Ole Gabriel Ueland

Ole Gabriel Ueland.

Ole Gabriel Ueland (originally called "Ole Gabriel Gabrielsen Skaaland" (born October 28, 1799 in Skåland in Lund ( Rogaland ), † January 9, 1870 in Hetland in Heskestad in Lund) was a Norwegian farmer and politician.

Life

Ueland - son of the farmer Gabriel Osmundsen (1760–1843) and his wife Ingeborg Osmundsdatter Skaaland (1764–1816) - grew up in Dalane , an area characterized by small farmers at that time and an economical way of life. There the teachings of the sect preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge were widely disseminated, and Ueland also became a follower. He had a modest, but steady and confident demeanor in contrast to the more free-thinking, spirited peasants of the East who had shaped peasant policy after 1814. In the years leading up to his first marriage, he was a traveling teacher in the parish of Lund.

After his marriage on June 5, 1825 to Marthe Guri Osmundsdatter Ueland (* 1805 - December 16, 1847) - daughter of the landowner Omund Børildsen Ueland and his wife Marthe Svendsdatter Ollestad - he moved to the farm of his wife named Ueland and took the Name of the farm. In 1827 he became a hiking instructor again. In 1832 he became mayor of Heskestad. He held this office until 1851 and from 1856 to 1859. He was also an electoral and settlement commissioner. In 1833, John Neergard from Nordmøre called for farmers to vote not civil servants, but representatives from their own ranks. In 1833 he was elected to the Storting and soon became the spokesman for the group of farmers in the Storting. At the same time he became Stortingsrepresentant for the Stavanger office . He was re-elected until 1869. The peasants who gathered behind him became the peasant opposition in Storting. Ueland was the central figure in the peasant opposition until the 1950s. He also became a member of the Odelsting. He was also a member of the electoral committee, the authority committee, the legal committee and at the end of the church committee.

On April 21, 1850 he married the widow Anne Svensdatter Hetland nee Ollestad (January 26, 1818-23 October 1890), cousin of his first wife, and moved to the Ollestad farm. Then he bought the Hetland farm, where he lived until his death. 1852 he " sheriff " in Heskestad. He held this office until 1855. After leaving Storting, he lived as a farmer on Hetland until his death.

politics

Two main features shaped Ueland's politics: thrift and minimization of the state and government influence in favor of local governments. It became a brake on the expansion of state tasks. This led to an increase in the tasks of local governments. He became known as an austerity politician, if not as extreme as Søren Jaabæk .

At first he worked closely with the liberal urban opposition. He fought for equality between Norway and Sweden in the Union. In the late 1950s, the influence of other farming groups increased under the leadership of the radical Søren Jaabæk and the liberal academics around Johan Sverdrup . He was a member of the jury committee from 1854 to 1857. The chairman was Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt , who opposed the jury's institute. There he came up with his own proposal for the jury, which he regarded as a symbol of “the people's practical reason” in the spirit of the 1814 constitution. The government opposed this reform of the criminal procedure and refused to give the necessary approval to the formation of an appropriate committee. This nevertheless met. Ueland was withdrawn from the position of Lensman and resigned. In 1857 the law was passed but did not receive the necessary government approval. In 1857 the law was revived, but without success. It was not until 1887 that the jury was introduced to the administration of justice. He also stood up for general conscription.

He was by no means liberal in religious politics. But as a supporter of the sect preacher Hauge, he campaigned against the ordinance banning lay preaching. At the same time he advocated the creation of a parish council to select pastors. But in 1845 he voted against a new law on religious freedom. He feared this would undermine the leadership of the state church. In 1842, 1845 and 1848 he voted against the repeal of Section 2 of the constitution, which forbade Jews to enter the country, a special concern of Henrik Wergeland . His voting behavior was generally decisive for the pawn opposition. His attitude arose not only from constitutional conservatism, but also from outright anti-Semitism . He claimed that Jews brought strife into the country. In 1851 he changed his attitude with the majority of the peasant group.

From 1862 to 1863 he was a member of the royal tax committee in place of Sverdrups and from 1865 to 1867 of the 2nd Union committee. The committee should reorganize the relationship between the two countries Sweden and Norway in the Union. It was used on the initiative of Sweden and began when Scandinavianism was at its height in Norway. But the committee also provoked the debate about specifically Norwegian versus Scandinavianism. This debate spawned a nationally oriented Norwegian line that became decisive for the left in Norwegian politics in the 1970s and 1980s. Ueland had a decidedly anti-Scandinavian stance and ensured that Denmark's support in the German-Danish conflict was rejected in 1848 and 1864. He was the only one in the Commission who expressed his skepticism about the revision of the Union relationship. Finally he resigned himself to the closed pressure of the Swedish and Norwegian negotiating commissions. In the end he agreed to the proposal, which envisaged closer ties between Norway and Sweden. In 1871 the Storting's proposal was rejected by a large majority.

He resisted the pensions of the state officials, the appropriations for the development of roads, shipping, railways and defense. He directed his sharpest opposition to the public support for art and culture, which Ibsen also suffered from. With regard to the state revenue, he was in favor of paying it first from the customs revenue and not from the direct taxes that weighed on the land and had to be paid especially by the peasants. Nevertheless, he voted for the abolition of the grain tariff. Because his electorate in south-west Norway operated mainly meat and dairy farming. Grain was grown in the east. He also campaigned for the peasants to be relieved of their obligation to transport. In 1836 and 1839 he voted in favor of the liberalization of the craft regulations, which made it easier for artisans to practice their profession in rural communities.

In the 1960s it became clear that the time of Ueland's class-bound politics, which was strongly constitutionally conservative, in favor of a more liberal and further democratization-oriented politics, which also discussed constitutional issues, was over.

meaning

Ole Gabriel Ueland was a central figure in the national opposition in Storting in the 1830s. From 1850 he headed the so-called “peasant opposition” in Storting. His endeavor was to minimize government power in favor of local self-government. In doing so, he particularly represented the interests of the south-west Norwegian population.

Ueland became a role model for the landowner Anders Lundestad in Ibsen's “The League of Youth”.

literature

• Magnus A. Mardal: Article "Ole Gabriel Ueland". In Store norske leksikon , accessed on June 20, 2009.
• Åsmund Svendsen: Article “Ole Gabriel Ueland”. In: Norsk biografisk leksikon .

Footnotes

1. ↑ At that time the patronymic was still in use, according to which the first name of the father was added to the first name. Then there was the name of the farm, first "Skaaland", later "Ueland".)
2. ↑ Wanderlehrer (omgangsskolelærer) was a teacher who taught in several schools.
3. ↑ The voter is elected by the citizens entitled to vote for an indirect election.
4. ↑ Conciliation Commissioner (forlikskommissær) was an office upstream of the judicial process. The commissioner had the task of settling disputes in an atonement. This should reduce the burden on the courts.
5. ↑ The northeastern part of Møre og Romsdal .
6. ↑ Mardal
7. ↑ At that time there were no parties and therefore no parliamentary groups in Storting. The MPs huddled loosely around a spokesman for their interests.
8. ↑ Parliamentary Committee, which consisted of ³ ⁄ _{4 of} the members of the Storting and prepared the bills for the Lagting .
9. ↑ Committee that appoints the members for the remaining committees of the Storting.
10. ↑ Committee that monitors the correctness of the election for the new storting, in particular whether the list of candidates was legal.
11. ↑ "Lensmann" was a central figure in the local farming community at that time. He was appointed by the bailiff and was on the one hand a representative of the bailiff, on the other hand also a confidante of the farmers.
12. ↑ Mardal
13. ↑ A special criminal law committee that should draft a law to introduce the jury based on the English model.
14. ↑ Mardal
15. ^ Committee on Tax Legislation.
16. ↑ It was the traditional duty of the peasants to carry the king and bishops on their tours. It became a plague when it spread to the nobles and their families and royal officials. It was later restricted again and the use of the obligation to transport was subject to a fee. The car made them obsolete. However, it was not formally repealed until 1951.