biography in the Norsk biografisk leksikon