Ole Richter

Minister of State Ole Richter

Ole Richter , Ole Jørgensen Richter (born May 23, 1829 in Rostad in Inderøy , † June 15, 1888 in Stockholm ) was a Norwegian lawyer, editor and politician.

His parents were the farmer Jørgen Richter (1790–1880) and his wife Massi Rostad (1798–1877). He married Charlotte Wakeford Attree in Great Britain in 1866 (November 24, 1830– February 12, 1885). He was the oldest of eight siblings. All of them grew up in Rostad and were educated there in their parents' home. From 1845 to 1846 he lived with his uncle, the Sorenskriver in Orkdal Andreas Richter.

In the spring he passed the Preliminæreksamen at Christiania University and, in 1847, the law exam. After staying with another uncle in Sjælland (Denmark) for two years , he returned to Christiania and passed the examen artium. The stay in Denmark made him acquainted with national and liberal ideas, to which he should also remain true in Norway. He then studied law again and passed the state examination in 1852. During this time he was also a member of Det lærde Holland . From 1853 to 1855 he was a temporary Sorenskriver in Stjørdal and Verdal .

From 1855 to 1856 he studied law in Great Britain and France and became an admirer of English parliamentarism. From 1856 to 1859 he and a friend edited the newspaper Aftenbladet . He followed his earlier liberal ideas and represented the ideas of Scandinavianism and was critical of both the government and the peasant opposition. In October 1859 he left the editorial team to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson . But when he had to give up the editing due to his appearance in the governor's dispute, he took over again. In 1861 he moved back to Inderøy, where he opened a law firm and took over the Rostad family's headquarters. In his hometown he was also president of the local council for several years.

From 1862 to 1876 he was a delegate for Trondheim in Storting. Here he joined the liberal opposition, which included Johan Sverdrup , who later resigned, Johannes Steen and Ludvig Daae . The topics for which he was committed were the annual convocation of the Storting, which at that time only met every three years, the access of the members of the government to the negotiations of the Storting, the introduction of the jury in criminal proceedings and the extension of voting rights.

In 1872 Richter was elected President of the Odelsting. He stayed that way until he was elected President of the Lagting in 1877 . It was a time of great political tension. Sverdrup and Jaabøk tried to prevent his re-election in 1873. He was only re-elected with a narrow majority. In 1872 he was appointed Sorenskriver in Nordfjord , but did not take up his post. In 1876 he became mayor in Trondheim and moved there. From 1877 to 1878 he was a delegate for Trondheim and Levanger. He now wanted to withdraw from politics. From 1878 to 1884 he was the Swedish-Norwegian consul general in London. In 1884 he became Minister of State in Stockholm as a member of the Sverdrup government . Tensions with Sverdrup grew, particularly when he drove Richter's friend, Army Minister Ludvig Daae, out of government in April 1885. Afterwards there were differences over the negotiations between Norway and Sweden on the representation of Norway abroad and equality in this political field (the consular dispute ). Before the Odelsting, Sverdrup denied any responsibility for a controversial formulation in the preliminary negotiation basis of May 15, which had come about under the direction of Richter. This argument is seen as one of the motives for Richter's subsequent suicide.

The proposal stated:

"The ministerial saker shall be forwarded for congeners of ministers for the utenrikske attached in nærvær of to other medlemmer of the svenske - including all medlemmer of the norske statsråd"

- Translation : Ministerial matters should be referred to the King by the Foreign Minister and two other members of the Swedish Council of State and three members of the Norwegian Council of State.

It was about the word "other" in the text. It said that the foreign minister should definitely be a Swede. Norway would have bought equal numbers with the approval of a Swedish foreign minister in any case. Sweden wanted to respond. Richter relied on the fact that Sverdrup had agreed to this formulation on May 11 when he was in Stockholm, which Sverdrup denied. He later denied that he had ever claimed approval of Sverdrup, presumably in order to maintain his position in the Sverdrup government. But he had done just that in 1886 in a confidential letter to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Bjørnson published this letter on May 23, 1888, disavowing Richter as having no character.

Domestically, there was another conflict, this time about the introduction of the parish council and the election of pastors as a step forward in the democratization of the church. Jakob Sverdrup and his uncle raised the idea, but after lengthy discussion it was not included in the Venstre program, and both the government and the party were divided on the matter.

In 1887 the Storting rejected the proposal. When the Venstre now demanded Sverdrup's resignation because of the defeat in the vote, Richter did not accede to this motion, and on February 18, 1888 he advocated the postponement of a proposal that had to be determined before the agenda entered that the government was behind the majority what would have amounted to a vote of no confidence in the given situation in Storting. The proposal was not postponed but rejected. Richter was now completely isolated and ousted from government. He resigned as Minister of State in Stockholm on June 6th and committed suicide on June 15th.

Explanations

1. ↑ The “Preliminæreksamen” was an easier entrance exam for those willing to study who had no knowledge of Latin or Greek in the period from 1815 to 1849 compared to the regular Examen artium. For them there was also a simplified examination in law and medicine, but these were not state exams.
2. ↑ But he was not yet a fully qualified lawyer.
3. ↑ The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination for university, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university.
4. ↑ City Vogt (bafogd) had had a single judge in places that no collegiate court.
5. ↑ Bjðrnstjerne Bjðrnson's letter of June 19, 1888 to the Swedish author and politician SA Hedlund.

literature

• Per Fuglum: Article “Ole Richter” in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on January 29, 2010.
• Article Ole Richter in the Norwegian Wikipedia. Retrieved on January 29, 2010, version from January 25, 2010 kl. 07:01 am.